I am in Sicily now and here is what I found for travel (other than renting a car)
- Trenitalia (website or app) is good about giving train schedules. The problem (in January) is that in some cases a train from point A to point B might be 3 hours at 7:30 am, and then 6 hours at 11 am. Or there might only be one train a day for certain routes. So they work, and they honor the European rail pass (*), but not very convenient. Also on the train from Catania to Siracusa, there were two armed policemen who were walking back and forth, on the small train of 3 cars - not sure what is up with that.
- Update : some trains honor the rail pass. I took another train from Siracusa to Taormina, and apparently it was a Intercity Train, and everyone had assigned seats. She told me it was 3 EU for the reservation but she let it slide. Its kind of strange because I have taken intercity trains between Austria, Germany, and Switzerland and never got a reservation without issues. On the Trenitalia app, the regional trains indicated by R or RV seem to be completely no hassle. Its a pretty subtle different in the app - slightly different tiny logos.
Interbus (blue busses) is one of the main bus lines. A trip from Syracuse to Palermo is 3 hours compared to 5-6 on the train. Also you can take the blue interbusses from Syracuse to Noto and other smaller places (less than an hour each way and about 3 eu a trip). In Siracusa, you buy bus tickets on the bus, or better is that there is an expresso bar across the street from the park on the same street, where they have a mini-ticket office ... a guy sitting there at a desk in the expresso bar with some money changing stuff.
http://interbus.itAST (Azienda Siciliano Transporti) runs a lot of white buses. They seem to be more common but possibly shorter trips. In Noto, some other tourists missed their AST bus, and had to buy a new ticket on the Interbus ... it was the last bus of the day any 3:50 pm.
http://www.aziendasicilianatrasporti.itFrom the Catania airport to central train station is Ali-bus (also blue). 4 euros for the trip. Note that the alibusses are not located where all the other busses are - they are sort of on the other side of the terminal. There are some signs in the terminal near the roof that says "alibus" with an arrow.
In Catania, the busses operate near the train station, or across the highway from it. But in Siracusa, its about 1/3 of a mile between the train station, and a green park area which serves as a bus terminal for both AST and Interbus.
Car Travel - I didn't rent a car, but I did spend hours in the front seat of a bus, or on the street myself. I noticed that Sicilian drivers are pretty courteous to each other and allow people to cut in. Also pedestrians just march out in front of cars and the cars stop. I didn't hear any honking or cursing at all.