thanks lori and riccardo
i was able to extend our trip by 1 night and have been thinking that 2 nights on and around etna, 3 nights in the islands and 2 nights in taormina may be the plan.
as much as i know taormina is super touristy, i think i would still like some time there.
we are still flying in and out of catania.
We are spending 4 days in September in Etna area. Have read many driving nightmare comments. Anyone have recommendations on driving services? Appreciate it. Thanks.
We did not have a driving service in general as we only left Taormina by car one day, but for our tour of Mt. Etna we used: https://www.prestelli.com/
Our driver (Marco) was great.
We were there in 2018, but it seems Tommaso and Sunway.it (https://www.sunway.it) are still around. We used them for a day trip to the Regaleali estate of Tasca D’Almertia and some other day trips and they were fantastic. You can reach Tommaso at sunway.it@gmail.com.
Good luck!
We drove all through Sicily including around Etna, in Taormina, Catania, and Palermo. No real issues and driving is similar to most places in southern Italy. We find it’s much easier to get around with a car, than a driving service. Buona fortuna!