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Need some helpful advice on our 52 day trip to Slovenia,Croatia, Italy and Sicily!

My wife and I just started planning for our trip and so far we have a confirmed arrival date of August 25th in Slovenia and a departure date of October 18th from Palermo, Sicily. We just booked a 2 week guided tour with Rick Steve's our first 2 weeks, in Slovenia and Croatia. My wife has never been to Europe, my second trip to Italy and I wanted to make sure she is not disappointed and certainly not terribly rushed. We are avid motorcycle riders I was thinking of the following itinerary once our final week is complete in Croatia with the balance (about 38 days) remaining.
Venice- 3 days
Cinque Terre - 2 days
Florence - 2 days (rent a motorcycle) Lucca 2 days, Siena -3 days, Oriento --3 days = 10 days in Tuscany on Mortorcycle.
Rome - 4 days
Amalfi Coast - 6 days
Sicily - 12 days

Is this too much time in each location? Too little? Best way to travel to other locations once done with Tuscany.
Any suggestions on the 12 days in Sicily and is this enough time to see the entire island without being rushed?
Than you

Posted by
15798 posts

Logistically, it's better Venice > Florence/Tuscany > Cinque Terre > Rome - you go through Florence to get to the CT, and there are direct trains from the CT to Rome, so you'd avoid backtracking. If you can, drop the bike in La Spezia. I don't know where Oriento is. I tried to find it in Tuscany, got no hits. If you mean Orvieto, that's Umbria and would make a difference in your itinerary.

Sicily is big, it is the largest island in the Med. How much time you spend there depends on what you want to see and do and whether you'll rent a car/bike. Two weeks is a good amount of time, but you won't see everything even then.

What do you do with your luggage when you're on a motorcycle? Maybe not in Tuscany, but in Sicily you will want to stop at places along the way. With a car, you can put all your stuff in the trunk out of sight (keeping valuables - money, passports, GPS, etc. with you).

Posted by
11294 posts

Chani is right. Twelve days in Sicily is enough time for a good visit, but is hardly enough to "see the entire island without being rushed." You will have to prioritize, or spend more time there.

If you're going to Sicily from the Amalfi Coast, you can fly from Naples to Palermo or Catania, or take an overnight boat from Naples to Palermo. There are also overnight trains, but these do not get high marks (although at least one poster here likes them on this route, most prefer to fly).

If you fly into Palermo and out of Catania, or vice versa, it makes seeing a large swath of Sicily easier. Before planning to end your trip in Sicily, investigate connections back to your home airport. You may find that you need an overnight somewhere on mainland Europe (Rome, Munich, Frankfurt) to make it work. If that's the case, you may want to re-arrange your trip to put Sicily in the middle, and end in Rome. In addition to flight time issues, many cities use different airports for the Sicily flights and their US flights (currently, Paris and Milan are in this category, meaning changing there doesn't work well).

While Palermo is a bigger city, Catania is a bigger airport with more flight options.

For all your flight options to Sicily, use Skyscanner https://www.skyscanner.com/, then look at the individual airline's website for their rules and fees. Note that Alitalia allows one free checked bag and has a more generous carry-on allowance, so it can be cheaper than a "budget" carrier. For these domestic Alitalia flights, their International website https://www.alitalia.com/en_en/ has an English language option, and the same prices as their Italian website which is in Italian only. Their US website has MUCH higher prices - for the exact same flights (again, does not apply to international fares, only domestic ones in Italy).

I was in Sicily in April-May 2014 and had a great trip. My VERY detailed trip report is here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-palermo-caltanisetta-siracusa-taormina

Posted by
28462 posts

I think Rome is light at 4 days and Sicily is very light at 12. It will help if you plan to rent a car (or motorcycles?) in Sicily, but even so, I'd think about moving at least a couple of the Tuscany days to Sicily. I had 18 days on the island in 2015 and it was not enough even though I skipped three of the major Greek sites (Selinunte, Segesta and Agrigento). I was using public transportation, which slowed me down, but still feel 12 days is short.

This is going to be a great vacation, but be very, very careful on those motorcycles. Italians seem much more willing that Americans to pass on blind curves, and you are very vulnerable on a motorcycle.

Posted by
11613 posts

I would take one night each from Siena and Orvieto and add them to Sicilia.

I remember seeing a group of motorcyclists in Piazza Armerina, so either cycles or a car would allow you to get around more efficiently.