Ortigia, Syracuse, Sicily

With only 5 days for Sicily you don’t have time to see much. Fly into Catania and take the bus to Siracusa. From it you can catch busses to Noto, Monica, Ragusa, or other places. Sicily is one huge museum. Every town has something historic about it. Popular sights include Taormina, Cefalu, Palermo, Segesta, Agrigento, Trapani and Erice, Villa Romana Casale in Piazza Armerina, and Selinunte.

And I agree with jaimeelsabio, stay in Siracusa. I would make Ragusa my first day trip from Siracusa that takes 2h 15m by direct train.

Thank you both for your help.

I’ll add my vote to base yourselves in Ortigia. We spent 5 nights there and did a guided day trip to the amazing baroque towns of Noto, Ragusa & Modica. We were planning a return trip to Sicily last September for a month. It was our plan to return to Ortigia for 5 nights again! We had booked the same B&B. Great location in the heart of Ortigia. We had a large view apartment, a five minute walk to wonderful restaurants, open market and historical sites. Our host “Roberta” was very kind & helpful with arranging our day tour & restaurant recommendations. www.laviadellagiudecca.it

blueangel4,
As mentioned by the others, Sicily is full of wonderful historic sites, but I'd urge you spend more time there in order to truly experience this beautiful island.

I visited Sicily in the spring of 2018, and traveled solely via public transportation.
Here is my trip report if you're interested ( warning: it's a very lengthy report...)

Enjoy planning your trip!

Fly into Catania, bus to Siracusa, stay in Ortygia - it has the best charm and sea views, and the entire island is walkable. City busses make the short trip to the archaeological sights in mainland Siracusa, or there are taxis. If you want to go further afield from your base in Ortygia, you will need to research the bus schedule or guided day tours. I had a car so don’t know exactly. Some options within day trip distance would be Noto, Ragusa, Avila, Mount Etna, Catania itself, and coastal/beach areas. There are plenty of other places farther, but with a shorter visit you’d want to focus on one area. Siracusa is a great option!

All of Sicily is historical and there is a LOT to see. As others have said Ortigia is wonderful and the 'easiest' places to see as day trips from there would be the UNESCO towns of Ragussa and Noto, etc. But just staying 5 days and only in Syracuse you are going to miss the 'best' Greek sites - Agrigento, Selunite and Segesta. Syracuse does have the Greek theater and a good museum but I thought they paled in comparison to the temples in those other places. You might be able to get a tour that takes you to one (or more) of them but they would not be easily reached by public transportation as day trips from Syracuse. And Palermo, which a lot of people don't like as a city, does have amazing historical sites. The mosaics in the cathedrals in Palermo, Cefalu, and Monreale are incredible.

You say your trip is 3 weeks and you want to visit a "few" countries. If you told us the rest of your planned itinerary we might be able to give better advice as to the Sicily portion.

For our last stay in Ortygia we liked Domus Mariae Albergo and enjoyed our room with a view of the sea. You can read reviews to see if it's the type of place you're looking for.

A restaurant that we really liked was recommended by hotel staff - it's "a Putia delle cose Buone".

With 5 days, I think that the Aeolian Islands are too far to travel - it requires a bus ride and a ferry trip - there are so many things to see and do in Ortygia and you have some excellent suggestions of places to visit from there (Noto, Ragusa, etc.)

Thank you all, I really appreciate your comments. My husband and I are just throwing together some places we really want to see, don’t have an itinerary yet.
Berlin and Munich, Germany, possibly the Glacier Express or Bernini Express.

Sardinia. I have family near Lviv, Ukraine. My husband has family in Jelsi, Italy (Campobasso).
We saw a piece on Rick Steves about Sicily and so put that on our list. We’d like to do as much as we can in 3 weeks that’s why a limit of 5 days in Sicily.

You’re all very helpful and I’m taking notes as I go along. Have a wonderful day and thank you again.

I understand that you want to do "as much as possible" on your trip. But the more you places you try to see in a short time, the more time (and money) you spend in transit and the less you actually see. Consider focusing the trip just on Italy, or Italy and 1-2 other places, rather than running around trying to see "everything."