Sicily Trip

We did this tour last year and loved it!!!! There isn't a lot to do in Palermo that the trip doesn't already cover, we also came early and toured the cathedral, the opera house, and the palace and enjoyed it. If your flying through Rome you could stop off for 2 days and visit things you haven't seen in the past like Ostia Antica or day trip to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.

We took an extra 3-4 days at the end of the trip and flew straight to Milan and took the train to Varenna at Lake Como and spent 3 days with no agenda, just enjoying the beautifull scenery!

The Sciliy trip is truly a "backdoor experience", you get to make cookies with a lady who is a legend in Italy, visit a countess and tour her home, make pizza with a master chef, visit a vineyard and learn from the owner how to make wine and the views from Taormina are simply amazing.

I arrived a few days early for my Sicily tour and never ran out of things to do. My favorite sight was the Norman Palace and Cappella Palatina, but plan your visit carefully as the chapel has shorter hours than the palace. You could also consider a day trip to Cefalu (under an hour by train), not for the beaches at that time of year but for the Norman Cathedral. I'm not sure how extensively Rick's new Sicily guidebook covers Palermo and Cefalu, but consider supplementing it with the Lonely Planet guidebook if it too closely mirrors the tour activities in Palermo.

The Botanical Gardens are worth a visit. Its walkable from the Ambasciatori, if thats where you are staying. But then, just about everything is walkable from there.

I have read about a Sicilian cart museum in Terrasini that I want to visit. Terrasini is very close to Palermo so I think it should be easy enough to catch a bus there. I have not been there yet so cannot speak from personal experience but I am going to Palermo in September and came across it in my research and hope to visit. Have any of our forum readers been there? If so, what did you think?

Check to see if there are any operas at Teatro Massimo on your extra days, or maybe some other type of live performance at one of the other theaters.

If you are more adventuresome, maybe consider a daytrip to either Caccamo or Castelbuono.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, the rooftop dinning area at the Palermo Hotel is simply amazing, get pictures during the day and then come back at night and with the lights of Palermo you get a totally different perspective.

Take a streaty food tour.
https://www.streaty.com/city/street-food-tours-in-palermo/

DD

I really liked Cefalu. While you can day trip by train from Palermo, it's better as an overnight.