Rental car in Sicily--which insurance?

Basic CDW and liability were mandatory and included in the rental car price. I opted to pay extra for the complete protection package so there would be no deductibles. It also covered theft and windshield damage not covered with the basic coverage. It’s a personal choice whether to take the extra coverage, but was worth the piece of mind to have it. In my case, we had no damages. We too had the car for 15 days, but rented in Catania through Avis. We were given an Opel Mokka and I wouldn’t have wanted anything larger. You don’t want or need a car in Palermo. Traffic is pretty bad and the autostrada near town is more like a parking lot depending on when you’re on it. Chaotic is a good word to describe the drivers and traffic in Palermo. The airport is about 40 minutes from Palermo and backtracking to pick up the car there makes sense if you’re going counter-clockwise around the island.

I just looked at a two week rental from Hertz in July on AutoEurope and the up charge for a standard transmission Fiat 500L to get $0 deductible was $115 - less than $10 a day. I’ve rented in Italy about 10 times and peace of mind is worth the price. It was also worth the price because I damaged cars twice. Once in Cefalu scraping a building on an insanely narrow street with a 90 degree turn, and once backing up I hit a rock hidden by tall weeds. Here in the states, I haven’t damaged my car in over 20 years, perhaps even 30.

We take full coverage, as Hertz calls it in Italy “Supercoverage.” If we have a problem I want to be able to walk away from it with no charges for deductible. Peace of mind is the name of the game.

We just returned from two weeks in Italy and rented a van to transport six of us around. We opted for the full coverage and am so glad that we did. The van got slightly damaged driving on tiny little roads trying to find our villa. Those walls lining the tiny roads can make things quite difficult for larger vehicles. We also had someone smash in the rear window of the van and steal some of our belongings. To be able to walk away from all of that was certainly well worth the additional charge.

This might help you. It's a fun read, especially the first two paragraphs.
https://blog.ricksteves.com/cameron/2018/06/sicily-driving/

Sometimes it's hard to see that the "mandatory" coverage leaves you exposed for 5000 Euro or more. I would also consider the generally lower infrastructure maintenance in southern Italy, and in Sicily specifically. I didn't drive there (cruise excursions only), but I wouldn't be surprised by poorer roads or sections left with gravel while awaiting resurfacing sometime in the distant future.

Certainly if you can find the equivalent of $10 a day, I'd jump at that. Note, as at home in the U.S., that there may be things, like towing, glass, batteries, or tires, that have been "unbundled" in order to increase auto rental company income. Read everything, in advance if possible. Our IDP was checked at the rental counter mainland Italy. I'm shocked that renting a (unspecified rental company) car often no longer includes protection against the engine breaking down and leaving you stranded! I paid a refueling charge in the US when I just managed to limp in and exchange a barely running car with only 10,000 miles on it. I suppose I should be glad they didn't charge me for not keeping the car for the number of days I had rented it!

I first want to say that my driving experience was completely different from the one Cameron posted in his blog. What he described was what we were afraid of, but not what we found. The autostrade were in great shape. Sicily driving was definitely different from US driving, but for the most part, it wasn't difficult or stressful. My friend (who actually did the driving - I did the navigating) later drove in England, and he said driving there was FAR harder than Sicily driving!

That said, I was insistent for Sicily that we had a car with zero deductible. As did some of the others above, I wanted "walk away" insurance - when you turn in the car, you don't have to worry if they find anything (and by all reports, the companies are experts at finding a problem when you return the car!). If you're willing to assume the risk, which as said above can be several thousand euros, you can go with a lower policy.

My other tip is to look at Kemwel. They're under the same corporate umbrella as AutoEurope, but often have lower rates (in our case, much lower, particularly for the zero deductible we wanted).

As for the short drive to the autostrada, in Palermo it's not hard. We rented from Hertz; the next year my friend went back, and his car (booked through Kemwel) was from Europecar. They're in different locations in Palermo, but in neither case do you have to drive through the congested old center to get out of town.

Note that when he returned his Europecar at the Catania airport, they insisted on going over the car fully, even though he also had zero deductible insurance that time; this delayed his getting to his plane (he made it, but with much less time than he liked). Hertz at Catania airport was pretty quick.

For more on my trip, including lots of details on driving, here's my trip report from 2014 (warning - it's long, so you can feel free to skip down to the driving sections if you wish): https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-palermo-caltanisetta-siracusa-taormina

Just as an added comment to my previous post, I checked prices on Kemwel at the same time for same class of car and it was more expensive than AutoEurope. If you rent $0 deductible from Hertz and have a claim, there are no additional charges; Europcar will charge about €65-75 as an administrative fee.

Thanks everyone. I will go with full coverage just to have peace of mind. I am not worried about driving in Sicily too much, Just worried about leaving Palermo, getting to the parking area for Ortigia, and navigating to the dropoff at Catania. The rest should be Autostrada or quieter roads.

"Just worried about leaving Palermo, getting to the parking area for Ortigia, and navigating to the dropoff at Catania"

As I said, leaving Palermo from the Hertz rental location was not hard. A few turns on un-busy local streets (the streets in this area are on a grid, so it's easy), and we were set. My friend said leaving Europcar's location (near the train station) was also easy. Again, just use a map and make sure you're avoiding the old center, which you don't have to drive through to get out of town, and you'll be fine.

Ortigia is also easy. When you cross the bridge from the mainland, there are large signs directing you to the parking areas. They're all in the north of the island, before you hit the ZTL. We used Parcheggio Talete instead of the others (our Airbnb owner advised it - I forget why, but it worked fine). From the northern tip of Ortigia where the parking lots are, to the southern end of the island, is about a 20 minute walk. If you're getting to Ortigia outside of the ZTL hours, you can drop off stuff at your accommodation before parking the car. Note that the Ortigia ZTL hours are different from typical ZTL hours, since it's to prevent excess traffic on Friday nights and weekends, rather than the workday as in most other places. So, unless you're arriving on Friday night or a weekend, you can drive into Ortigia, even if you can't park there.

The drop off at Catania airport was actually harder than either of the other two. There's one lot for Europcar and Hertz, with a tiny sign, and there's one lot for all other companies with a big sign. Since we missed the sign for Hertz, we had ask at the other lot; they spoke just enough English to show us so we could circle around to it. My friend had forgotten the next year, and had trouble finding that lot again. When you see the airport, you'll see how small an area we're talking about - but they still managed to make the Hertz/Europcar lot hard to find!