Extra days in Sicily

Without a doubt, I'd choose the Baroque towns west of Siracusa: Ragusa, Noto, Modica, Scicli. Ragusa has the most to see, so if you want to base in one of the towns, that might be the best to choose. Alternatively, you could choose Siracusa (as I did) and take trips out from there. As I recall, at least one of the towns has rail service. All have buses. You won't be able to get anywhere on buses on public buses on a Sunday, so be careful in your planning if one of your extra days is a Sunday.

Rome2Rio.com will probably allow you to identify the bus company serving each town and find its website; just keep drilling down on Rome2Rio until you reach that information. Do not trust Rome2Rio's time or fare estimates; I have no idea where they come from! The website seems to be reliable as to whether there is train service and bus service, so it will get you started.

For train fares and schedules, go to Trenitalia. It wants you to use the Italian spellings for city names, so "Siracusa", not "Syracuse". I don't think there will be any confusion about the names of other places.

If you run into scheduling difficulties, you can consider throwing a one-day bus tour into the mix, but it will cost a lot more than just taking public transportation, and you'll have no control over how much time you stay in each place. Ragusa really does deserve a nice, long stay, so don't expect to see it well as part of a bus tour. I think an overnight there would be great.

A second possibility would be to head inland and see Piazza Armerina (the town near the Villa Romana del Casale, a sight that your tour does visit), Caltagirone and Enna. That is an interesting area, but I believe it may be a bit trickier to move from town to town with buses and trains there.

There is a lot more to see in Palermo than you will have had time for there, so a return to that city wouldn't be a bad choice. You could make a side-trip to Cefalu by train. There are reasonably frequent 3-hour trains running between Catania and Palermo, but there's a big mid-day schedule gap.

Those additional suggestions aside, my immediate reaction when I reviewed the itinerary, was "What, no Ragusa?"

If you have a bit of extra time at the end and want something to do nearer Catania, you might check out Acireale. A Sicilian I chatted with at a bus stop recommended it, but I didn't have time to go there. You never see it mentioned by US travelers (be the first person from your city to visit it!), and the photos indicate that it would be a pleasant place to wander around for a bit. It's on the coast just barely north of Catania.

Thank you so much! These are very helpful suggestions and we will plan accordingly!

Don't even dream of going to Sicily without seeing Seduced and Abandoned, a 1964 film by Pietro Germi (chosen for the Criterion Collection).

It might merit a second or third viewing.

acraven has given you exceptionally sound advice above. If you stay in Ragusa, insist on Ragusa Ibla, the older part of town.

My wife and I were on RS's Sicily tour last Fall. We flew to Milan before the tour and rented an Airbnb apartment for a week. After researching the tour and our options, we decided to fly to Palermo 3 days prior to the tour and visit the sites that Rick's tour doesn't cover. We stayed in the RS hotel, the Ambasciatori. Palermo is a terrific city - you could easily spend more time there than Rick's allotted time. Several vivid memories ... 1) a Streaty Food tour led by Marco that hit food markets used by the local people. Marco is amazing and knows everyone. 2) visiting the Cappella Palatina. I don't know why Rich doesn't include it on his tour. It has all the beauty of Monreale, but the smaller size gives it an intensity not available in the vast space of Monreale. 3) the street food and restaurants. Palermo is known for its street food and Marco introduced us to the street food options that we enjoyed so much. Plus, we found a restaurant near the hotel, Bisso, that we absolutely loved - we went back three times. 4) finally, the freedom to enjoy the city on our own, without the constant time constraints that is an understood part of any tour. We also took a day trip by train to Cefalu. It's a wonderful little town about 1 hour east of Palermo.

Bottom line, we had a great time ... no need for a car. My advice? Go early, enjoy Palermo, enjoy all the sites you will visit on the tour, then fly from Catania to Naples.

If time is available, I like Will's idea of going to Palermo early, then using the post-trip time for Ragusa et al.

We were on this tour in April 2016 when they still had the off-season itinerary. Ragusa was included on this itinerary, and we really enjoyed the town. Check out the Hotel dell’orologia. We also wished we had spent an extra day in Catania.

If you plan to arrive in Palermo from the US, do allow at least one day pre-tour to get out of the haze of jetlag. If you can add at the front end, Cefalu is about an hour train ride from Palermo and you can walk between the center and the station in both places. It was one of my favorite places, beautiful beach, cathedral, pretty souvenir shops, good restaurants, and lots of history back to the ancient Romans. 2 nights there and at least 1 in Palermo would be ideal. There is also more to see in Palermo than the tour covers.

Thumbs up for the notion of spending one’s jet lag time in an inexpensive place rather than an expensive place. Cefalù is a great suggestion.

Actually Palermo is significantly cheaper than Cefalu :-)

Such wonderful suggestions! Thank you all!