Sicily in September

Erice as a base for day trips, up that steep, winding road and down for day trips? No. Better to stay in seaside Trapani as a base and do days trip to Erice, Segesta, etc.
Definitly visit Agrigento( stay overnight near the temples, not in the city above) then drive to Siracusa, stopping for a few hours in Piazza Armerina at Villa Romana Casale on the way. The Valley of the Temples is a MUST SEE!
For Siracusa, stay on Ortigia Island, visit the Greek Theater in Siracusa, also a Baroque town as a day trip if you can tear yourselves away from Ortigia. We were there a week and dound it hard to leave.
Mt.Etna is a better day trip from Taormina or Catania.
Fly out of Catania(CTA.)
Or reverse this whole trip, drive first to Ortigia heading west ( much shorter drive from Calabria) and take your return flight out of Palermo. I d not see any time for Palermo. Is there a reason to skip it? The Cathedral outside of the city, Monreale is one of the world’s most beautiful churches.

After arriving on Sicily I would reverse the order of your trip, visiting the east coast and then traveling to the west, leaving from Palermo. In Siracusa stay on the island of Ortigia from which you could spend some time visiting Catania and Etna. I would then make the trip from Siracusa to Scicli and Modica with an overnight in Ragusa. From there to either Piazza Armerina or Agrigento for another night before driving to Erice. You might want to end your trip with two nights in Palermo visiting Monreale on the way. That way you’ll shorten your driving time by not having to double back.

On Ortigia visit the Caseificio Borderi for the best sandwiches in Italy and a heck of a show in their creation. A unique, inexpensive dining experience!

I’m curious why you’re flying into Calabria, as opposed to Palermo? That would definitely be my first piece of advice: fly into Palermo. Second would be what others have said about Erice. It’s a great day trip, but not somewhere to day trip from. Trapani is Greta for that. For your Syracusa leg, I would recommend staying in Ortygia.

Scopello instead of Erice, for base.
Catania airport is the biggest in the area and frankly not much further from Gerace than Lamezia Terme.

@Philip, we are flying out of Catania as it has nonstop flights to Venice which I prefer.

@April, we are flying in to Calabria to visit Gerace, where my husband’s grandparents came from.

@Suki, we decided to skip Palermo. There is so much to see in Sicily that something had to go. Hopefully we will return.

Will Erice be THAT bad to stay there? I know it is a winding drive but it would be so nice to have the view and be in such a great old town.

Yes, I think Erice would be a bad choice for a base. It’s a nice day trip but we were ready to leave after a couple of hours. Should you be there during cloudy or rainy weather, you will have no views.

I also agree that Trapani would be a better place to stay compared to Erice, and that it would be nicer to stay on Ortygia instead of the town of Siracusa.

Syracusa is about 45-50 minutes drive from Catania airport just so you have an idea. Stayed in Erice for 3 nights in September and after driving up the hill, we decided not to move the car and only took a day trip to Trapani. As already stated, Trapani would be a better base if you want to take day trips. In my opinion, the Marsala salt pans were much nice than the Trapani ones. Both can easily be seen in a morning since they’re not that far apart. Both are in somewhat remote locations but not terribly hard to find. The Roman villa at Piazza Armerina is worth a couple hours at most. I would stay in that town at all. We stopped and saw the Roman villa driving between the Catania area to Agrigento. I’d spend the night in Agrigento and see the Valley of the Temples (which only took 3 leisurely hours).

As an alternative to driving all the way to Erice, stay in Monreale to see the Duomo, then stop and see Segesta on the way to Erice. That would save having to double back to see Segesta that is about a 45 minutes drive from Erice.