Here’s my latest update basis but it’s not liking to move around much and having to be in canicatti two times in the middle of it
Syracuse 4 night (day 1 travel day) ( day trip away) Canicatti 3 night (day 1 travel day) (Day 2 Agrigento) (day 3 bday with friend) Palermo 5 nights (day 1 travel day) (2 day trips) Canicatti 3 night
- in town for friends
Drive catania and fly out (return car)
Siracusa has a lot of good food too. I think 2 days are sufficient. In addition to the temple ruins, two of the biggest buildings in the central square are actually Greek temples too - that have been made into cathedrals.
Noto is 45 minutes away by bus and cute and different.
I would hit Taormina 2 hours up from Siracusa. I have been there twice and the 2nd time was better than the first - from walking down to the water, to hiking up to another village at 1500 feet elevation. There is an excellent restaurant in town too. If you arrive at the train station you have several options :
- walk up the huge hill and nearly get. heart attack as I did (its 700 feet up carrying your bags)
- hire a taxi for 20
- fall into the clutches of the shady characters hanging around the station
- the best option, wait for the shuttle bus and pay 2 or so.
There is also bus service from Taormina to Catania directly so you don't have to go down the mountain, and Catania has an airport where you an get a non-stop to Rome.
I would look into taking a ferry from Palermo or Catania to Salerno or Naples, then visiting the Amalfi coast (Positano, Amalfi, Sorrento, Ravello, Capri) - that would supercharge your trip.
I guess Rome is worth seeing one time but I have been twice and did not really enjoy very much.
funny - i feel same about rome. my husband wants to go though and we agreed to 5 nights. plus we will meet some friends of friends. I like your recommendations - thank you.
Definitely Palermo. Cefalu is worth 1/2 day maybe, if at all. We were just there in April and loved Palermo more then we thought we would. Spent 6 days there with one day to both Monreale (a don’t miss) and Cefalu.
palermo is definitely a place you should spend as much time as you can. so much amazing architecture and art to take in. you can easily do a day trip to cefalu from palermo. i spent almost a month in sicily, six of those in palermo in the summer of 2021. if you like take a look at the link to my photos of sicily in my profile
Sicily is one of the most interesting places in the world. After going there the first time, I read an entire book just on its history.A dozen or so empties that have conquered it. Its been a melting pot of these empires. There are particularly strong influences of Greeks, Arabs, and Normans. And these cultures merged and continued. Then the fresh food and produce. Also there is the WWII history. Famously General George Patton swept along the north, and Monty came up through Siracusa and they met in Messina I believe.
In Taormina, both times I stayed, I had a place with a patio and beautiful ocean view and view of Mt Etna. Its seems you kinda get a sunrise and sunset that were both beautiful. The waves are small and you are up high, so you just hear this subtle shimmering sound. Its magical.
they have the Ancient Greek theatre. A path down to the ocean with a cute tiny island, and we were able to walk to the island with shorts on (water maybe 2 feet deep). Then we paid a few euros and took a tram back to the city. The next day, we hiked up from Taormina to a little shrine built into a rock that is hundreds of years old, then we realized there is a whole other town further up another hill. That place is like a city in the clouds. The have remodeled it and have terrace with a wonderful view of the ocean.
Regarding Siracusa, you will appreciate the city more if you read a little about the greatest mathematical of the ancient age, Archimedes who essentially invented calculus 1500 years before Newton, but it was lost and had to be rediscovered. The Romans besieged the city and Archimedes famously had various inventions to fend off the Romans. There are some Myth-Buster videos that seek to verify if he could really set fire to a ship using a parabolic mirror for example. Centuries later, some famous Romans came to Siracusa to find Archimedes grave. There is sculpture tribute in the Main Street of the real city a few blocks from the train station, and there is a museum, but it was a little suspect since they would only take cash. You can pretty much walk the perimeter of Ortygia with great sea views. There are numerous good restaurants that feature excellent fish.
Catania : I have mixed feelings about it. On arrival it looked a bit bombed out and dangerous. But then a few blocks away it was very lively with shopping. Interesting that there is a Catholic Church and a Greek Orthodox Church across the street from it - each with their own styles and designs. There is a great walking tour an hour long on YT which showed some nice places I did not see.
Rome : We actually saw most of the attractions of Rome in a single day of long walking ... hotel near the crime zone of Roma Termini ... Coliseum ... (impossible to get into the old city of Rome booked for the day)... the Mussolini fascist monument which was pretty impressive including the Roman ruins next to it ... Spanish steps ... the Pantheon but did not go in because of the long line. Back to our hotel passing a few working girls out on a cold windy night. A weird thing about the restaurants in Rome. There were three in a close area. Two of them were pretty good. The guy in the 3rd one was very friendly, so we went in, despite there to being many customers. It ended up being 90 minutes of waiting for some pretty bad food.
I don't know if Canicatti is closer to Agrigento or Taormina but those places are hours apart, and the public transport is not all that good. I think the 3 hour train from Palermo goes to Catania, then you go an hour south to Siracusa or an hour north to Taormina. Or you take a 3 hour train along the north from Palermo to Messian, then an hour south to Taormina.
You can also take buses (I think) from Agrigento to Gela to Ragusa to Noto to Siracusa skirting along the south (where the allies first landed in the Sicily campaign) and also one of the biggest naval battles of antiquity occurred between Romans and Carthaginians if I recall. I think that is probably fairly slow though.
We are going back for a third visit, and I am thinking about this myself.
Regarding Palermo - there are other cities nearby like Erice, Trapani, and Marsala amongst others. In the center of the island is a huge Roman villa that was uncovered. I think RS describes this in detail.
For further research, see if you can find the Stanley Tucci episode about Sicily
In Cefalù we stayed at Hotel Alberi del Paradiso? Ask for a room on the front side of the hotel. It had free parking.
In Agrigento we stayed at B&B Via San Marcos. From it we walked to the temples via a path through the olive grove. It’s down a dirt road but we looked it up ahead of time so knew where to go. The view of the temples from it at night was very pretty.
In Taormina it was Hotel Bel Soggiorno. It’s an older hotel with a charm of its own. It had free parking, but if you arrive later in the day, parking will be tight.
Rather than stay in Palermo we stayed in Monreale at B&B Elvira Al Duomo. Great B&B. We took the local bus into Palermo.
We are in Sicily now. I’d definitely add a day in Siracusa and cut back on Ragusa and Noto. We day-tripped to Noto from Siracusa (don’t take train— see my previous post for details) and, frankly, found it to be an overrated, hot, flat Taormina/Disneyland of Sicilian tourism. We found ourselves moving along with the mobs of people. Nice architecture, but with one main drag, it gets old fast. Personally, I would skip Taormina entirely; it is pretty but unless you are staying overnight and can enjoy the atmosphere after the day-trippers depart, it’s a rough slog. Maybe add those days to Palermo, Siracusa or even Catania, which also has its charms. Ragusa is cute, but you need strong legs and good endurance to enjoy it fully. Ibla is also one Main Street with cute little alleys and side streets. Given that, one busy day here is enough. BTW, Scicli and Modica are easier from Ragusa than Noto is. We loved both Palermo and Cefalu last year. We are (very) slow travelers and spent 5 nights in Palermo and 3 in Cefalu. However, Cefalu is an easy day trip from Palermo and for most people that’s probably enough. (We used it for a few down days.) It would be a real shame to miss Monreale if you are in Palermo. It’s an easy half-day trip by public bus (stop is across from the train station). Palermo is church-heavy but nevertheless an interesting city. Agrigento is our next stop. We’ve only got two nights there and I feel like that might be pushing it a little bit, but we’ll see. For the big finish, we’re spending 10 days in Trapani and using it as a base for Erice, Favignana, Selinunte and Poggioreale, Marsala, and Mazara del Vallo, and the annual couscous fest in San Vito le Capo. Obviously more time than you have, but Trapani/Erica could be a day-trip from Palermo. For that and other options, I think the easiest way would be with Viatour or something similar.
I agree that I would stay in place longer in Siracusa/Ortygia, and just make a day trip to Noto and/or Ragusa.
Stay in Siracusa( Ortigia )a day longer and Taormina a day less.
thank you all so much - I am playing with the schedule as we speak. Wanderlust - I think your travel pace is our preferred pace. I usually stay in one place for 3 weeks. This trip is a rush pace already for us as we prefer 5 nights minimum usually. I will post a revised schedule and seek more advice after that.
OH _ We dislike Touristy - we like natural beauty, architectural beauty, but for me personally - just relaxing and enjoying conversations with others.
I am so excited by all of your detailed responses.
Refined....
we will have a rental car entire time - even in Palermo because I think easier to keep the rental since we need a car before/after Palermo visit.
10-29 Rome 5 nights
11-3 Venice (3 nights) visit exchange student in Belluno
START SICILY TRIP...
11-6 Syracuse (4 night) day 1 all day travel day (fly venice to Catania -rent car – drive)
11-10 Canicatti (4 night) day 1 all day travel day (drive Syracuse -Ragusa – Canicatti)
11-11 Canicatti – visit friends
11-12 Canicatti – friend birthday party
11-13 Canicatti – visit friends
11-14 Palermo (4 night) dy 1 all day travel day (drive Canicatti - Agrigento – Palermo)
11-15 Palermo
11-16 Palermo (Day trip Monreale and/or Cefalu)
11-17 Palermo (Pick up another student in Palermo?????)
11-18 Canicatti – visiting our exchange students
11-19 Canicatti – birthday party – big late
11-20 Canicatti – visiting our exchange students
11-21 – Airport Catani
END SICILY TRIP
Noto : The bus is 40 minutes each but it was less than obvious how to take it. There is a park in-between the train station and Ortygia where the buses line up. I bought a ticket in a bar or coffee shop just off from the park.
Taormina : The complaint of being like Disneyland could apply to any other Italian tourist magnet. I love Taormina for photos, fun, food and history :
1. the views are spectacular - especially if you have a hotel with patio with view. just amazing (Eurostars Monte Tauro and Villa Schuler) . And I have had waterfront views in Positano and Bellagio too, and this is different.
2. The Greek theatre
3. The park with the ancient buildings and its view are amazing
4. there are inexpensive coffee shops on the main drag ... all the way up to very nice food on the road near the theatre on Via Bagnoli Croci. One of my favorite restaurants in all of Italy. (However avoid the sea food place in town with all the fish on ice - looks authentic, but ate there twice and was sorry twice).
5. the hike down to the cute tiny island of Isola Bella, free beach access, and you can wade over to the island
6. the tram back up
7. the hike up from Taormina to the cathedral built into a rock called Chiesa Madonna della Rocca
8. further hike up to the little hilltop town of Castelmola
9. Meander the town and see the ceramic heads and other local decorations
Siracusa : I would not stay too much longer. I love it because of its history with Archimedes and the Roman siege, and the Greek temples. There is some good food, and an interesting place to wander around, like the sea wall and fish market. There is no shortage of tourists in Ortygia but if you hang around the train station and to the north, it feels a little rough. Photos are good but not great. There is not all that much to do there.
Thank you rail riders and everybody else. It’s been amazing all of your advice. Thank you.
