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Sourthern Italy and Sicily Itinerary March and April/24

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Hello. My husband and I are travelling to Italy March 26/24 and returning on April 26. We'll be flying in and out of FCO in Rome.
After a lot of back and forth we have decided to concentrate on Puglia, Sicily and Tuscany region. We've been to Rome, Florence and Venice on previous trips so we want to explore some new territory.
We'll be driving and we like exploring less busy areas and towns and like to get the local experience. I've come up with an itinerary and would love to hear if there are any suggested changes.

Mar 26- arrive FCO- drive to Ortona
Ortona- 2 nights
Monopoli- 3 nights
Lecce- 3 nights
Consenza- 2 nights
Tropea -3 nights
Taormina-2 nights
Agrigtento- 2 nights
Ragusa- 3 nights
Scilla- 1 night
Sant'Agasa Sui Due Golfi- 3 nights
Montepulciano area Agritursimo- 3 nights
Lucca - 2 nights
Tivoli- 2 nights

I know this sounds like a lot of driving but we do enjoy the road trips and the unexpected gems along the way. However, I would like to maybe stalonger in one area if possible. Just don't know what to cut down on. Maybe ,Amy of the Tuscany area towns and wineries could be accessed from the Agriturismo and cut out Lucca?

Any advice would be appreciated .

Thank you!

Posted by
249 posts

We love to self-drive too and had a great trip to Sicily in September, 2022. This is how we spent our days there:

  1. Arrive Catania drive to Taormina via Castelmola
  2. Etna wineries loop (highly recommend Emilia Sciacca Etna Winery) back to Taormina
  3. To Ortigia
  4. To Ragusa via Noto
  5. Ragusa - Modica - Scicli - Ragusa
  6. To Agrigento via Villa del Casale
  7. Agrigento
  8. To Cefalu’
  9. To Palermo via Monreale
  10. Palermo
  11. Depart from Palermo

We enjoyed staying two nights in Taormina and in Ragusa. For us, one day/night was enough to explore Ortigia as we were not interested in Siracusa. Modica was our favorite of the small towns we visited. We drove early morning to Villa Casales then on to Agrigento which worked out great. There we spent the afternoon wandering in the —very hilly — old city. Next day we drove by the Turkish Steps on the way to a beautiful sandy beach. Late afternoon we went to the archeological museum at Valley of the Temples which we then toured at sunset into the evening. It was magical. Monreale Cathedral was a worthwhile stop and we enjoyed Palermo. The only miss was Cefalu. We found it extremely crowded, touristy and, overall unwelcoming. Driving through the beautiful countryside was a pleasure. The one place you do not want a car is Palermo. We returned the car immediately on arrival there. Typically, we do not make return trips but would return to Sicily in a heartbeat.

Posted by
22 posts

Thanks MMI for the input on Sicily. Your trip sounded amazing. Do you have any advice/ input on the ferries? I'm trying to figure out fi you need to prebook the ferry trip or just show up and buy the tickets there?

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