Looking for Back Doors in Sicily

There is a book I read before I went to Sicily for the first time - about some small inland villages - very off the beaten path. It's called The Stone Boudoir (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+stone+boudoir+travels+through+the+hidden+villages+of+sicily&crid=2NOB382XNOTE&sprefix=the+stone+bou%2Caps%2C169&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_13)

The day we visited the those villages was a highlight of our trip.

Thanks for posting this - look forward to following. We are hoping to do the RS Sicily Tour next year. We can't decide if Spring or Fall. We love to travel in the Fall more, but the Spring works out better for us.

Our first trip was at Christmastime 2012, and follow-up trip October 2018, so not positive what June is like, but there are a couple Back Doorish locations, one northwest, one southeast.

Assuming you’re landing in Palermo, and with the airport some distance to the west of the city, you could continue west for Erice, which hangs high above Trapani, which sits way, way down at sea level. We managed to maneuver our rental car thru the incredibly tight, narrow, tiled Erice streets to our B&B. You might opt to park though, then make your way on foot to your lodging. Food, bakeries, this is a wonderful place. We didn’t actually spend any time in Trapani, except for passing through on our way from Erice to points south.

Bonus: On your way from the Palermo Airport to Erice, stop off at the magnificent Greek temple and amphitheater at Segesta - in better shape than many classical sights in Greece.

Southeast, and south or Ragusa, is Modica. In addition to being the absolute chocolate capital of Sicily (maybe of Italy, maybe Europe, maybe the world) in the lower town, the upper town has stunningly beautiful Baroque buildings. Restaurants in Modica are welcoming, and offer fabulous food. The second trip was shorter, but we included Modica in both trips.

Last, this isn’t a lesser-known sight in Sicily, but you didn’t already mention the Ancient Roman Villa Romana del Casale just outside Piazza Armerina, with the incredible mosaics. Be sure you include it in your agenda!

We visited a couple of places in Sicily that aren't on every tourist's itinerary. The hill town of Enna was amazing with the Castello di Lombardia (one of the largest and most ancient edifices in Italy) and stunning views of the countryside all around from the walls. We were on a tour and made a detour to our guide's hometown of Sciacca for a lunch stop. It's a lovely small seaport city on the Mediterranean with several ceramic studios (which, of course, we visited) and some good cafes on the waterfront.

Oh, with your previous trips to Italy, you’ve probably stayed at an Agritourismo or two. We spent Christmas at the one that Rick Steves featured in his Sicily TV program back in 1999, long before he had any guidebooks or tours for Sicily. It’s still there, and its restaurant is exceptional - Il Vecchio Frantoio. Seems they’ve added a pool and made things a bit fancier now, but we couldn’t have gone for a dip in December back in 2012 anyway. It’s now in a national park, as well.

There is a great three part documentary titled “Sicily Unpacked” that features a British art historian and an Italian chef on their travels all around Sicily. You can find it on youtube. It gave me lots of good ideas when planning my three week trip around Sicily last September and is filled with information on art, food, churches, history, architecture, etc. One place that I learned about from the show and knew I had to visit was the town of Mazara del Vallo on the southwest tip of Sicily. The town has a rich mixture of Christian, Jewish and Arab cultures. It is a great town for wandering through its muralled alleyways, piazzas, casbah, churches, etc. We enjoyed eating at a Tunisian restaurant. Mazara del Vallo is also close to the magnificent ruins of Selinunte and makes a good base for a visit to those ruins. I enjoyed Selinunte more than Agrigento. It is expansive, right on the coast, and best of all, it is not swarming with tourists all fighting for a perfect photo. We easily took the train from Palermo to Mazara del Vallo, with a quick change of trains on the way. From Mazara del Vallo we took a short train ride to Castelvetrano and right there at the train station we caught a public bus to the ruins of Selinunte. If you go to Palermo and also plan to go to Selinunte, I suggest a visit to the Regional Archaeological Museum Antonio Salinas. It has a good Selinunte exhibit.

Another hidden gem is Tindari. The view from the sanctuary overlooking the sea below is breathtaking. In addition, there are ruins and an ampitheater nearby. Not so easy to get to on public transportation. We took a train to Oliveri, stayed there at a BnB and the owner drove us up to the sanctuary and later picked us up. Much easier on your own if you have a car but we were not interested in driving there. I had often seen photos of Tindari on Instagram and knew that it was a place I wanted to visit.

Lastly, I recommend you attend a puppet show. Lots of fun.

Also enjoyed the Sicily Unpacked videos and got many ideas of places to see. We enjoyed visiting Noto for a day. A pleasant memory there is having a fresh salad with fennel snd oranges at an outdoor table at the cafe Picnic. Having a car, we spent several nights at Terra dei Limoni in a lemon grove near the beach, 8 km east of Noto. There were great individual cabins, a nice buffet breakfast and swimming pool. We will plan to return there if we go to Sicily. It was a definite “vacation in our vacation.”

Becky, you were the one who recommended the Sicily Unpacked videos to me about a year ago when I was planning my trip! Thank you.

Aeolian Island province - Lipari, Malfa and Vulcano
Agrigento province - Sciacca, Calo Pulcino and Rabbit Beach
Catania province - Caltagiorne, Catania to see Mount Etna, Teatro Massimo Bellini and the Feast of Saint Agatha. There's also La Pescheria that serves prawns and fresh bread at the market. Make sure you also visit Cattedrale di Sant’Agata. And another stop in the Catania province is Militello Val di Catania.
Enna province - Piazza Armerina
Messina province - Castelmola, Messina, Novara di Sicilia, Panarea, Pirano and Savoca.
Palermo province - Gangi, Monreale for the Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches and Monte Pellegrino hill.
Ragusa province - Modica and Scicli
Syracuse province - Marzamemi, Noto, Palazzolo Acreide and Pantalica Canyon.
Trapani province - Marettimo, Pantelleria and Riserva dello Zingaro.

Thanks to everyone who has posted suggestions! I'm going through them, one by one, and adding to my list of places to visit on a future trip to Sicily.

Jeanine,
.We were to revisit Sicily in September for 28 days. Our first visit was limited to Eastern Sicily following a tour of Southern Italy. Now that it's on hold we will look forward to another time. Like you, we were going to the usual destinations plus some of "the back doors."

I recently found a blog that highlighted many of Sicily's nature reserves. We are considering adding several to our future itinerary. scentofsicilyblog.com. In addition to the informative book "The Stone Boudoir" I would also recommend the memoir "On Persephone's Island" by Mary Taylor Simetti.

That's "Persephone's Island" (previous post).

My husband and I have made two trips to Sicily, five weeks total. You have received many wonderful suggestions and I'll add one more. Read Vincent Schiavelli's book "Many Beautiful Things" and you will feel compelled to visit Polizzi Generosa, as we did. Teresa Maggio also has a chapter on Polizzi in her "Stone Boudoir" book mentioned by another poster. In fact, we stayed with the family she wrote about in that book.

Our trips were all by public transportation, but if you have a car you may want to go higher into the Madonie mountains above Polizzi to some other undoubtedly picturesque towns. I've also more recently read two books by Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene (cookbooks with stories) about their home in Gangivecchio, which is REALLY out in the middle of nowhere!

Happy planning!

hey hey jeanine
we were planning a trip to sicily about 3 years ago, family issues with friends we were traveling with and logistics of flying here and there. put it on hold for now but couple sites i saved and info from a friend with family in sicily. he says we needed more time than a week HAHA.
palermostreetfood.com/blog
bestofsicily.com
newyorktimes.com/sicily-siracuse (caseificio-borderi moonortigia.com fountain of diana sicilia in tavona restaurant
caffesicilia.it in the town of noto
bonajuto.it in the town of modica
the fish and open market place in catania piazza del duomo, walk around the piazzas, we love walking in shops and stores looking for local products to bring home, tourism kiosks for tours or cooking classes, cookly.me type in city like palermo/taormina for classes. my friend loved walking the alleyways looking for a beautiful ceramic flower vase,
thecrazytourist.com/ 15 day trips from palermo, sicilyactivities.com (you interested in a mafia tour or maybe a wine tour?)
so much to see and do, please let us know how much you enjoyed sicily like all the others here have when we are allowed to travel. i'm still saving all these notes and make bug my sicilian friend enough to be our tour guide, LOL
aloha

Erice was nice for a couple days, but it, like Noto, Ragusa, and Modica, have become usual destinations. It is a mad house full of day trippers that arrive by bus until about 4pm when the busses leave. We enjoyed Marsala. While not a lot to see there, it was relaxing and the nearby salt farms are worth a visit. Had we had more time on our 2018 trip there, we would have visited more towns in the interior since most tourists seem to visit the coastal locations. If you enjoy castles, there are a number of Norman ones that dot the island, like the one at Caccamo. Some are near the slopes of Mt. Etna. If you like unique rock formations, a few miles from Agrigento is Scala de Turchi by Realmonte. You can either stop and view it from an overlook, or park and walk down to, and on, it. We had a car on our trip. The roads are poorly marked once off the autostrada, so a good GPS comes in handy. I felt the ZTLs were well marked and easy to spot.

In Marsala we stayed at Hotel Carmine, Piazza Carmine 16. It was very nice. Good, included buffet breakfast.
In Erice we stayed at Hotel Villa San Giovanni, Viale Nunzio Nasi 12. It is a basic, no frills (or TV) hotel but had a great view on the panoramic side. Breakfast was very basic, but adequate. Both had free parking, were easy to get to, and were in nice locations.

Definitely try to go to Erice and the beach area north west of the island. The small coastal towns are very pretty, and have exceptionally great food.

Have fun.

Lorie