sicily

I'm sorry, but I have to say this: I would not go to Sicily just for a week unless it was for a special reason, such as to track down my family heritage. The island needs at least two weeks, and that presumes you'll be renting a car. Sicily is large and has many great destinations that are scattered all over. Rick has a new guidebook out that covers Sicily. Take a look at it and you'll see what I mean.

There is no central point that would work well because of travel time from the center of the island to most of the key destinations. You can use ViaMichelin.com to estimate driving times if you plan to rent a car for part of your trip. Keep in mind that ViaMichelin's estimates do not include stopping, getting lost, traffic delays, looking for parking, or walking from your (possibly inconvenient) parking place to what you want to see. Buses would be a lot slower. Trains are very limited and not particularly fast.

From an atmosphere point of view, Siracusa (the medieval Ortygia section) was my favorite city in Sicily. There's an attractive archaeological park and museum, but I think folks really interested in classical ruins much prefer Agrigento, Selinunte and Segesta, which are nowhere near Siracusa. Siracusa works as a base for seeing some very nice Baroque towns in southeastern Sicily: Ragusa (would also be worth an overnight), Noto, Modica and Scicli.

The city with (by far) the largest number of go-inside sights in Palermo. It has a major archaeological museum, a couple of lively food markets, and many lovely (and varied) churches and chapels. The cathedral in Monreale, just outside Palermo, is magnificient. The former fishing village of Cefalu, now very touristy, is an easy train trip to the east. You should definitely not plan to drive in Palermo, but a car would be handy to get to Monreale on your way into or out of the city. However, there is bus service to Monreale if you don't want to have a car at all.

Catania has a nice historic area with a cathedral. There's an interesting food market, and there's a WWII museum that I unfortunately missed. You could side-trip to Taormina (beautiful, expensive, mind-blowingly full of tourists). Few people would choose to base in Catania, though I stayed there for several nights and would certainly choose it over Taormina. (Others would most definitely disagree.)

Catania is close to the airport. The main sights in Catania can be seen in a day as they are close together. I don’t think Catania is a pretty city with a charming atmosphere. One can go visit TaorminaI and Mt. Etna as day trips. I feel Syracusa has more sights to see and is much more charming. Nearby is Noto, Modica, and Ragusa; each is worth visiting.

Hi. This past summer we visited Sicily for just three nights, and chose eastern Sicily. Given the limited time, we planned to only see three destinations: Siracusa (Ortigia), Taormina, and Catania -- along with a private tour of Godfather movie sites near Taormina. We then left Catania via train for Naples/Sorrento, which included a ride aboard the only ferry train running worldwide. For us, this worked out well. (I realize this was a fast look at just a small part of Sicily: that was our intention: we loved it and might be back for a longer, deeper experience.)

Given it's central location and proximity to airport where we would be arriving, we chose to spend the first two nights in Catania, and the final night in Taormina. On our trips we almost never do a one-night stop, but in this case it went well.

1st night: Landed in late afternoon, and traveled to Catania hotel (from Rick Steves guide).
2nd day/night: Visited Catania fish market. Then took bus to Siracusa and visited Ortigia. Rode train back to Catania and had dinner.
3rd day/night: Checked out of Catania hotel and took bus to Taormina. Stayed in hotel in the main part of town, a 5 minute walk to the amphitheater. Visited amphitheater, did Rick Steves town walk, and then in mid-afternoon did the private (just us two and a guide) Godfather tour. (Unexpectedly good, though I am no Godfather aficionado). Back in Taormina by 7pm.

The next day we caught the train from Taormina to Naples.

The people we met were very nice. For example, at the Catania fish market a few of the retired gentlemen who spend their morning viewing the market while perched on a pedestrian street overlooking the market offered us their prime positions when we two tourists walked up. Then, after we left the market on foot along an early-morning mostly-empty street, an elderly gentleman walking to the market stopped and greeted us, and asked us (in simple Italian) if we liked his city; he smiled when we said we were really enjoying Catania, shook our hands, and went on his way.

We were happy with Taormina, and also happy we just stayed one night. Paying to stay in the main part of the town itself near the amphitheater was well-worth it for that one night.

We spent a week in Sicily and focused on the eastern side. We spent three nights in Taormina, two nights in Ortigia, and two nights at an Agriturismo near Ragusa. We flew in and out of Catania. Sure, more time would be great, but we only had a week, and everyone had a wonderful time. We had a car, but kept our driving to a minimum, and we feel like we got a good feel for Taormina and Syracusa.

This will be my 3rd year in a row spending a full week centered in Ortigia (just off of Siracusa). There are things to see and do around the area that you can accomplish with day-trips by train or bus or on foot. Ortigia is a beautiful island with amazing walks, food, local culture and beautiful sunrises and sunsets! Truth be told: I'm extending my trip by more than an additional week this year because I want to see Agrigento and Palermo.