Q regardindreg several Sicily travel days

My only comment is visiting about Segesta and Selinunte en route to Agrigento. By the time you’ve seen the first two sets of temples you may have seen more temples than you care to. We visited Agrigento first then went to Selinunte, visited the temples closest to the entrance and decided we had seen more than enough temples for one trip. After seeing four or five, they all pretty must look the same and you don’t appreciate them. The same goes for cathedrals, monasteries and convents, and castles.

We stopped at a few places en route to other locations with our luggage in the vehicle (Villa Romana del Casale, Scala de Turchi, Lido Rossello, Selinunte, and the salt farms at Marsala and Trapani) and had no problems. Absolutely nothing was left in sight, e.g., phone cables, coin, map, bag.

A chocolate shop in Modica

We visited "La Bottega del cioccolato" (aka Pasticceria Gelateria Frisbi) in Modica. The owner took us into his "chocolate factory" in the back and showed us the process (in English) as he was making flavored chocolates: lemon, orange, pistacchio, mint, coffee, rum, rosemary (suprisingly delish!) and more. Of course we were able to sample and buy flavored chocolate bars as souvenirs, presents and snacks!

Google Maps says they are open daily, 8am - 830pm.
Via Vittorio Veneto, 38, 97015 Modica RG, Italy

1. I agree with recommendation to NOT go to Segesta and Selinute before Agrigento. lt is too much. We were amazed by Agrigento and know would not have been if we had gone to Selinute first. Consider visiting Erice instead of Selinute. We were there several weeks later to you and the water was still really cold.
   
2. We left our luggage in car at Villa Romana, although it is not recommended. We made sure our luggage was covered in trunk, we did not go into trunk, and we took on our persons everything we absolutely could not lose (passports, medications ect.). It is not recommended to do this at all in Sicily but it was too time consuming for us to back track.
3. We started watching the inspector Montalbano series when we started planning to go to Sicily. We had a tour of his office ect in Scicli. We saw other places filmed in Ragusa. You might want to spend a few days in this area. Ragusa and Modica and close to each other as well.

Segesta, to me, is an absolute must. We went on to visit Selinute and Agrigento, but I could have skipped them. Do not miss Villa Romana, whatever it takes.

Can’t speak to Segesta but for us Valley of the Temples, Agrigento, at sunset into evening, was a magical experience and a highlight of Sicily. Also, we had no problem leaving belongings in the car at Villa Romana del Casale.

Yes for the chocolate store in Ricks book. We were there last year and it was so inexpensive compared to chocolate in the US. And so good! I wish I bought more chocolate!

My husband and I were in Sicily for a little over two weeks in Fall 2022. We went to Segesta and Selinute when we drove from Palermo to Agrigento and loved them both. Seeing the sea in the background while crawling over ancient Greek ruins is pretty amazing. Also, we thought both were a nice build up to the Valley of the Temples.

For Mt. Etna, I am not sure how long it would take to drive from Catania to Mt. Etna- we stayed in Linguaglossa and did a guided hike up Mt. Etna, which was extremely cool and we really enjoyed. It does take some time driving to the base of Mt. Etna because you have to drive through a lot of switch backs.The only thing to be cautious of is the weather- if the weather/conditions on Mt. Etna are not good the day you try to go, then the gondolas shut down and no tours occur, either. But, if you can make it work time-wise, I think it is very worthy of a visit.

Thank you.

My day's drive from Palermo to Agrigento (Q#1) is more wide-open in our minds than before.
The nice thing is, we won't be fighting crowds and can modify our plans on that morning.

I appreciate the idea that we may have overprioritized temple sites. A few years ago we went to Pompei and then visited Paestum the following day. Paestum was double the pleasure!

I've studied world religions and we're both Christians, so we're interested in "worship" - modern and ancient forms, etc.

Hello

Thank you for earlier responses.

We just booked our "hotel" in Palermo and will continue to reserve places along our route.

For those who have been to the SE corner (Ragusa and perhaps Steve's SE drive):
If we do two nights in the Ragusa area and two nights in the Siracusa area and have one "spare" night, what would you prioritize? We would stay in one of those two areas or (I'll say the "or" at the bottom, because I don't think it fits our pattern)

My wife doesn't like the twisty roads of Tuscany - she says she "never" wants to visit the small hill towns again.
I love driving those roads :-) I take it slow, for her sake, but the curves in the road are too much for her.

So (having slept at/near Ragusa) one day main day to drive the SE corner and end up in Ragusa in the mid afternoon to walk around and eat a late meal seems fine to me. It seems like a hit-and-run, but ....
Any feedback on the driving, etc.?

Thanks

Regarding the extra night and another option:
If we spent two nights in Ragusa and two in Siracusa and leave Siracusa late on the check-out date, we could drive north to our final hotel and we'd be one hour closer to Etna, making a day-trip there more relaxed, etc.
Comments?
Thank you.
Evan

We spent two nights in Ragusa and four in Ortigia (Siracusa). We were going in the opposite direction from you so left Siracusa in and arrived in Ragusa in afternoon. The next day we drive to Modica and had chocolate factory tour, drove to Scicli where we took Montabano tour, and then went to a summer home of an aristocratic family.

We would have loved another day there but certainly got a taste of the area. I would probably stay 3 nights in Siracusa though as opposed to Ragusa. That would give you two days there. I guess because there is more to see in Siracusa without driving and I prefer to walk rather than drive. We did not rent a car until we left Siracusa.

Hint on keeping your wife (and you) sane in Ragusa. Park outside the old city. We were given directions to go inside old city as it was not a restricted zone during the week. It was extremely dicey getting out the next morning to drive to Modica. We parked outside the city coming back which meant more of a journey with our luggage (pack light) but much easier on our nerves.

We saw Mt Etna from Taormina so have no idea on your alternative plan.