Itinerary Sicily/Italy?

I might suggest you edit and put your destination in your title, to attract more attention. Safe travels!

From North America can you fly to Palermo? I know it requires a connection, but if you fly into Rome and book a separate ticket from Rome to Palermo and something goes wrong on the first leg, you may miss the second leg requiring you to re-purchase a flight from Rome to Palermo that will be expensive. Never assume anything!
How many nights will you sleep in IT? Once we know we can recommend how many nights in each place.
On Sundays there is a direct train (no connections) from the central Palermo station to Syracuse (Siracusa) departing at 5:31p arriving in Syracuse at 10:10p. All other days you must transfer to get from Palermo to Syracuse: https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html. I do not know if this involves hauling your luggage up and down stairs to change platforms that results in more bruises and makes you vulnerable to pick pockets if you’re struggling.
From Syracuse you can take a direct overnight train departing at 21:45 and arriving the next morning in Syracuse at 6:42a; reserve a sleeper car. It will not be the best night sleep but since you must sleep somewhere you may as well have this train experience. My sister and I did this and got through arrival day just fine. This way you will not have to waste a day traveling.
From Salerno take a direct train to Roma’s Termini station (2h 15m).

I am traveling from Phoenix, so to fly from Phoenix to Palermo is very expensive, and takes more than a day. So I'd rather fly into Rome and then from there go to Palermo. We'll be seven nights altogether on the mainland. Are you saying there is an overnight train from Siracusa to Salerno?

Regarding your flight plan, just returned from the Rick Steve's Sicily tour and most of the group did as you propose, flew into Rome or Munich and then onward to Palermo. For my wife and I, two days in Palermo was adequate. For your next stop, I would refer you to Ricks tour book or his Italy shows. Really depends on what you are interested in and how much time you want to spend traversing the Island. You mentioned Ortigia . Our tour spent two nights in Ortigia. We really enjoyed the city and felt we could spend more time to explore that corner. You will have a great time. October should be an agreeable time to visit.

Thank you! I will check out his videos.

Wow--you're mirroring our trip, which was going to happen this coming October, but probably will be pushed off to mid-April. Still shoulder season, which is a key for enjoyment.

We too are spending 6 nights in Sicily, but for us it will be fly into Rome Fiumicino, then change for a short flight to Catania. From experience and posters here, word is that it's difficult-to-impossible to see the whole island in 6 days, so we're concentrating on the eastern coast, where there actually is reliable train service. From Catania airport we could do a bus cheaply but we'll be majorly jetlagged, so probably private transport south an hour plus to Ortigia, inside Siracusa. 3 nights there, then train from Siracusa up to Taormina. 3 nights there as well, then a train ride across the Strait of Messina on the train/ferry, then up to Salerno, which is a beautiful, small city we've visited before.

And to what Mary Pat says about overnight train Siracusa to Salerno, I guess it is possible and if you're young it may work. But I'm in my mid 60's, and from the schedule it looks like the train/ferry at Messina time-wise will be in the middle of the night. And my research on the ferry says during time the train car is on the boat (maybe 1 hour?), everyone must leave the train car & be on the ship deck. I want to be awake and refreshed to watch this transfer, which from what I understand is the last train/ferry remaining in Europe. FYI my train time Taormina to Salerno, including the ferry, will be 6 hours, 30 minutes. I love European trains of all kinds & consider it a huge part of the experience.

We are also doing some genealogy research up in the foothills around Salerno, and it's also in close proximity to the Amalfi Coast. Good central location. A few nights there, then on to Rome for 5 days or so. It's my favorite city on the planet.

Good luck with your planning!

How about splitting your time on the mainland? Fly to Rome, take the train to Salerno (great choice IMO). Then fly from Naples to either Catania (nearest to beautiful Ortigia) and fly from Palermo to Rome. Or Naples>Palermo>Catania>Rome - whichever works better with internal flights. Without a car In Sicily, I think your choices are the best.

You say, “‘altogether 7 nights in Italy.” I have added up your plans and come up with 13 (6+3+4). 13, though still a quite short trip, makes way more sense. However, two of those days will be eaten up by travel.

Six days makes for an extremely short time in Sicily. I suggest eliminating Salerno. You would avoid having one day wasted on travel, and have those 3 days for more exploration of Sicily.

If you have not yet purchased flights, consider flying into Naples and out of Rome. It might be a small amount more, but it will save you time check Lufthansa and United for flights.

Itinerary would be.

Day. 1 Travel.

Day. 2 Arrive Napoli. Taxi to Napoli Centrale. (20 min.)Train to Salerno. (47 min.)

Day 3 Salerno.

Day 4 Salerno.

Day 5-10 Train Salerno to Naples to Airport.
Flight to Palermo/Catania. Check flights from each city to see what fits your schedule best. 3 nites each city.

Day 11. Flight to Rome.

Day 12 Rome.

Day 13 Rome.

Day 14 travel home.

Are you saying there is an overnight train from Siracusa to Salerno?

Yep!

i don't calculate my trips by counting nights but days so seems like you will have either 2 or 3 days in palermo. that will be just enough to see the core around quattro canti, capella palatina, and monreale - i suppose you could squeeze in more. ortiga is great, lots to see and enjoy. the good thing about siracusa is that there is rail line that connects to many of the baroque towns in the val di noto area like ragusa, noto, modica, and scicli. alternatively, you could go to trapani for a couple of days and do day trips to segesta and mazara del vallo. erice just above trapani was a highlight of my sicily trip. as has been suggested you could cut salerno and spend more time in sicily and/or rome. you will not be disappointed!

I took the night train from Rome to Catania back in 2015. I was in a couchette. It was a miserable experience. The car jerked constantly and I didn't get one wink of sleep. I slept most of the next day and was off schedule for another day or two. It was a disaster.

And, to complicate things a little more, there are also night ferries from Sicily to Salerno! They sail from Messina and Palermo, if I'm not wrong.

Thank you, all. Much food for thought. I think we will stay less time in Palermo. Maybe rent a car?

Thank you, all. Much food for thought. I think we will stay less time
in Palermo. Maybe rent a car?

Ay-yi-yi. I'm not the one to ask, because I won't even rent a car on the mainland in three trips. Kinda freaked by trunk break-ins and ZTL fines more than anything else. Like I said, I love the trains. And when we visited Taormina in 2010, we had a driver take us up the mountain to the ancient villages of Savoca, Castelmola & Forza D'Agro--where parts of the Godfather movies were shot. And those roads were scary as hell, and I was in the back seat. I hear, however, the major highways, are well-maintained and great.

If you're thinking Palermo to Siracusa/Ortigia, I would say bus (3.5 hours) is better than train, cheaper too.

I am now thinking of cancelling our 3 nights in Salerno adding 2 to Sicily for a total of 8 and 1 to Rome for a total of 5. Does this sound good? More or less in Sicily or Rome? Should I miss the Almafi Cosst?

I am now thinking of cancelling our 3 nights in Salerno adding 2 to
Sicily for a total of 8 and 1 to Rome for a total of 5. Does this
sound good? More or less in Sicily or Rome? Should I miss the Almafi
Cosst?

Not so fast, lada...

There are those on this forum--myself included-- that think Salerno's one of their favorite town/cities in Italy. Fantastic transportation hub, great food, and you can base in Salerno for easy access to the Amalfi Coast, by ferry or SITA bus.

If you choose to miss the A.C., know that there are more than a few spots--either from a ferry or from the shore road--that you look & say, 'I think that's one of the most beautiful settings I've ever seen'. That being said--lodging, restaurants, trans on the A.C. itself, frankly kind of a P.I.T.A., and a lot of up & down. On the other side of the peninsula (thus not technically on the Amalfi Coast) Sorrento is much more fan-friendly. We've been there twice, both times in March, and we wandered free. With 20x that number of people, I don't know how much I would like it.

Your choice--Sicily is very different from the mainland, seems to be more exotic. And it's cool---but for how long? Will 3 extra days there free up you up that much? (Actually, this is the best part about planning--gauging the options!)

And although I love Salerno, if you gave up those 4 days and just plopped them onto Rome instead, you would not be wrong. Rome will give you a day, a week, a month. To get into a routine in Rome is intoxicating.

Acraven’s account of taking an overnight train exactly describes my experience. At least one of your party is likely to have a similar one and ruin the next day.

As for Jay ‘s advice to keep Salerno in your plans, I will say that Italy is more replete with wonderful places to visit than any country I have traveled to. Resist the urge to skim. If you are going to spend the time and money to get to Sicily, give it those nine days. Fwiw, our first trip to Sicily was for nine days. There was so much that we didn’t see, that some years later, we returned for another ten.

I guess that's why I'm struggling so much - there's just so much to see and do. I really want to see Ortigia, is it worth the trip from Palermo for two nights? Or maybe cut one night from Palermo and stay in Ortigia for three nights? Is there enough to see in Ortigia for that length of time? I decided that cutting Salerno would be silly.

Each of us probably has developed a philosophy for dealing with too much content for the time available, because it's a rare traveler who thinks he has enough time available for the trip he wants to take by the time he has concluded his research. Plenty of folks in that situation will choose to skim, figuring they can return to their favorite spots on a future trip.

I'm the opposite; my pet peeve is having to essentially repeat almost an entire trip because I shortchanged practically every destination. All that city-to-city travel time, and all those hotel changes! So I'm inclined to cut entire destinations rather than snipping a day here and a day there. At least when I do that, I regain some dead time since I have one less hotel change and one less train or bus trip. But I'm retired and don't have to wonder when I'll be able to take another trip.

There is plenty to do in and around Ortigia for 3 nights. We enjoyed our time there and it was a good base for day trips in our rental car. Hopefully you would fly out of Catania if ending in Ortigia.

So . . . what you haven't told us is what your interests are, why you chose those destinations. Are you looking for beautiful scenery? history? ancient ruins? charming small towns? food and drink? beaches? Have any of you been to Italy before? to Europe? Knowing more about you and your interests will help us give you better advice.

Hi Chani, Grandparents born in Palermo which is taking us to Sicily. My cousin and best friend are traveling - all first time to Italy. I've been to London and Paris but, they haven't been to Europe. I would love to stay for months but can't at this time and mindful of their needs to get home. We are 55-60 y.o. We love culture, feeling the vibe of a city, history - I am fascinated by the history of Sicily. We want to sight see but, not all the time- just being with the people can be enough and we are hoping to relax a bit.

Ortigia is worth 3 nights, but it’s a long way from Palermo. Consider Trapani as abase for exploring Northwest Sicily. It’s not as interesting as Ortigia, but there is much to see in and around there. Much more genuine Sicilian experience on account of fewer tourists. Much closer to Palermo. You can visit Ortigia on your next trip.