Our plan-
Arrive Venice 5th April 2025 stay 30 nights.
Train to Salerno 5th May, stay two nights
Train/Ferry/train to Catania Sicily, stay 6 nights
Train/ferry/train to Ostia Antica stay two nights
Fly out from Rome 15th May to Australia.
Flying with Etihad, who don’t service Naples.
Venice is locked in, we have spent a week in Rome and Naples on previous trips, and never visited Sicily.
Comments would be welcomed, especially regarding Salerno.
Catania is not the prettiest city in Sicily. You can take a bus from the Catania airport to Siracusa/Ortigia. Ortigia is an island just off SIracusa and very atmospheric. Lots to see and do and great restaurants. You also have the option to take some interesting day trips. You might look at Noto.
I think it is amazing you will be in Venice for 30 days! Will you be doing any day trips? It would be a long day trip, but Verona and Paduva are wonderful cities to visit.
I will be staying in Salerno for a couple nights in February. You will be able to go to some of the Amalfi Coast cities from there. There also is Greek ruins in Paestum for a day trip.
I love Venice (spent 9 days there in 2022 and 13 days there this year), but if I had the amount of time you do and wanted to go to Sicily, I'd spend a bit less time in Venice in order to allow for a more comprehensive visit to Sicily. That would mean at least 2 weeks in Sicily with a rental car for part of the time (the transportation network is a bit thin) or somewhat longer if you want to depend totally on public transportation.
I agree with Jules that Catania really isn't a great base in Sicily unless it's one of at least 3 (ideally more) places you're staying. My priorities would be Ortygia/Siracusa and Palermo.
Personally, I wouldn’t take the train to Salerno and then train/ferry to Catania. Sicily is a large island with a lot of very interesting sights. I would fly from Venice to Catania and increase the time in Sicily. Also to see the island, you should hire a car and don’t forget your International Driver Permit.
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I agree with recommendation that you should fly from Venice to Sicily but also think you should fly back to Rome. You should spend time you save in Sicily. We had 16 nights did not see it all even with a car part of the time.
I agree with others that Catania would not be my first choice of location. On the east coast we stayed in Taormina, Siracusa (Ortigia), and Ragusa. We really enjoyed all of them and they are very different from each other.
