Driving in Sicily

Most advise not driving in Palermo or Catania (just like big cities on the mainland), but I'd have no qualms about driving in general. It is strongly advised to not leave luggage unattended in the trunk. Once you have an itinerary, you can get feedback on places to pick up and drop off and other useful tips.

Advice is to never assume what you think other (local) drivers will do. Drive defensively.

We found driving in Sicily wasn’t bad and allowed us to visit more sites and towns. We had a 1 way car rental from Catania airport with drop off in Palermo. It’s an easy bus ride from the Palermo airport if you’d rather drop the car there. My husband actually drove into Palermo to drop our car off, but was pretty crazy; hard to find parking even at the car rental office.near the central train station.

Same as any other time of the year. That is: chaotic inside Palermo or Catania, perfectly fine elsewhere.

We drove in Sicily and found it not much different than driving in Italy. Same caveats as others have said about Palermo and Catania. and leaving things in the car. Public transportation is possible but uneven. We used AutoEurope for our rental, picking up at Palermo airport after a few days there and returning to Catania airport a couple of nights before departing. We were quite happy.

Overall, the driving was fine. The main roads are all in good condition and well marked, the autostrada is excellent. I’ll note that in some parts of the country it is very “hilly” verging on mountainous. If you haven’t driven a stick shift for a while, this is a real cold shower. Not to scare you (you’ll become an expert in no time) it’s just a more mentally and physically demanding level of driving than most of us are used to. The autostrada cuts through all of that, so whenever you can take it you should.