Sicily pre-tour ideas

I always go for the simplest plan with the least travel, but it’s appealing in May, too: I’d get to the island and recover somewhere easily reached from Palermo—whatever looks interesting to you that is not included on tour.

If you’ve never been, Naples has some great sights and proximity to Pompeii and Herculaneum. Then it’s a quick plane ride to Palermo.

We spent one night in Palermo at the same lodging at the front end of the RS tour in 2024 and that was very good for us. Not sure why you would choose to stay at a different hotel. The RS folks can let you know the hotel name for YOUR tour well in advance. We flew from SEA through FRA on Condor with a short layover to Palermo. Arrived at the hotel (Hotel Ambasciatrori) right about check-in time.

Our RS tour began Easter Sunday in the afternoon, so we had the benefit of Easter morning, hours before the tour began, to wander the city on our own and to go into a couple of churches for Easter morning services. Tour groups were not permitted entry for Easter services.

Another couple on the tour spent 2 nights in Cefalu beforehand and they had a great time. If I recall correctly, they also went on to Malta after the tour.

We also spent about 2-1/2 weeks in southern Italy (mostly Puglia and Campagna, ending with Naples) after the RS tour.

FWIW Our TR is at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/southern-italy-30-days-three-ways-to-travel

What about Rome? Alaska now has a non-stop flight from Seattle to Rome.

When I arrive early, I often look for a city that has non-stop flights from my home airport as well as non-stop flights to the first city on the RS tour. I often spend a couple of days in London before flying to the start city. When I took the Sicily tour, I flew nonstop to Rome and then spent a week in Tuscany and Rome before flying to Palermo.

We actually added 4 days on at the beginning of our tour and found lots to do in Palermo. We did the evening Streaty Food Tour which was excellent, and the No Mafia Tour which talked about how they reduced the Mafia’s influence and the judges that took it on. I wish we had known to watch for the obelisk on the way from the airport to town commemorating the spot where one of the prominent judges and his wife were blown up in their car by the mafia. Additionally we did an English tour of Teatro Massimo and also a timed-entry for the Norman Palace. One day we climbed to the top of Santa Catarina for the all-encompassing view and took a HOHO bus around town.

The tour hotel was full, so we stayed at B&B Delle Vittorie (which we loved) and just walked to the tour hotel the morning of. Our Streaty Food Tour guide taught us how to cross the streets without panicking.

Find out where exactly your tour will take you in Palermo --- I bet there are tons more things to see and do. It's a great city for just walking around in.

Here's the Palermo part of my March/April 2025 Sicily trip report:

Palermo 5 nights.

We really loved Palermo, even more than we thought we would, and we now think another 3 or 4 nights would have been a good idea. We could have eaten even more of the best pistachio and the best espresso gelato we have ever had (rather than subtle and creamy it was intense and with crunchy bits in it, like Palermo itself). Dolce Capo was the great pistachio gelateria.

Our apartment’s neighborhood was perfect for us, easy walking distance to everything we wanted to see — a 5 minute walk to the southwest got us to the Cathedral (whose eclectic exterior was incredible, but we didn’t go inside or up onto the roof).

We both enjoyed the Palazzo Abatellis art gallery (Triumph of Death, Gossaert’s Malvagna Triptych, Antonello de Messina’s Annunciate Virgin) even though my husband is, after many years of keeping me company in art galleries and churches, inclined to skip the art stuff now. One experience we loved there was when some young Italian students on a school field trip practiced their art appreciation lecture on us about the Gossaert. In English. https://www.wondersofsicily.com/palermo-abatellis-museum.htm

The Ballaro and Vucciria markets were OK but there were way too many people taking photos and restaurants trying to entice you inside, few people actually doing their grocery shopping like we were.

We ate great local food, especially street food, but our favorite very casual place was Trattoria Trapani near the train station.

Husband went to the opera. The timings of the operas in Palermo and Catania, plus the town we wanted to visit on Easter Monday, is why we had to crisscross the island the way we did.

We had visited the Monreale cathedral in 2001 but wanted to go again and spend as much time as we wanted. If you go, see if you can find the four rabbits hiding in the otherwise geometric designs in the mosaic floors in the church. Really happy that we made this return visit — we especially loved the cloisters (new to us) with all the strange, amusing, and often not obviously religious carvings on the column tops.

https://www.wondersofsicily.com/palermo-monreale-cloister.htm
We liked eating at Osteria Peper’s in Monreale.

The Baroque fountain in the Piazza della Vergogna (nicknamed “Shame” because of the nude statues) had a high fence around it, so it was hard to see all its cool details. We’re always glad that Italy is restoring its art treasures but always bummed when we can’t see stuff because of it.

We went to the Palazzo dei Normanni and its tiny Palatine Chapel right when it opened at 8:30am — the royal chambers are only open on Fridays and the weekends (when the parliament is not in session). And the cruise ship and other tourists crowd the chapel starting about 10am.

If we went back to Palermo, we’d see: Palazzo Chiaramonte Steri and its food market painting by Renato Guttuso, the Martorana (Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio) mosaics, the Museo delle Maioliche Stanze al Genio, and the Church of Santa Caterina d’Alessandria. Also the archeology museum (we should have gone, but I was excessively put off that only the first floor was open).