Visiting Sicily Off Season

We visited in December 2012, on our own. Are you planning on renting a car, rather than using public transportation? Looks like Rick's Tour itinerary includes a lot of what we saw, but some of the additional highlights of our trip, in the interior, included a stay at the argirtourismo featured in Rick's video from long, long, ago, where we spent Christmas Eve to December 26, at Il Vecchio Frantoio ( www.ilvecchiofrantoio.net ) , as well as the not-to-be-missed capitol of Sicilian chocolate (and a wonderful town in its own right), Modica. There's also the ceramics and tile town of Caltagirone, with a long, impressive tiled staircase going thru the center of town. Some of these might be backtracking on your tour, and I don't know how much time you'll have before meeting the group in Palermo.

We will not have a car. We will be in Palermo for four days before the tour starts.
Cyn, thanks for your suggestions, as we suspect we will be back, especially for chocolate!

We actually picked up our rental car at the airport, west of Palermo proper, and never set foot in Palermo . . . so we need to return, too, for another trip! :)

Sorry that I can't offer any personal Palermo suggestions. Have a great trip!

http://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/palermo-i-si-p.htm

Cefalu makes a nice side-trip by train if it's not on the tour itinerary.

Palermo itself has nearly uncountable lovely old churches and oratorios (private chapels). They vary a lot in style, so visiting a bunch isn't really repetitive.

If it sounds of interest, there's a antique/flea market that fills a couple of blocks up near Palermo Cathedral and is mostly open on the weekend. Just something I ran into.

Thank you, Agnes, for the tourist attractions. Looks great. Thanks Acraven for the Cefalu suggestion. Have heard or read quite a bit about it and don't think it's part of the tour. Laura, my wife's reaction to the flea market is that I would have to "take away her credit cards!" Sounds like a "done deal." Thanks a lot.

We are on an off season Sicily Tour in November also. I am contemplating Caccamo, located between Palermo and Cefalu, for the Norman castle and views. (Lonely Planet Sicily p 118.) The Cappuchin Catacombs in Palermo are a must for me. Have you looked on the website under pre tour suggestions that are not covered by the tour?

If you are interested in food tours, I can recommend this one-http://www.streaty.com. Or I am sure you will be able to find others (google, trip advisor?) if the weather isn't conducive to outside exploring while you are there. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour; ate well, more than enough food and had a wonderful, personable and informative guide. We were there in March, just before the RS tour. BTW, it's a terrific tour! Oh, and by the way, a visit and chocolate tour in Modica was an unexpected treat during our tour!

Thanks for your good suggestions, Carolyn. We have looked at the non-tour suggestions, but find the "forum followers" suggestions to be often better. Andi, if Sicilian food is to be better understood and enjoyed, this four hour tour of your link looks very inviting! You can't over indulge in 4 hours, can you?

HA! No! But I do suggest that if you decide to take this, or any other food tour, do not schedule it for the same day you will meet with your tour group and have yet more fantastic Sicilian food with the tour group! We made that mistake on the Adriatic tour in Ljubljana.......Lesson learned! This tour was also an excellent walking tour and not the same places you'll see on the RS scheduled walking tour.