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Sicily Decision - One night in Ortigia or Taormina?

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I am arriving on august 27 to catania - arriving at 11 am. ITA. Hoping it arrives in time….

Renting car at airport - stopping at villa del Casale to see mosaics (about an hour touring?) and then continuing on to Valley of the Temples where I’ll be spending the night. Hope to get the museum and valley of the temples in that night - or very early next morning before heat is overwhelming.
We are staying at villa la lumia within the site. Seems like a great place!

I check out next day and am not sure where I should go as I have that day and one more night before making my way to Mt. Etna and spending two nights there.

Ortigia? Taoramina?

Something else?

Before all this will be in Rome, Venice and Florence so am looking for non-city hustle and bustle.

Posted by
27053 posts

I vastly preferred Ortygia to touristy, boutique-filled Taormina, but the latter is beautiful and some folks love it. However, one night isn't really adequate even for Ortygia alone; there will be no time for the charming baroque villages/towns in that corner of the island.

I assume you plan to hike around Etna; otherwise, I believe you have way too much time planned there.

I think you'll find an hour inadequate (probably significantly so) for the Villa Romana. I have no idea about a reasonable time allowance for the drive on to Agrigento; if you haven't already done so, check ViaMichelin.com for a driving-time estimate.

Posted by
6502 posts

When we drove to Agrigento we departed from Sigonella, just south of Catania. We stopped at Villa Casale where we spent a couple hours. We arrived at our B&B in Agrigento later in the afternoon. From it we had enough time to walk to the Temple of Vulcan. On the way back we happened to come across the Giardino della Kolymbethra. After the drive we didn’t feel like visiting the main temples on the same day, since it would have been dark by the time we finished. The next morning we walked to the valley via a path from the B&B through an olive grove and spent 3 hours looking at the site (the time we left the B&B until we returned).

The roads to get to Agrigento are poorly marked with regard to which road you are actually on and we came in from a different side of town than I planned on. Ensure you have a GPS or other way to navigate.

With regard to Taormina or Ortigia, I agree with acraven. Taormina is nice, but if you’re there when the cruise ships are in, it’s wall to wall day trippers. Our trip to Sicily was in late September into early October so it got darker a little earlier.

Posted by
258 posts

"Taormina is nice, but if you’re there when the cruise ships are in, it’s wall to wall day trippers."

THANK YOU!!! This is invaluable advice. We will be in the same area in September. I just checked, and on one of the days we will be there (staying in Scicli) there will be 2100 passengers from two ships docking in Siracusa. So check both Taormina and Siracusa! Here's the website I used:
https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/giardini-naxos-taormina-port-148

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