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Sicily or Tuscany villa stay

Posted by (Watertown, MA, USA) on

My family will be going for two weeks to Italy in May and we'll be one week in Rome and then another week either in Tuscany or Sicily. My parents like to stay places for a long time rather than move around a lot. It will be all adults (ages 28-65) and we're pretty active. I am wondering from people who've been to both places what are the things we should keep in mind when deciding between the two.

All but one of us have spent a week in Florence and a week in Rome in 1999, but never been to Sicily. We like food and hiking and some of us like shopping and cities. Some of us like the idea of sitting around and doing nothing and some of us hate that idea (me).

Thanks for the input!

Posted by
2456 posts

A week in either Tuscany or Sicily in May sounds wonderful to me, you can't go wrong. Having a car would be ideal in either place. Without a car would be possible but you'd need to think carefully about where you base yourselves to be able to get around, mostly by bus, day tour or even taxi. In Tuscany there are of course many hill towns, wineries, abbeys, and scenic areas to visit, plus Florence, and it is easy to get there from Rome. Sicily is more distant, meaning either air travel from Rome, or a long trip by train or other means. Sicily is more spread out, you'd need to think through where to base yourselves, but it sounds like somewhere in the east where you could enjoy Taormina, Siracusa, Etna and maybe Cefalu and Catania might be best, although the various excellent Greek ruins would be pretty distant. What a terrific choice to have to make! Buon viaggio!

Posted by
1501 posts

Since most of you have been to Florence, I'd recommend Sicily! After multiple trips to Italy over the last fifteen years, we finally went to Sicily and absolutely loved it.

We based ourselves in Beautiful Taormina and used Legendofsicily.com for accommodations. We were very pleased. An apartment or Villa would please everyone, as you can take a lot of excursions out of Taormina, like Mt. Etna, Syracuse, a winery (Gambino Vini) and others may just enjoy wandering Taormina or 'sitting around doing nothing' (not you)!

There are a lot of direct flights from Rome to Catania or Palermo. The last time we arrived in Catania, got a private car to Taormina, stayed 6 nights, then took the regionale train to Cefalu (stayed in Hotel le Calette, jaw-dropping beautiful view), and then on to Palermo for several nights. However, with just one week, I'd stick with just day-tripping out of Taormina, and flying round-trip out of Catania.

Legendofsicily.com provided us with the transportation to/from the airport and also the tour services as well as accommodations.

Happy Travels! If you want more specific info, you can PM me.

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