Sicily and stopping with a car along the way

I would advise caution, having read the same warnings as you. I was advised the same in Puglia, and I took the chance (also in Tuscany, and in Marche). I also did the same in Greece, but I have read enough anecdotes about Sicily that I'd be more cautious--particularly at Selinute and Segeste. It's super annoying to have to worry about your dirty *&^%! clothing, but I tend to take my favorite clothes and shoes on vacation, and it would ruin a short vacation to lose everything, particularly if you go to rural places where it will not be so simple to just buy new clothes.
Hiding the items, etc. is of no use--these gangs have devices that simply pop a trunk and you won't even know until you open your trunk. The only way to be sure is to work your itinerary so you drop luggage, even when it is inconvenient.

You will be fine at Selinunte and Segesta. I'd have all the luggage in the trunk (if available) PRIOR to arriving the parking lot. My personal opinion is you do your best and then go with the plans, otherwise, whats the point.

We had a car for about 5 days. We parked and left it at Villa Romana, the small cities around Ragusa, Valley of the gods, Selinunte and Segesta. No issues. The car was parked on a city street over night in Ragusa.

Can’t speak from personal experience, but a friend of mine stopped at a viewpoint in Italy (sorry, don’t remember exactly where) and when they got back to their car it had been broken into. Laptop and passports gone. They spent time at the embassy.

I agree with a lot of people who say it's never a good idea to leave anything, visible or not, in a rental car when you're not in it. But, that's true for here too. Rental cars identify tourists, who have stuff. And always keep your passport on you. Replacing a stolen or lost passport is a real pain in the butt, and in Sicily, you'd have to go to Rome to do it. If you stay in Trapani as a home base, you can day trip by car, train, or bus to Selinunte, Segesta and Mazara del Vallo. Not sure about Zingaro, but that's not hard to figure out.

We live in Connecticut and visit NYC often. I take caution even at my blue-collar suburban home and when visiting New York. The only time I had my car broken into was in Hollywood Florida. The would-be thieves were just vandals who got nothing because we did not leave anything to steal. Would you leave any valuables on the seat of your car at your home? We toured many towns and cities in Sicily by car and did not ever feel vulnerable. This can happen any place. We loved driving in Sicily. Go and Enjoy! Ciao

Lorie

It's Puglia that has a (quite deserved) reputation when it comes to cars theft and break-inns, not Sicily. On the other hand, the single worst attraction in Italy from this point of view is Pisa. There they have arrested two gangs from Eastern Europe "working" by the Tower in the last five years, but they keep on coming. I'm saying that you may never know where/when it can happen.

All over Italy everyone will know you are a tourist, rental car or not. And thieves take their chance even when nothing is visible from the outside. Break, check, walk to the next car, repeat: You can do five cars in five minutes this way.

Thanks everyone. Where I live I do not leave anything obviously in the car, after my brief bag was stolen out of my car at church while picking up my daughter from choir practice. There were some people targeting churches and parks for awhile in our community.

But I do not worry to leave items in my trunk which is my concern in Sicily. I did find it interesting that Puglia is worse than Sicily but that some major tourist sites in the north are major targets.

It does seem that leaving nothing is safest route. Doing that will likely eliminate some stops we otherwise could make. So some trade offs it seems.

The only time we left luggage in our in Sicily was at Villa Romana Casale in a very large parking lot. There were tour buses with their drivers standing outside plus a man we assumed was a guard. Nothing bad happened there.
We were robbed in Chile, including passports, and wasted a day returning to Santiago to get new passports at the Embassy, a very efficient process once there. You can download and print forms, fill them in ahead of time.

I’ll start by saying we had no problems. We had luggage in our vehicle when we stopped at Villa Romana Casale, Lido Rossello, Selinunte, the salt farms at Marsala and Trapani, and Caccamo. Of the places you mentioned I’d research Mazaro del Vallo. Due to time constraints we ended skipping it, however, back in 2018 crime had increased due to the large number of migrants from North Africa that went/settled there. At the Marsala salt farm there was a self appointed parking attendant who asked for 1€ to watch over the car. We (he and us) all knew he was self appointed and joked about it, but he was nice about it and we gave him the Euro just to be on the safe side. In Marsala our vehicle was parked on the street overnight, but had nothing in it.

I would say that is never a good idea to leave your stuff in the car anywhere. If I had to look at my own personal statistics I would have to say that California is much more dangerous than any region in Italy, since our family cars were burglarized 6 times in California (last time in Alameda, California in Aug 2021) and never in Italy (including Sicily or even Naples). Although the car of a friend of mine had the trunk opened in Riomaggiore in 1982, and the thieves decided to steal my bag only. I wouldn’t take risks with anything of value that you wouldn’t want to be shared with the “local community”. Take valuables or important docs with you, and if you don’t mind the possibility of losing some of your clothes, take everything out of the bag and scatter it all over the trunk. Don’t make it easy for them to grab a bag with all the contents. If you can back the car against a wall or tree so that it is not possible to,open the trunk, do that too.
Statistically, the top 5 provinces with the highest rate of car theft are the provinces of Barletta, Naples, Bari, Foggia, Catania (in this order). Catania is in Sicily, but 3 out of the 5 are in Puglia. There were 393 car thefts per 100,000 people in Catania in 2021 (561 in Barletta).
If it can be of any solace for you the car theft rate in the SF Bay Area was 1,161 per 100,000 in Oakland, 589 per 100,000 in San Jose, and 480 per 100,000 in San Francisco. So even Sicily seems to be safer than where I live. So if you come visit our California beaches, leave the bags in your hotel and carry only a wet suit (you will need it to get in the water around here).

as some have pointed out sicily and generally italy is no more prone to crime than any other country/city. i lived in los angels for 33 years and felt more threatened there than i ever feel in italy. even in quiet little winston-salem there have been several 'shots-fired' incidents near our campus. i think sicily gets a bad rap due to a certain aspect of its history and how the people and the region are represented in the media. in 2021 i was walking around the balaro market in palermo and a local person pointed out that my camera bag was open. i encountered similar acts of kindness and empathy all over the island. in catania my airbnb host drew a circle on a map and told me to avoid the area. i did. as an obvious tourist, leaving your valuables in a car is never a good idea. take the usual precautions and the rest is up to chance. enjoy your trip.

Sicily get a bad reputation because some think the Godfather part 2 to be a documentary. It's rather like trying to learn something about New Zealand watching the Lord of the Rings movies.

Nevertheless car break-inns do happen in Sicily and tourists are targeted more than locals. It's the kind of crime, from thieves' point of view, that makes little money but costs even less years.

Thanks for the additional perspectives. I know in my home state of Florida tourists in rental cars were targeted so much that now rental cars must not have any identifying marks to signal they are.