AC or Sicily?

Amalfi Coast and Sicily are two different animals. Amalfi Coast is a small area equivalent, more or less, to the Cinque Terre in size. In a way the two are similar, in the sense they are both two spectacular stretches of the Mediterranean coast, with some very quaint fishermen villages (now turned into tourist destinations). To make a comparison to the Bay area, the two coasts are similar to the coast along highway one from Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay. Of course they don't look alike and California doesn't have the same type of villages, but it gives you an idea of the size of the area. Actually the California example is definitely bigger. The Amalfi Coast is very popular, therefore there aren't too many off the beaten track hikes, but there are some. Sicily is a huge island, the largest region in Italy, equivalent in land area size to all of the following Bay Area counties combined: San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Marin, and Mendocino. Sicily has a very rich history since it has been conquered by many civilizations over its history, from the phoenicians to the greeks, to the romans to the arabs to the normans. The italians are just the latest invaders, as sicilians say. There are therefore lots of museums and ruins to see. But if you are interested only in nature, there are plenty of areas for that as well. The choice could be dictated by the time you have. Just for the Amalfi coast and maybe Capri, you'll need a couple of days. For Sicily 10 days aren't enough to scratch the surface. I don't know however what type of hikes you like. Coasts or mountains? Zingaro Reserve is a nice one on the coast (which I have done). If you like mountains, you can hike to the top of Mt. Etna too. Just don't burn your feet. A Sicily hiking specialized site:
http://www.siciliaincammino.it/

What time of year? Sicily is awesome in the Spring, but gets darn hot starting in June (great for beaches and swimming though)

Steve makes a great point. Mid summer in Sicily can be brutal. Sicily, in many ways, is still the wild, wild West & should give you plenty of great adventures that you won't find in the AC.

Thank you all for your great advice re: AC & Sicily. I especially appreciated the comparisons to Santa Cruz/Half Moon Bay. We would definitely travel mid-May. That is when we travelled last year (Cinque Terre, Tuscany, Venice, etc.), but I suspect it is warmer in the South in Sicily...so perhaps that is something we should consider. Thanks for the Sicilian website. Anyone know of not-too expensive (last year, the most we paid for lodging all over Italy was about 100 euros) in AC or Sicily? Thanks!

Hi Michelle, We just spent 10 days in Sicily last May. The weather was warm to hot but not crazy hot. Sunny all days but one where we had a rain storm that made it difficult to see driving with the windshield wipers on; one hour later, blue skies and sunshine again. The only city that we didn't like driving in was Catania and at the end of our trip we dropped off our car at the Palermo airport and used the busses. Roads were very good and we used our own GPS. There are many hotels, Bnb's, apts. etc. to fit your budget. Sicilian people were very warm, friendly and helpful. We booked ours thru' Booking.com and Venere.com and the sites allow you to to pick your price range, amenties, location etc. All of our 4 bookings were successful and the accomodations were as advertised. The north-west coast from Trapani up to Palermo has a lots of nice beaches and hiking opportunities. There is also Mt Etna, near Taormina that is a don't miss. Delicious food everywhere we went too! We used the Lonely Planet Sicily guide to plan our trip and were very happy with the info it contained. Hope this helps you to decide. Sherry