We did not book any excursions with the ship which turned out just fine. In Messina, we walked past all of the taxi drivers and thought we might want to take the open double decker bus for a look at Messina. While walking through the square, we met Mario Astone, who turned out to be our favorite guide on the whole cruise. He had a van for six (the number in our group) and drove us up to Taormina in 30-40 minutes. We loved Taormina and our trip there with Mario who was so much fun. He dropped us off at the gates and askedus when we wanted him to take us back to Messina. We walked a few streets of Taormina and then went to the ancient ampi-theatre, which was cool and had great views. On the way back, Mario took us to a few "Wow spots" for cool pictures. We had a great day.