Traveling - off-Season RSE tour of Sicily in 2016...Help me get to Naso?

I don't know anything about this particular town, but in general, trains in Sicily have limited routes. Buses go to more places, but a car is really helpful for many places. Particularly for a trip such as this, where you have limited time, you'll probably do best renting a car in Catania and returning it to the Palermo airport.

If you want to find transportation options, see what you get at Rome2Rio: http://www.rome2rio.com/

If you are interested in car rental, look at Kemwel in addition to other sources (AutoEurope, Gemut, the car rental companies themselves, etc). For my Sicily trip in 2014, it had BY FAR the lowest price for a "zero deductable" rental (I put that in quotes because there were still some other expenses, like windshield coverage).

We did the trip in the opposite direction (pick up in Palermo, return to Catania airport), and while we were worried about getting out of Palermo, we found this easy. Returning to Catania airport, on the other hand, was more complicated.

I didn't do the driving myself, but my friend who did, did not find driving in Sicily to be difficult for the most part (the stories of how hard it is turned out to be greatly exaggerated). He just returned from driving in England, and found this MUCH more difficult than Sicily driving.

If you want the whole story, here's my trip report (scroll down for the car rental details): https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-palermo-caltanisetta-siracusa-taormina

An addendum to that report: my friend returned to Sicily earlier this year, and this time he took a TomTom instead of a Garmin. It indeed knew the roads that the Garmin did not. So, if you have a choice, get a TomTom.

There is no 'flying as late as possible' from Palermo, if you are connecting to a flight back to the U.S. - these departures are always early in the morning.

The alternative is to take a late afternoon flight to Rome, overnight in a B&B in Fiumicino (most will pick you up & drop you back off for a small fee), before your return flight from FCO. Or hop onto the Intercity sleeper train that starts in Palermo (boarding en route to Messina, maybe in Capo d'Orlando or Milazzo) to get to Rome Termini.

As to how to get to Naso, that's a different issue. Trains are often unreliable in Sicily. You may have some luck looking into the shuttle service that links Catania Airport with Milazzo. Look into the Interbus and AST bus service as well as Trenitalia. Be aware that service is not that frequent for getting around.

I think that the only way that you could maybe pull it off in such a short timeframe is by renting a car. If you avoid the pick-up in town, doing strictly an airport pick-up in Catania and an airport drop-off in Palermo, and sticking to the autostrada to avoid city driving around those two cities, you should be fine.

Personally, I don't think that your plan is very realistic at all, even less so if you are relying on public transportation. The distances that you need to cover on both the Friday and the Saturday are quite significant and in no means direct.

Things in Sicily sometimes don't run as smoothly as they do in Northern Italy. Also don't discount bad weather (or winter conditions at elevation) in Sicily in early March.

Are your flights booked yet?
Can you consider 2 nights instead of 1?

Finally, given the very specific info that you need to possibly pull it off, go to the Trip Advisor Sicily Forum and ask Vagabonda for help figuring out the possible routings.

According to wikipedia (ie. take it with a grain of salt), Lady Gaga's ancestors hail from Naso too. Maybe you're related.

Thank you for the help.

Thinking about it more, I think your answer may well be to 'hub' Milazzo. Because of the ferry to the Aeolians & Naples in Milazzo, it's the best connected (and serviced spot in that part of Messina province).

Take the direct shuttle bus from Catania Airport to Milazzo (return). Rent a car in Milazzo (pick up and drop-off). Visit Noso from Milazzo. Your flight from Sicily can be more easily done from Catania, with this scenario. Although Milazzo will also be well connected to Palermo as well (especially at times coordinated with the ferry schedule), getting to the airport will not be as easy or direct as the well used Catania airport shuttle, IMO.

But again, you will need more time, because it will be impossible to have an early morning flight from Catania on the Saturday morning (same rationale as Palermo).

You will not see sleeper train reservations available yet in Trenitalia's system for March, so use a date in November (same day of the week) to see the schedule & prices. Use the 'Excelsior Doppio' class of service, 2 passengers. The price that you will see will be the total for two people, not the per person price. This overnight Intercity train is comfortable and may buy you just the extra time that you need in Sicily to pull it off. For sure it will have a late night stop in Milazzo. The trick will be to return the car early enough that day. A hotel or B&B in Milazzo would be your best answer for this scenario... then you could also avoid dragging your luggage with you to Noso.

Another thought...we are planning on arriving in Palermo a couple days before the tour. We have the entire day Monday free. Perhaps we could take a train to Capo d'Orlando and and explore down to Naso from there.

Now... THAT makes more sense.

It would be a very long day and I'm not sure that the train schedule would give you enough time for Naso. Play around with a Monday schedule in November to see. The Intercity trains would be much faster than the Regionale, and you would be along the main Palermo-Messina line. (2hr-2:30 journey each way)

Can you swing the first part of Tuesday too? That way you could spend the night in Capo D'Orlando or Naso. And be back on the morning train to Palermo. The Rick Steves tour hotel in Palermo could keep your luggage overnight, so you wouldn't have more than a small overnight bag to worry about.

If you do not read Italian, then using Google Translate, check out the Commune of Noso's website: http://www.comune.naso.me.it

Finding a place to stay for one night, either in Noso or Capo D'Orlando, would tap into their network for arranging private transport to/from Noso, 10 kms or so between the two.

If the train schedule allows you a minimum of 4 hours in Capo D'Orlando, then you may even, on the spot, hire a taxi to take you to Noso. HOWEVER, between 1pm and 4pm, you may be hard pressed to find anything or anyone available. I would prefer having details like that arranged ahead of time, myself.

Finally, you could also consider arranging a private car and driver service to take you, either from Catania or Palermo. I mention this because Noso is not far from Milazzo, and as I had mentioned earlier, Milazzo is very well connected, with a variety of services.

You can contact a company like this one, and negotiate what you need: http://www.taximaisano.com/en/routes.html

We did think about renting a driver...but didn't know where to start looking for one. Thank you for this resource.