In the planning stages of a trip including 1 week in Sicily. Flying into Paris spending 4 days and flying home out of Florence after spending 4 days. Late March/early April. A little early in the season but we both like the cooler weather, smaller crowds and the countryside will be green.
Never have been to Sicily other than cruising past it in a cruise ship last year. It’s just my wife and I and I’m looking for some info from some others here. Some highlights that were thinking of doing:
We will be flying in from Paris and out to Florence. Seems like it makes sense to fly into Palermo and work our way east and fly out of Catania, or vice versa. I checked AutoEurope/Sixt and for $250 for 1 week you can drop off rental car at different airport.
Want to check out Erice, maybe the salt flats, Noto… Have scanned earlier posts and am looking for some current ideas and realistic itineraries for 7 days or so. Palermo sounds like a mess, as well as Catania. Not really interested in looking at rocks (Roman monuments) but a few are ok. More interested in flora/fauna, food/wine, the people, the volcano.
Trip was initiated by a local wine event company based in LA that is doing a week in Sicily but decided to go it alone.
Well, if you do decide to do “rocks,” the Roman mosaics of Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina are stunning. The Masseria Mandrascate is a great agriturismo that’s not far from there.
Well, it so happened that the wife and I just returned from Sicily about 3 weeks ago. A 6-day trip that started with driving from the eastern point of the island and ended by flying from the western point.
I flew in from London and met my wife who arrived in from NYC at Catania and we spent 2 nights in the fishing port of Ortigia in the city of Siracusa, about 40 minutes away from Catania airport.
We stopped and spent the night at towns that are no further than 2.5 hour drive from our destination.
Next was a drive south to Ragusa Ibla with a stop for some delicious eats and chocolates at Modica. Occhipintti’s and Cos wineries are in Vittorio, a town that’s almost along the way from Ragusa to our next destination, which was Agrigento.
Agrigento is a great visit but mostly to view the Valley of the Temples. Amazing Greek ruins.
Then on to our westernmost destination at Trapani for some of their excellent pizza, Trapanese pasta and freshest seafoods.
Finally, a last drive to Palermo for more terrific street eats and good in-the-market restaurants. Overnight and flew out of Palermo to NYC.
Warning: Sicilian driving, especially in the cities, is not for the faint of heart. The rule is aggressive driving, rather than defensive driving. Overall, a lot of fun, though.
A place west of Palermo you might consider is the little seaside town of Scopello, which has a beautiful nature reserve nearby. We stayed at the outstanding Pensione Tranchina, and used it as our base for visits to Monreale and Segesta.
Thanks Randall and Ramon. Pensione Tranchina looks great and a good location to explore the west coast.
Thinking maybe this place on the east coast near Etna - http://www.monacidelleterrenere.it/home/
If you are going to rent a car, just be prepared for complete chaos in cities like Palermo, streets not marked well and GPS will try to take you down streets that are not passable to cars in places like Syracuse. Outside the cities driving was fine, although in heavy rains some roads become impassable. We did Sicily and Southern Italy for two weeks:
Palermo Hotel Centrale
Agrigenta Hotel Colleverde Park
Ragusa Hotel Il Borocco Restaurant Duomo is excellent
Siracusa Hotel Algila Ortigia Charme
Taromina Villa Belvedere
Lagonegro Hotel Midi
Ravello Palazzo Sasso
Saint Agata sui Due Golfi Don Alfonso 1890 (great cooking classes)
Torre del Greco Hotel Marad
Naples Constantinopoli 104
Rome Albergo Santa Chiara
Ciao Tom! I’ve been to Sicily several times to visit family, explore and also to sail. To get there the best way is to fly into Palermo o Catania (search these airlines: Meridiana, EasyJet or Vueling), once you’re on the island, then you’re safe to take the trains wherever you please. My favorite spot in Sicily is the Aeolian Islands. I’ve sailed there once by organizing my trip on intersailclub.com. They can personalize an itinerary for you in Sicily and also in other parts of Italy. I know they have a wine itinerary in the Gulf of Napoli (Ischia, Procida, Capri). I definitely recommend doing a trip with them if your traveling to Italy, because it’s not touristy, unique and very economic. And it’s ideal if you’re doing a trip alone, you can meet great people onboard. By the way, if you’re going to Sicily, you have to try the Insola and Nero D’avola! Hope I can help!
Thanks Antonio - we had the following booked but the boat trips do look great!
After 4 days in Paris we fly into Palermo and stay in Scopello for 2 nights at Tavernetta - looks great with a nice restaurant, ocean view rooms and good service. Good location with amazing views. Will explore the west coast for a couple days. We tried to book Pensione Tranchina but they were apparently out of the country and received no response. Might try to have dinner there one night.
Then we head to http://www.annatascalanza.com/index.php/en/gallery/friends-family-and-food for 3 days of casual cooking, eating, wine touring…… Found this place through David Tanis of Chez Panisse as he and others rave about it. We went to a weeklong cooking/market school with another chef of Chez Panisse back in 03 in Bordeaux and to this day was one of the best trips we ever have experienced.
Then we fly out of Catania to the Tuscan coast for a few days before heading home.
Any additional info appreciated - we will spend a little time in Palermo checking out the street markets and possibly the fish markets in Catania. One week doesn’t seem like enough time when planning but I am sure it will be great. Thinking maybe a half day wine tour when in the Etna area - there seem to be a lot of them around or do you all recommend winging it on our own?
I am just back from my 5th visit to Sicily.
I would say the things you should hit are Monreale, Erice, Segesta, Agrigento, Piazza Armerina.
Lot of other things: Ortiga (Siracusa), Palermo, Taormina, Noto, Ragusa, Cefalu, Aeolian Islands. The highway accross the island makes it seem small (less than 3 hours Catania back to Palermo, but other roads do take a while. Do your research on hotels and restaurants.
We visited end Feb, our first trip. Paris to Catania, on EasyJet, for about 75E roundtrip and relatively uneventful. AirBnB’d 2 nights in Catania, and 3 nights in Modica. The owner of the Catania AirBnB got us a reservation at a fabulous seafood restaurant beside the fish market called MM trattoria (https://mmtrattoriablog.com), and it was memorable, with only locals there that night, and we drank an SRC red (Nerello Mascalese) and a Funaro white. We also visited a great winebar with outdoor seating, called Razmataz. As it happened the owner of the Modica AirBnB (Katia Amore) runs a cooking school (Cooking holidays and classes in Sicily | loveSicily). She lived in the UK as a graduate student, and is a wonderful lady. We had a great time, and the AirBnB we rented was the actual cooking school you see - fabulous kitchen to play about in.