Hotel Villa Greta 

Re location - we specifically came in April to avoid the heat and wanted an active holiday. We have 2 girls - 7 and 13. We were all fine with the steps. It’s not a breeze but think it was a blessing with the amount of food and gelato we ate! Use open street map which has the steps plotted much better than google, or else drop pins on google maps to remind you which steps to use. The food - fantastic homely rustic vibe. Hot breakfast buffet was my favourite - scrambled eggs, grilled vegetables, baked courgette with cheese, caponata, bacon, sausages… didn’t have room for the sweets and continental stuff. Kids happily stuck to the various coissants and cakes and mini pancakes with Nutella. We also had lunch/dinner twice and was equally impressed. Kids said it was the best pasta pomodoro they had in Italy and we loved the fish pasta and mushroom soup. Was sad we didn’t have time to have another meal and try the other dishes! Transport - we used taxi a couple of times only. Need to plan ahead to use the buses as they’re not that frequent - good for uphill journeys to castemola and coming back from Isola Bella. Downhill, the steps and trails eg saracens and the walk down to town from castle Taormina is stunning. Would be a total shame to miss out on the scenery. We even walked down to the train station. Room - we had suite with terrace that was ample space for our family of 4. I don’t usually sleep well in hotel beds but these were so comfortable! WiFi rather patchy in the room but didn’t really bother us that much. Hotel has amazing view of etna. We even caught etna lava flow from our terrace on one night of the stay. See pictures - both at sunrise and evening with lava flow on one side and snow on the other!