18 day Sicily Itinerary using public transportation

March 14 -1 day to see Palermo

That would be a tour de force. You probably need two days to visit everything.

March 16-1 day Valley of the Temples via train 2 hours one way

There is no way you can get from Palermo to the Valle dei Templi in 2 hours, not even with a car. Maybe in 3 hours with a bus. By train and bus probably 2.5. I would rearrange the itinerary to spend a night or two closer to the Valley. Then from there you could stop by Piazza Armerina and Villa del Casale for one night before proceeding to the next destination.

March 22-travel to Ragusa 2:15 hours train. 2 nights Ragusa. March 25-travel to Taormina bus 3:30 hours

I think you are counting 3 nights in Ragusa (3.22, 3.23, 3.24), not 2, since you plan to go there on 3.22 and then to Taormina on 3.25.

March 28- Tour to Villa Romano bus 3 hours one way

I don't think you can make it in only 3 hours. Check the schedules to make sure.

March 30-leave Sicily travel to Salerno via train/ferry all day event

I think these ferries are available only from Messina or Palermo. You may have to go to one of those cities the night before.

Is the Valley of the Temples and Villa Romano must sees? Not having a car makes these 2 locations difficult to visit. What is the best public transportation if I tried your suggestion?

I have been researching Sicily but have not yet gone.

It is a two hour bus ride or train ride from Palermo to Valley of Temples as OP says. It makes for a pretty long day trip.

I don't think anyone can say what is most important to see. There is more in Sicily to see than most of us have time. It means making hard decisions and difficulties with transportation make sense as one criteria.

I have been reading a lot of posts here and a number of people use private transport to accomplish getting from Valley of the Temples. You might see what others have done. As I recall, there were some names of people used in posts but do not have them handy.

Some others have used private transportation to see the Baroque villages as well.

i was in sicily for 28 days in 2021. i used public transportation exclusively. here are my thoughts:

i feel palermo deserves more than a day. while you can probably do the historic core in a day, places like the capella palatina, palazzo cuba and la ziza are further afield. i find google maps and the time estimates it provides quite accurate.

i did exactly what you are thinking of doing and took the bus from palermo to agrigento to see the temples and took the train back. it can be done, especially if you catch the 1st outbound bus/train of the day. there is a tourist office at piazza bellini with very friendly staff who can provide the schedule.

regarding the fish market in catania, in my opinion, it is not particularly interesting. being indian i may be biased. there are as many street markets in india as italy has caffes! point is, if you are going to catania just to see the fish market then i would suggest visiting the balaro market in palermo instead, and using the day, in palermo or adding it to your valle de noto area visits.

i avoided taormina so i have no comment about that. however, an interesting option from catania is the circumetnea train to visit various towns at the base of the mountain. the ride itself is fun on the narrow gauge railway.

regarding villa romana del casale it all depends if you find roman mosaics interesting. i believe it is the most extensive and well preserved in all of italy. an added bonus is the town of piazza armerina itself. the baroque center is one of the most beautiful i have seen. i took the bus from enna.

hope this helps. sicily is an amazing place with the friendliest people, and granita!

alomaker-I wonder if you could tell us more about your trip on Circumventa. Did you take a day trip or spend a night or two somewhere? I have done some research on it and it seems that it doesn't loop back to Catania so I wondered how you managed.

@BethFL: i took the circumetnea train from the borgo station in catania. you can reach borgo via the subway line in catania. as i said the circumetnea is a narrow gauge line and if you get on one of the vintage railcars the openable windows are great for photography. the journey is slow but goes past lava fields on one side and wide valleys on the other. very picturesque! i have a link to my photos in 'my profile' if you want to take a look. these cars are not airconditioned and noisy but that's part of the charm for me. they do have more modern trains running on the line as well. the wikipedia page for the circumetnea shows all the towns it stops at. my goal was randazzo almost at the end of the line. it is true the train does not loop back. i always leave as early as possible, often catching the first train or bus out and i recall i was able to comfortably visit randazzo and return to catania in the afternoon. hope this helps.

alomaker-I have looked at your photos! They are fabulous. I really like the ones you took in Randazzo.

But how did you get back to Catania in the afternoon? I found a bus but it leaves at 6 am. I must be missing something.

Many of you have commented on my day being too short in Palermo. On March 17 I will not visit Celfu however plan to open that day up to time in Palermo. How many days do you suggest I allow on my itinerary?

My initial goal for a visit to Sicily was to get immersed in the culture and not be running from one thing to the next. But there is just "too much see"!!! Ugh! What do you do?

I know on the schedule there are 2 LONG days. However I compensated to have the following day be a down day with visiting the local area or 1/2 visit to nearby attraction.

A private car for some longer transfers/excursions is a good idea or to allow for an over night where public transportation just doesn't fit the schedule. Anyone used a good car service?

Alomaker your photo's make me excited to see Sicily! I appreciate your insight.

@BethFL: i just took the train back. here is a link i found on the web. https://www.circumetnea.it/linee_orari.php with arrival and departure schedules. rome2rio and google maps may also give you the same information. hope this helps.

I think a day trip to Cefalù is worthwhile. It's one of the prettiest villages of Sicily.

Rather I would cut down some of the nights in Taormina (5 are a lot IMO) and skip the day trip to the Villa del Casale, which is a super long day.

From Palermo to Agrigento it's a 3 hour trip. You can't just count the 2h10 min on the train from Palermo to Agrigento. You need the time to get from your hotel to the Palermo station, to be there a few minutes before departure. Then once in Agrigento you need to walk to the bus stop and take a bus, the ride to the Valley is 15 min, but you might have to wait for the next bus. A taxi may save you some time, but all in all you are looking at a 3 h trip door to door. A bus from Palermo would take just as long. Although doable you might consider spending one night (or two) in Agrigento and then proceed to the next destination the next morning.

Give Palermo four days.
Visit Agrigento to see the Valley of the Temples and then stop at Villa Romana Casale on your way east to Ragusa or Noto, Ortigia. Yes the Valley of the Temples is a must see, the most important ancient site in Sicily! Villa Romana is also a top site. You are zig zagging around Sicily; your prosed itinerary does not make sense. Starting in Palermo go counter clockwise around the island, only going inland to see Villa Romana and a Baroque town, Ragusa or Noto.
Don’t give up a whole day on Ortigia to visit Catania’s Fish Market! Go to Ortigia’s street market which includes a fish market. We walked around there with paper cones filled with fresh fried calamari. Or stop in Catania to see it’s fish market on the way to Taormina. By the time you get there, you will have seen many other fish markets.
Five nights in Taormina? Why? One day each to explore Taormina and the other to visit Mt. Etna. It was our least favorite place in Sicily.
Sicily’s most important sites are easier to get to with a rental car.

Great advice from everyone!

I am modifying the trip to include more time in Palermo, a night in Agrigento (if I can find reasonable car service from Palermo to Agrigento and Agrigento to Ragusa) plus cutting time in Taormina.

Then it is off to the Amalfi Coast for 10 days which is a lot easier logically to plan. :)

Rick Steve’s’ Sicily book has some names of drivers I. It and there are some names in previous Sicily posts. I found some mentioned by Pat but don’t have link now. Put Sicily and Pat in search and you hopefully can find.

I traveled in Sicily via public transportation a few years ago. I must admit that it takes more time to get to some destinations as you have to rely on train &/or bus timetables.
I spent 26 nights in Sicily ( trip report here) but if I had 18 nights, I’d do something like this:

• Palermo 4-5N - day trip to Cefalu, afternoon in Monreale.
• Bus to Trapani 3N - day trip to Erice, & day trip to Segesta.
• Bus to Agrigento -2N - Valley of the Temples
• Buses to Piazza Armerina 2N - Villa Romana del Casale.
• Bus to Siracusa (stay in Ortigia) 4-5N - day trip to Noto ( via bus)
• train to Acireale, Catania or Taormina -2-3N

Enjoy your time in beautiful Sicily!

I am still planning but I have read that Sundays are very poor for public transit. I intend to plan around that. Looking forward to it!