Best Location to Stay in Sicily

Sicily is very large and you can't see all of it from a single location. Here is a website that I used when I planned my trip. Best of Sicily I have a few favorite spots. My very favorite place was Cefalu - a small seaside town that was a great place to walk around, hike up the Rocca, swim, and great restaurants. I would have stayed there longer.
I also liked the eastern coast (Taormina and Catania). There are also great places in the center of the island, along the northweat coast, and southern coast.

In addition to Cefalu, Catania, and Taormina, we also loved Ragusa Ibla, Ortygia, Agrigento for the Valley of the Temples, the fabulous mosaics at Villa Romano del Casale, Palermo with a day trip to Monreale. If you like ruins you might like to see Segesta and/or Selinunte. By using the Best of Sicily you can select the locations and sights that interest you and then pick one or two towns to stay in.

Sicily is the largest Region in Italy and is as big as Los Angeles County, Orange County, Ventura County and Santa Barbara County all combined. It is therefore too big to be visited from one place only. You need at least 3 bases from which you an take day trips to the various sights (of which Sicily has more than any other region in Italy). Basically one base for every corner (Sicily is shaped like a triangle). One should be in the Palermo or Trapani provinces (north west), one should be in the North East (Taormina area is good), one in the south east (Syracusa area is good). I don't like the south western coast a whole lot, especially around Gela. But the Valley of the temples, near Agrigento, is worth seeing. You can stop there along the way between corners. And if you go there to agrigento, you should also see the Scala dei Turchi (staircase of the Turks) a peculiar cliff (Google Image it).

The island is too big to be visited from a single base. Catania (check the Villa Carlota hotel), Taormina or anything on the Etna hills are reasonable bases to visit the Eastern Coast. Siracusa or Modica/Ragusa make good bases for visting the Southeastern area (including these three cities, the Baroque architecture and vineyards of Val Noto etc). Agrigento makes it convenient to visit Eraclea. From any of these locations you can visit Piazza Armerina. With one week, I'd not overdo it. Pick 2 bases, split days there. If you are renting a car and splitting between West and East/Southeast, visit Piazza Armerina en-route.