Sicily or mainland Italy

That is a very broad question.

I suggest you do some research on guidebooks (paper or online) to help you decide between Sicily and mainland Italy. You can also use resources on this website, like the section about Italy and also the tours, even up just to see the places tours tend to go to.

Once you decide, you can give us more detail, like when, how many nights, transportation (rental car, public transportation, or a combination of both) and specific questions. You can also use the search function above to find stuff in this website including past posts from others.

I am a hiker and have hiked all over Italy. Hiking is not a major tourist draw in a lot of places. I don’t think that you need to settle on Sicily to avoid tourists so that you can hike without company as there are so many regions all over Italy that are amazing to hike in.
Cinque Terre is not one of those places as it was discovered many years ago.
Look into the Abruzzo region, the Dolomite’s,
Tuscany (avoiding the main tourist towns) Chianti, Basilicata, and yes, the Amalfi Coast. Not many people go there to hike! Pick a place you have never heard of and you may be surprised.
Edit- None of my trips have been in the summer only in the off season.

We went to Sicily after we had visited most of Italy. It was a nice change and we have returned there several more times.

What time of year are you considering? We’ve now been to parts of Italy several times, and places with more visitors have changed over time. Three earlier trips that included Venice were all fantastic, but it sounds like Venice has now had to take lots of measures to manage overtourism. Tough to get a lot of excitement to go back, although if you’ve never been …

We also first went to the Cinque Terre back in 2001, and it was magical. Going back 20 years later, in October, not exactly the height of tourist season, it was absolutely mobbed. I certainly wouldn’t go in July or August, and probably will never go again. Again, if you’ve never been there even once, you may feel differently.

Rome, Florence, and Naples are justifiably popular, but can be quite crowded as a result. If you’re looking for places not overrun, here are some suggestions:

Sicily - we first went at Christmastime in 2012. Western parts, including Segesta and Erice, were fabulous. We also stayed in Agrigento and it wasn’t mobbed. Same with Caltagirone and Modica. The amazing ancient mosaics at the Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armarena are a must-see in Sicily, and there weren’t many people when we were there in the off season, but walking from the basically empty lot where we parked the rental car to the actual Villa site involved passing lots of shuttered-up sheds and huts, which I suspected were souvenir and food stands in the high season. I can only imagine how crowded it would be in high season. when the parking lot is full of cars and tour buses, and all those shacks are doing a brisk business.

An island alternative to Sicily would be Sardinia. We went there in April 2024, and stayed to the south and west sides. Delightful, with an ancient history dating before the Romans and Etruscans on the mainland. Highlights included Bosa, Sant’Antioco, and the capital, Cagliari, as well as Nuragi archaeological sites.

Another option could be Sicily and mainland, but stay south. On that Christmas trip, after we’d toured some of Sicily, we made our way to Taormina (close to Mt. Etna) for one night, then caught the car ferry at Messina on Sicily to Reggio Calabria on the mainland. We rented our car (from Europcar) at the Palermo airport and worked our way counter-clockwise through Sicily, then after to ferry to Reggio Calabria, went north through Caltagirone (highly recommended), the Greek ruins at Segesta, Salerno, and to Sorrento, where we turned in the rental car. From Sorrento, you can visit, Naples, Pompeii, or potentially climb Mt. Vesuvius, by car or train.

Another possibility is some distance south of Cinque Terre, in the Bolgheri (Super Tuscan) wine region. We’ve taken in-person and Online cooking classes from Chicca Maione, originally from Naples, who settled into her place by the Tuscan coast, in Castagneto Carducci. She rents out apartments above her home, and we’ve done a lot of hiking in the area. She also does wine tasting tours, or can recommend places to visit on your own. Her Website is https://cookingintuscany.cc/casa-toscana/

Last, we visited Puglia, the heel of the Italian “boot,” this past fall. Stays included Lecce and Martina Franca. These weren’t crowded, especially later in the year. It appears this previously “undiscovered “ part of Italy draws lots of people, maybe mostly other Italians, to beach and seaside destinations over the summer, but we were more inland. We’re going back again this fall, and plan to so some hiking in the Gargano National Park, where we haven’t yet been.

Popular bucket list destinations are unsurprisingly crowded during the April-October travel season. Cinque Terre is near the top of those destinations. Just travel offseason or choose different places and you'll find things much less crowded. But as Roberto said, which of those quieter destinations is best depends a bit on you, personally.

You could find everything you mentioned in Abruzzo, which is closer to Rome than the others, and far less packed with tourists...

Italy is very popular, but for a first time visit, I strongly recommend the big three, Venice, Florence and Rome. Cinque Terre is possible if you have two weeks.
Save Sicily for another trip. It is interesting, but The big three are special.

Recommend you do some research. I suggest using TripAdvisor.com to check things to do in. _______.
Examine the key things to do and decide what you want to see.

Venice is special because of its history, it was founded by people in the late Roman Empire, moving to Venice, to escape barbarians invading Italy. Venice was a world power for 13 centuries. A city with few streets and many canals.
Florence has the renaissance covered as well as two fantastic art museum.
Rome has ancient Roman stuff like the Coliseum, Forum, Pantheon and more as well as St. Peter's Basilica that took over 150 years to build with Michelangelo as its second architect. The Sistine Chapel is so amazing that you won't want to leave. The art is very special.

I tend to agree with geovagriffith on this. I did a Sicily tour earlier this year and loved it. But that was my ninth trip to Italy since I first went as a college student long ago. I don’t think Sicily is the best choice for a first trip, for several reasons. It’s a big island with its major attractions fairly spread out. The transportation system, while not terrible, isn’t as efficient and comprehensive as it is in northern or central Italy. While many visitors rent cars because of this, that isn’t how I like to travel in Italy and I wouldn’t recommend it for a first trip. The other alternative is an organized tour, which is what I did for the first time in Italy, and it was a good choice for Sicily. And I think the cultural differences between Sicily and other parts of Italy are best appreciated when you have a basis to compare. It’s true that the “big three” are very heavily visited, and have been for centuries, which can be an annoyance and require some planning, but do you really want never to see the wonders of Venice, Rome or Florence because many others like you also want to see them? The big 3 are big cities and can handle it, although Venice is admittedly challenged as are some sites and neighborhoods in the other two. I do think there are places in Italy which are so unbearably crowded that they are undesirable at some times of the year, but they are smaller locales such as Cinque Terre, Varenna on Lake Como, Capri and Amalfi coast, and Taormina in Sicily.

Save Sicily for after you have visited most of Italy. Yes, tourists have discovered Sicily but that shouldn’t
stop you from visiting it. For a first timer, visit the eastern side of Sicily which has more to offer than the western side.

Can anyone explain why it is so significant to see “the big three” on one’s first trip? I’m approaching ten trips and I’ve still not seen them. I get that some may find this tragic, but I’ve got plenty of years left and I’d never trade seeing the many other places I’ve experienced Italy. OP has not returned to the discussion, but I’ll really die on this hill that it does not matter where you go on first or fifteenth trip. Especially when someone has expressed trepidation about crowds…

The OP said that “most places we’d like to see (in Italy) would be overrun with tourists.” While they don’t specify further what those places are, it’s reasonable to think they likely include the “big three.” Assuming that, they want to go, but are deterred from doing so by that concern. It’s not really a question of first trip or fifteenth, because if that’s a reason not to go now, absent some worldwide disaster, it will always be a reason not to go, because crowds in those places are not going to be any less in future years than they are now. So some of us are encouraging the OP not to abandon desires to see places like that just because they are popular— as they are popular for good reason, being three of the most amazing cities for art, culture and history not just in Italy, but anywhere in the world. But certainly, there is no law saying a tourist to Italy must see them.

OP and Valdelphia.

Why the Big 3 - or why not - depends perhaps on why you want to go and what themes you may want to explore.

Art?
History? What era?
Religion?
Nature?
Food?
Wine?
Hiking?
Scenery?
Music?

The crowding is a big detractor and getting bigger in many places … not just Italy. Prague in late August 2018 was far more crowded than I expected.

Our first Italy trip was in late Sept. 2003 (not counting childhood travel for me) did include “the big three,” but Renaissance art was our main theme.

Yup, there’s a lot of art elsewhere, too … sculpture by Pisano in Lucca and Pisa, Giotto’s Scroveigni Chapel in Padova, an interesting sculpture by Michelangelo in Siena, da Vinci in Milan, Signorelli in Orvieto, Caravaggio in Naples, as well as Siracusa on Sicily.

But so much of the Renaissance is brilliantly on display in churches in Rome and Florence and Venice, as well as Florence’s Uffizi and the Accademias in Florence and Venice.

In 2026 or 27, I’d only do the big 3 in winter months from what we’ve seen in Italy in May 2015 and April 2023 and from what I’ve read here. Or, I’d go elsewhere in Italy as Valdelphia does (and as we did in 2023) … and I’d avoid other “hot spots” like the Amalfi Coast or Lake Como.

I pretty much agree with the above. I think that if you do all of the "big three" on the same Summer trip, you are maybe setting yourself up for exhausting disappointment.

If you can't travel in the offseason, maybe do 50/50 split between the major cities and smaller towns. Save one or two of those BigThree for your next trip.

And yeah, outside of Cinque Terre and a few other popular hikes, trails in my experience are pretty uncrowded. I assume you have AllTrails?

We visited the Val D’Aosta back in 2018, which is a hiking skiing paradise, among the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Remote up in the northwest corner, charming, and less touristed than even the secondary places in Italy.