Safety & Crime in Sicily & southern Italy

I'm not real sure what you're calling southern Italy, but to me (at least culturally) it's something south of a wiggly line between Naples and a bit north of Bari. I'll take that part of the country over anything Rome and north in a heartbeat. My wife likes it so much that on one trip we split up for a week - - I went hiking in Wales and she knocked around the Gulf of Taranto alone. She speaks no Italian, but apparently she did okay. Scily is another story. That place is great, no ifs ands or buts. Every part of it. As far as dirty and grubby: it's dusty in the south of Italy, but that's just the climate just like southern Spain and Portugal. Years ago I was in Naples during one of the really big garbage strikes and it was a mess in spots, but greatly exaggerated from what I'd expected. If it were ten times what I saw then, it wouldn't keep us from going back since it's actually one of our favorite cities - - probably our favorite in the whole country to the point that we guffaw at the recommendations to stay in Sorrento and do day trips. Shoot, we stay just south of Garibaldi, wander around until all hours, and have a ball. Crooks I don't know about, having never seen or met one. I suspect that they're exaggerated as well.

Bob, "don't worry...be Happy!" Sicily, in the spring is just absolutley awesome! Don't miss it! We were wading in the ocean one mid May. You can combine the trip to Sicily with a stay in the Sorrento area. Stay in Sorrento (very clean and friendly!), and explore the wonderful Amalfi coast, then take an overnight ferry to your vacation in Sicily, or fly on one of the lo-cost inter EU airlines (that you can find on Whichbudget.com) from Naples to Catania or Palermo. Yes Naples and Palermo can be a litttle gritty, but they should not be missed. Do a day visit to each. Crime? Say what? No more than any other place in Italy. Purse? What? No way does my wife take a purse to any place in the EU.....she relys on other more secure devices. I am in my mid sixties and am not afraid to venture anyplace in Italy; and I speak no Italian. One year we did a trip to the "heel of the boot"; Puglia. Sucess, to us, was not seeing any other Americans, and just imersing ourselves in the local culture. We prefer to use local transportation in the Sorrento area, and loved the freedom of a rental car in Sicily. If you can drive in rush hour in Seattle you can handle driving in Sicily (well, exept maybe Palermo...what a zoo!)
We take along our GPS and a Michelin map of Italy/Sicily, and do just fine. We prefer the Lonely Planet guidebooks to cover areas that Rick does not. Oh, and one more thing. Find some Agritourisimos to stay in while in Sicily. Lots of fun, and a great place for local advice. Research some of Alistar Sawdays and Karen Brown's pics, or check out any that you can find on Trip Advisor. We always use Trip Advisor to vett any possible lodging choice.

We have stayed in Naples and Sorrento and visited Herculano, Pompeii, and the Amalfi Coast. Naples has more garbage in the streets than any other Italian city we have visited. Although most posters here will advise against Naples we stayed there three nights and enjoyed our time there. The people there were very friendly and helpful which helped us to tune out the dirty streets. Luckily we did not see any crimes. We also are planning a trip to Sicily in the spring and although we have read that it might also be dirtier than other areas of Italy, that will not stop us from visiting and enjoying the sights, food, and history.

We have done 2 trips in the last 2 years going around Naples, the Amalfi coast, the "infamous" circumvenusia(?), Palermo, and driven throughout Sicily with no issues what so ever. As the other poster said, the people have been a delight to meet and to deal with. Yes, 2 years ago there was a garbage strike in Palermo, however, we have experienced the same in Amsterdam, and this march, both Naples and Palermo were pretty clean. Sicily( I think) looks its best in March and early April, with the countryside brilliantly green and the hills covered with wildflowers and not with tourists.
It is a shame that Rick has so little on Sicily, however, we used DK's "Top 10 Sicily" as a guide. I'd say go now before its discovered.

Bob, I've found that while areas such as Naples can be a bit "gritty", that's not going to stop me from visiting as it's so interesting and somewhat of a contrast from the north. As Rick often says, "the culture becomes more intense as you venture south". The pickpockets there are among the most proficient in the world, as documented by Bob Arno. However, there are equally proficient scammers in Milan, Barcelona, Rome, Prague and other cities in Europe. I watched an interesting episode of Scam City on T&E Channel this morning, documenting the situation in Barcelona. It's possible to watch full episodes on the net at www.travelandescape.ca/shows/scam-city/ (may not be available in all areas). If your Wife is really worried about "safety" in that part of Italy, you could consider the RS South Italy tour which covers an extremely interesting part of southern Italy which includes Alberobello, Matera and the Gargano peninsula. Staying in a "cave hotel" in Matera was somewhat of a unique travel experience. That would provide some degree of "safety" while also taking care of transportation, which isn't as well structured as in the north. I haven't yet visited Sicily, but will be on my next trip, so I'll have more details to offer later. If you want a glimpse of another side of Italian culture, I would highly recommend venturing south of Rome, either on your own or with a tour. Happy travels!

Thanks to everyone for their replies! For myself, I'm not so worried about safety, as both my wife and I are pretty savy travelers (i.e. we know how to use a money belt and tend to be aware of our surroundings, etc). But I am a bit concerned that the so-called "grittiness" could distract from what could be a great vacation (unlike a lot of people here, we don't get much vacation time and don't have a lot of money, so it's very important we get the absolute most out of our time overseas). In other words, I wonder if the bad (i.e. the trash, poverty and seediness/gritiness/whatnot) is enough to damper our enjoyment of the good things (i.e. food, people, attractions, etc.).

'....I wonder if the bad .....' NO!!!!!

"I wonder if the bad......." NO!!!!

Bob, One other thing I forgot to mention..... Given your home location, you and your Wife might consider taking a leisurely drive up to Edmonds one day and have a chat with Rick's travel experts. You could check with the Tour department, as some of them also lead tours in that area (hopefully Heidi will be in the office that day). You could also pay a few bucks and get a personal consultation, which would answer all your questions and perhaps put your mind at ease on the "safety & grittiness" issues. While there you could also go through the MANY Guidebooks in the Library (free and open during business hours). Cheers!

We don't have a lot of money either, and the way we manage to travel is by renting apartments, and have been to Italy, Spain, France and because we have family in the North of Italy we have been to Italy many times, either arriving in Milan (don't do it any more, because there's nothing there I want to see) or arriving in Rome, which I love more every visit. Finally went to Sicily and it was the best trip of my life!! We rented an apartment in Taormina, which we loved, and hired an inexpensive local guide who took us to Mt. Etna, a Sicilian vineyard, the "Godfather Town" whose name I can't remember. The highlight of our trip was a visit to a local farm which was owned by the cousin of our guide. We rent apartments because they are so much less expensive, and we love the option of eating lunch out and dinner in, just enjoying the view, or doing whatever we like! Try this website: magicofsicily.com We found these people to be the best we've ever rented from, and had the trip of a lifetime on a budget. Still haven't gotten my Northern Italian loving husband south of Rome on the mainland of Italy, but he loved Sicily and we're going again!

@Donna, "the "Godfather Town" whose name I can't remember." Are you thinking of Corleone (Cunigghiuni in Sicilian). Cheers!

The Godfather wasn't filmed in Corleone, as one might think. It was filmed in the Sicilian villages of Savoca and Forza d'Agro.

You can find several videos of Palermo on YouTube. These will give you a pretty good idea of what the scene is like there. We've been there and our only harrowing moments were when we were driving there (which we did, and survived). It's lively, crowded, colorful, and decidedly untouristy compared to northern Italy. We drove all over Sicily and it was one of our favorite trips.

Max, Exactly what we've been thinking! If poverty is an issue, instead of calling it gritty or dirty, just tell us "you'll probably pass several homeless people on your walk to the resturaunt/museum/etc." or, like you said, "little children will ask you for money everywhere you go". If cleanlines is a factor, then just say "your bathroom will remind you of a gas station toilet". Tell it like it is. No one pulls punches when they're telling you about certain sections of New York or New Orleans, for example. So why all the carefully worded, non specific phrases when it comes to international travel? When it comes to specifics, we've heard about garbage on the streets in Naples, and.......that's it. Everything else is just described as "gritty".

We are in a similar situation in that we are also planning our second trip to Italy and thinking about heading south this time. It's frustrating how all the guidebooks and videos use terms like "intense" and "gritty", but they don't say specifically what they mean by that. We're getting a lot of euphamisims, but not a lot of specifics about what it's like there. For instance, our National Geographic book on Sicily says Palermo is "not for the fainthearted", but doesn't say what they mean by that. Are we going to be surrounded by poverty, graffitti and little kids begging for money? Are the buidings, sidewalks and other structures crumbling or in some other state of total dissrepair? All we hear is that its "gritty". We feel like these books are trying to tell us something (like, to not go there), but don't want to come right out and say it.

Max, you can get some sense of it by using Google Maps Streetview. But in general, by "grittier" they mean poorer and dirtier than northern and central Italy. You'll definitely be surrounded by graffiti, but that's true of most of Italy. Graffiti is after all an Italian word.

We visited Sicily 5 years ago. We were in Palermo for 2 nights and really enjoyed the city. It was difficult driving out of the city-next time I would consider getting to the airport and driving from there. Palermo was very interesting-regarding specifics for "gritty", etc., one thing we saw were buildings that had never been repaired from the damaged of WWII. so there were literally ruins in the middle of where we were walking. But it didn't feel unsafe, depressing, etc. and we never saw children begging like we've seen in Mexico or India. I don't even remember if there were the usual Roma/gypsy beggars that you see in Paris, etc. the people were incredibly nice. We actually had more than one shopkeeper warn us about keeping our purses close to us to avoid pickpockets. I've never been warned in Rome (where we've had two pickpocket attempts), but again, to us, it did not feel unsafe or threatening. The only thing I did was be sure that we ate dinner close to our hotel, so as to avoid walking too far at night. I was taking to heart some of the warnings-but I need to keep stressing that WE never felt unsafe. We spent the rest of our week in smaller cities and found them to be like small towns all over Italy, in other words, wonderful. We would go back to Sicily in a heartbeat. It was a completely different experience, a very enjoyable one!

Hi Bob; I have been to Sicily twice and it is absolutly beautiful. The whole south of Italy is poorer than most of the north and has received loans and internationa and EU aid later than much of the rest of Europe. So you can expect beautiful resorts, ruins and museums and above all hotels. The cities themselves can be more crowded and a bit less maintained than what you may see in the north. The Sicilians take a lot of pride in their towns and they are not really trashy. The tourist areas like Taromina, Cefalu, Manarole and Seracusa are pristine and well cared for. Yes the high rise housing and the suburbs can be basic and dusty. The trains are like the rest in Italy and the buses are very good and up to American standards for the most part. I never saw any beggers. You always have to be careful of pickpoctets in the usual places. Sicilians are a bit more reserved than southern Italians. Yet show interest in a local festival or saint and they light up. The food is fantastic. Alas Sicily has become the playground of Northern Europe and it is not that cheap. My favorite places are Saracusa and Ortiga(sp).
If you are into Greek ruins You have come to the right place.