We'll be driving from our Air BnB in Ortigia, to our B&B in Piazza Armerina on a Sunday in a couple of weeks, and are trying to plan a nice day. Any thoughts on where we can stop along the way for brief sightseeing and lunch?
Caltagirone is one idea, but it would be nice to have a more "country-ish" stop. Would love to hear any experiences fellow travelers have had.
I didn't have a car in Sicily so have no experience with small towns in the interior. I enjoyed walking around Enna, which isn't on the foreign-tourist circuit but as I recall has a castle (or some such thing). It's a fair-sized place so probably not what you're looking for. Caltagirone was worth a wander as well. Not terribly far from Piazza Armerina is the Greek site at Morgantina. I've read that it's very non-touristy but can't speak from experience there, and I don't know anything about its hours.
Do you already have Ragusa / Noto / Modica / Scicli on the itinerary? If not, that's where I'd head.
We went to Piazza Armenian from the Catania area and there was little worth stopping for between the two places. I’ll suggest selecting the route you’d like to take, then search on the little towns along that route (e.g., google or TripAdvisor). My guess is there will be something in at least one of them that will be of interest to you, whether it be a plaza, bridge, church, or view. The smaller the town, the more country-ish it probably is.
Enna is right off the Autostada exit for Piazza Armerina. It’s notable mostly for the views, and would probably make a decent stop. I did not head up there, in the moment driving a stick shift up Enna’s intimidating heights was too much for me to consider. Morgantina was cool. It gets zero tourists, and offers little in the way of context or info, but it is very evocative and has terrific views over the countryside and Mt. Etna.
Not knowing the rest of your plans, I can tell you that I drove from Ortigia to Piazza Armerina, then saw Morgantina, and still toured Villa Romana (late in the afternoon) all in one day.
We were driving from Piazza Armenia to Ortigia and stopped in Noto, one of the beautiful Baroque towns, a last minute decision.
We ended up staying over night as we were able to cancel our reservation in PiazzaArmerina without penalty.
We ended up going to Noto for breakfast and spending a short while there, then we stopped in Caltigirone as well, to climb the stairs and walk around. Got to Piazza Armerina mid-afternoon and just relaxed for the rest of the day at the B&B. It ended up being a nice, leisurely day, and while we were happy to visit both towns it turned out that the brief visits were enough for us.
Thank you for providing an update. It's been strongly recommended to me that we do not have luggage in our car while stopping between lodging bases. Did you have secure parking at both of your stops? I would like to stop at Noto between our accommodations of Ortigia and Ragusa, also on a Sunday, but we will have our luggage with us. Thank you for any comments. Deborah
We didn't really have a choice, and I worried about it a little, but not enough not to stop :~).
We travel really light, so it was easy to have everything tucked away securely out of sight in the trunk, and we left nothing in the car. The biggest mistake I made was paying for parking on the street in Noto, because I wasn't 100% sure whether we needed to on a Sunday and didn't want to take a chance. In both towns, we were able to find street parking.
Thank you for providing a prompt response. We take the same precautions when traveling with our luggage. I'm trying to weigh the advice I have received about our luggage with our desire to stop along the way. It has caused me to wonder if Sicily requires any greater caution than other popular tourist destinations in Italy that we have visited. Thanks again
If you must leave your belongings in your car, it is essential that everything you're not going to carry around with you as you sightsee be placed in the trunk before you arrive at your parking place. I don't know that theft from autos is terribly prevalent in Sicily, but it's known that thieves do watch parking lots near tourist sights, and they will see you if you open the trunk and place goodies inside it. I would carry all electronics with me. You might want to have a lightweight backpack for that purpose.
One tip I read earlier on this forum, which sounds like a good idea, is to buy--after you get to Europe--a heavy chain and padlock. Run the chain through the handles of your bags to make it harder to grab them and run. That wouldn't hurt and might help. But again, that should be done before you arrive at the parking place.
acraven, we did follow these suggestions as well. It also just helps us be more efficient and organized in general, getting everything in order before we set out for the day.
And yes, I did pop my iPad in my day-bag, along with my phone and our passports.
Deborah, we never got the sense that Sicily is inherently more dangerous or that travelers are more susceptible to theft than elsewhere in Italy. We just tried to use common sense. This was the only day that we had everything with us en route, but we didn't base our itinerary around not having luggage with us, it just worked out that way.
Thank you for the helpful luggage comments and I apologize if my questions have taken us off course from the OP.
