Travel to Sicily from Italy

Rome to anywhere in Sicily is a long trip by train. Flying is most expeditious. Easy Jet, Ryan Air, Vuelng all offer service. Fly from Rome to Catania for eastern Sicily and Palermo for western.

There are three airports in Sicily. Catania (CTA) in eastern Sicily is the largest and has the most service. Palermo (PMO) in the northwest is second largest. Trapani (TPS) in the west is smallest, and is served mostly but not exclusively by budget carriers.

Rome has the most service to the Sicilian airports (when I was looking for April and May 2014, Alitalia alone had 9 flights a day from FCO to PMO and 11 a day from FCO to CTA). Milan and Naples also had a good amount of flights. However, there are flights from almost all the mainland Italian airports once a day to Palermo and once or twice a day to Catania.

So, you have lots of options with both your departure point from the mainland and your arrival point in Sicily. You can use Skyscanner to find options, then book directly with the airline: http://www.skyscanner.com/. As said above, unless you're already in Calabria, flying saves many hours and is definitely the way to go. And you will probably want to start in Catania and end in Palermo or Trapani, or vice versa, to avoid backtracking while in Sicily.

Note that the fares are reasonable if you snag advance purchase discounts, but as these cheaper tickets sell out, the price goes up (sometimes substantially), so book as soon as you know your plans. Also note that Alitalia allows one checked bag with your ticket, while some of the budget carriers don't, so it can be cheaper in the end. If you're booking with Alitalia, use their International site (English language option) rather than their US site, as prices are much lower this way.

Last month I had an excellent and low-priced one hour flight from Palermo to Naples on Volotea Airlines. I assume the reverse direction would be just as good. For some dates, purchased well in advance, their fares are very low indeed. Their carry-on allowance is less than on flights from the States to Europe, so I knew from the get-go that I would need to check a bag. Paying to check a bag was only 15 euros when buying my ticket, but would have been considerably more if paid when checking in on line or at the airport.

Sicily is Italy (Quirite hasn't posted yet). From the mainland, I find it easier and cheaper to fly. If you go by train, you can buy a ticket from Rome or Naples through to your destination in Sicily - at Villa San Giovanni, the train will be loaded onto the ferry (one carriage at a time with you and everyone else on it) for the crossing, then hooked back together to continue to your destination.

Fly. Two of the budget airlines with routes between Sicily and the mainland are Meridiana and RyanAir. Offhand I don't remember the others, but there are. And you aren't limited to Rome or Naples. I flew into Palermo from Rome and then from Catania to Bologna.

Easy Jet also flies from Rome. Try www.skyscanner.com to se a variety of airline results.

We used AirOne (Lufthansa) from Rome to Palermo....on the way back, we took an overnight ferry from Palermo to Naples. (We were moving on to explore the Amalfi coast after Sicily.)

Both ways are easy. The ferry at the time was less expensive and we enjoyed the boat ride at night---didn't waste daytime hours, and basically had a hotel for the night for the cost of the crossing.

Thanks to all for the input. I will check out the options that you have suggested.