I'm trying to plan a two week trip through Sicily and I'm having trouble figuring out how much time to devote to spending in the various Baroque cities in the southeast (and perhaps more importantly are which are worth adding to the itinerary or do they start getting repetitive after a while). Here's what I'm thinking thus far:
- Noto: Half day as a day trip from Siracusa; the other half possibly spent exploring Marzamemi, Villa Romana del Tellaro or Portapalo di Capo Passero?
- Ragusa: Overnighting there, and thinking a half day is enough to explore.
- Are some of the surrounding towns around Ragusa eg Comiso, Modica, Scicli, etc also "must sees"
- Caltagirone a few hours perhaps on the way to Ragusa or out of Ragusa. My wife is crazy about ceramics and pottery so this is a
must see on her list.
- After that we're heading west and seeing Villa Romana del Casale and Agrigento
- Are there any other "must see" towns, drives or sights in the area?
Caveats: we'll have a car, are fit late 40's and not into museums, we're more into exploring beautiful churches, towns, and landscapes and we tend to move fairly quickly. This is our 5th trip to Italy and by that time we'll also have spent a considerable amount of time in Siracusa and Taormina and will ultimately end up in Palermo for a few days.
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7049 posts
I spent 4 full days in this region and it was way too tight (I did depend on trains and buses which made some trips a bit less efficient). Siracusa deserves the most time - I would say at least 2-3 full days (I spent more than 4 hours just at their archeological museum, which was excellent). Ragusa is prettier IMHO than Modica and the two are quite similar, so you can trade off one for the other. I would give Ragusa at least a full day especially if you want to walk from the upper to lower town (very steep and takes time). There are literally countless churches you can visit along the way. Scicli is very small, and Noto can be seen in a leisurely half day. If you have a car, then maybe 5-6 days or so would be enough for you. If you like to just whizz through, then maybe 4 days would be enough - it was too much of a crunch for me and I'm a go-all-day-non-stop type except very long dinners.
Lonely Planet was my resource for this area. I just bought a $5 PDF chapter just of that region and it worked out great. Yes, the cities do look similar in architecture but there are slight nuances which I really enjoyed. I wish I had more time there than I did, and traveled more leisurely but it was a side trip from Malta (so both were shortchanged in the end).
If I had a car, I would also consider visiting some nature reserves that I couldn't get to by bus/train.
Posted by
WA State
3961 posts
After a guided tour of Southern Italy/Sicily we extended time on our own based in Ortigia. We spent 5 nights and hired a guide to drive us to the baroque towns of Noto, Ragusa and Modica. It was a lovely day trip but only gave us a brief glimpse of the area. Highly recommend spending time in this historic area.