Leaving Lake Como Sept. 2025 and flying to Sicily for 4 nights. Looking for 1 or 2 escorted day trips and the other(s) stay local. We are big sightseers. Not too much beach or resort goers. Where would you recommend our main base be, what to see (truthfully, we have seen our fair share of beautiful churches) and which international airport to get there and then back to New York? Thank you everyone in advance.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15981 posts
Sicily has 4 international airports (in order of passenger volume):
Catania (CTA)
Palermo (PMO)
Trapani (TPS)
Comiso (CIY)
The top 2 are major airports, the last two operate only few flights by low cost airlines.
You can fly to at least one of each using any of the Milan airports. Milan has 3 airports. The closest to Lake Como are (in order of distance from Varenna, which is one of the preferred bases on the lake): Milan Bergamo (BGY), Milan Linate (LIN), Milan Malpensa (MXP). There are several airlines that serve Sicily from Milan, most of them are low cost airlines. Some flights operate only seasonally.
To return to New York from Sicily you would be need to take a flight to a European hub. Rome Fiumicino (FCO) is one, which probably has the most flights from Sicily, but there are more, like Munich or Paris etc. You can go to www.skyscanner.com to see your options to Sicily. And from Sicily to NYC you can use Google Flights or Kayak.
Posted by
Washington DC
27902 posts
Sicily is large island. Its key sights are very scattered. In my view, seeing most of the top sights requires 2 weeks with a car or longer if you must depend on public transportation. With only 4 nights, you need to head to one place and take some side trips. That one place should be either Palermo (side trips to Monreale and Cefalu are very popular) or Siracusa (side trips to the Baroque villages of Noto, Ragusa, Modica and Scicli are popular). Note that the classic Greek sites are not near either of those cities. There are more sights in the area around Palermo (yes, quite a few of them are churches), but it is a large, bustling city. Ortygia, the medieval part of Siracusa, is not as hectic. If your vision of Sicily involves cute small towns, Siracusa might be a better choice for you.
Rick now has a guidebook to Sicily.