Driving a Rental Car in Sicily

We rented a car several years ago and drove around Sicily for about 2 weeks. We started in Palermo and then headed west and around the island. We took the car ferry out of messina. The driving was good from town to town - no issues that i recall. Parking in the towns was often challenging but that is not Sicily dependent - just a fact of life when visiting older towns and villages with narrow roads and little room for cars. Our accommodations were usually able to direct us as to where to park.

My experience is from quite a while ago . . . 10 years? Driving was easy. However, signage was quirky at best. Roads were not very crowded, but we didn’t drive in Palermo.
The main problem was dealing with Hertz. I’ve done innumerable car rentals in the U.S. and Europe, and they were the most sleazy and unethical I’ve ever dealt with. To begin with, the agent at the airport tried to get me to pre-buy a tank of gas by telling me that there were no filling stations near the airport. I refused, and discovered that not only was there a station at the exit from the ringroad; there was another even closer to the airport.
The receipt I got was printed in miniscule font, pale peach color, on yellowish beige paper. Practically unreadable. Later examination showed that there a clause stating that I had accepted DCC. I was never asked, and most definitely would not have.
An email address was provided for dealing with any complaints about the billing, but it turned out to be invalid. I finally tried calling Hertz in the U.S., only to be told that Hertz Italy is a separate company. Dead end. I recommend never dealing with Hertz Italy.

We went to Sicily this past May and rented a car for part of our time--picked up in Siracusa as we were leaving and returned at Palermo airport.

A few comments:
1. Sicilian drivers are aggressive but we did not find them more aggressive than those in the Miami area where we live. It depends what your experience is. Midwest drivers are much less so, in my opinion, having grown up there and now frequently visit family.
2. Roads on the coast were consistently good. There are "toll ways" but many do not collect tolls. They are four lane roads similar to freeways in U.S.
3. Away from the coast the roads were not as good. Sometimes they were combination of gravel and cement. Sometimes they were just very narrow. We had this issue going from Villa Roman del Casale and Agrigento. We also stayed in the country outside Erice and the roads were less than stellar. But there wasn't much traffic in either case so we did just fine. But just a heads up.
4. Roads in towns can be very narrow. Make sure you are comfortable with that. My husband did the driving and I did the navigating. It worked. You need a navigator.

5. Signs are less frequent than in the U.S. There might be one for where you want to go and if you miss it....well figure out how to turn around or go another way. There are lots of roads in Sicily and we just generally took a different route.
6. We could not get self serve gas stations to take our credit cards. And they are really self serve--no employees there at all! We had to go to full serve and pay more. So don't wait until you are near empty.

P.S. there are no gas stations coming from direction of Trapani to the Palermo airport.

Drive defensively in Sicily and you’ll be fine.

Drove there for a couple weeks in 2018. I picked up and dropped off the rental at Catania airport. I thought the rural roads were not in great repair and were poorly marked. There were many times I had no idea which road I was really on. I used Google maps to get me to places not found on some navigation systems. It worked well.

I looked up parking lots before the trip and plugged them into my Garmin (I only use Google maps now). That way I could drive right to them and not waste time trying to find one. The one time we had to pay for parking on Ortigia, the machine only accepted Euro coins, none of the smaller denominations. That may have changed by now.

I also looked up all our lodging and had them plugged into the navigation system. One hotel was within a ZTL, so I contacted it to find out what I needed to do. It responded right away.

Finally, in addition to being aggressive yet defensive, be aware that if you’re nice to another driver, three others will take advantage of your kindness, e.g., if you want to let one car merge, three others will probably follow.

I felt the ZTLs were well marked.

Not any different than in the mainland.

Avoid big cities like Palermo, park in the lots outside the city centers and walk in.

Beware of the ZTL (Limited Traffic Zones where only residents with permit can enter) and the road signs indicating a ZTL, which looks like this ⭕️, which is the international sign for “no motor vehicles allowed”.

Be aware of the ubiquitous fixed autovelox machines (speed cameras). Their location is preceded by a sign saying “Controllo Elettronico della Velocità” (electronic speed check) and an icon representing a cop 👮‍♀️ or just a cop hat like this

Using the Waze app as GPS navigator is an absolute must. Waze will have all those speed traps mapped.

We drove all over Sicily in 2019. The one thing I would add to what has been said above is to get the smallest car that will work for you. The streets in small towns are quite narrow and a small car is a huge plus. We had a Fiat 500 and it was perfect for 2. We rented one again this May in northern Italy and again it was a smart choice.

We picked up our vehicle at the Catania airport and drove completely around the island. It's more reliable than the trains. Get your international driver's licence and buy the zero deductible. Lots of speed cameras and traffic circles but drive with some assertion. Stay out if Palermo. That's my 2 cents!