We enjoyed fabulous weather the second and third weeks of October on the northern side of Sicily.
-Flew into Palermo from Rome via ITA. The ITA lounge in Rome was nice for jet lagged midwesterners.
-3 nights in Palermo at Airbnb close to Quatro Canti. Enjoyed the top sights in RS GB, especially Palatine Chapel and Santa Caterina church, bakery, quarters and rooftop. Took an "anti-mafia walking tour" (not in RS GB!) which unfortunately wasn't very engaging.
-Trained to Cefalu, about an hour. 2 nights at another Airbnb. The gorgeous weather (sunny, mid 80's), the sea, the ancient small city all contributed to a real vacation vibe. Loved swimming. Picked up our rental car in Cefalu, a smooth process.
-Drove about 2 hours to Scopello, a small former fishing village and now tourism. 4 nights wasn't enough! Stayed at Pensione Trachina and thoroughly enjoyed our lovely room and wonderful 4 course meals every night. Thanks to the RS Forum members who recommended Pensione Trachina, what a gem! Scopello is close to the southern trail head of Zingaro Nature Preserve Coastal Trail. We hiked on this trail for part or all of three different days, for us it was challenging with magnificent views. Swimming in the tranquil sea at one of the beaches along the trail was great too. Also day tripped to the Ancient Temple of Segesta/Greek theatre, incredible. We had planned to day trip to Trapani/Erice, however were captivated by Zingaro and hiked instead.
-Visited Monreale Cathedral en route to the mountain town of Castelbuono. Monreale is spectacular, however our route leaving Monreale to Castelbuono ended up taking us into Palermo traffic-big mistake. At one terrifying moment while merging I found myself looking in the eyes of a goat through the windows of the hatchback of the car in front of me!
-2 nights in scenic Castelbuono. In retrospect, those two days would have been better spent in Western Sicily. Driving in the mountains was do-able however with one hairpin turn after another, it was tedious, so my day trip to Polizzi Generosa (anyone else read "The Stone Boudoir"?) didn't happen.
-4 nights in Randazzo, at the RS GB recommended Parco Statella. Our accommodations were very nice and breakfast on the patio each morning was lovely. Another entity runs the restaurant located at Parco Statella and after trying it the first night (OK), we decided to try the other GB recommended restaurants with good results. We visited Etna from here (a good hours drive around the mountain, to the entrance, plenty of hairpin curves), explored Randazzo and nearby Castiglione, and found some nice hiking by a small Alcantara river gorge and in the hills in the northern side of Etna park. Randazzo is in wine country and since we didn't particularly want to visit a vineyard, probably not an ideal choice for us. Luckily the weather was gorgeous and the hiking scenic, so we were happy.
-Visited the WW II museum in Catania on our way to the airport and rental car return. A great museum, however driving in Catania traffic to get to it, and again to get to the Catania airport, was crazyintense.
-1 night in Rome before flying back to USA in the morning.
Clearly, this itinerary had some back tracking, however I've learned that picking up a rental car at the airport in a jet lagged state isn't the best plan for us. This way we could train to a smaller city to avoid driving in congested areas...or so I thought! We found driving in Sicily does take some nerve and very focused attention. "See less and enjoy it more" is our traveling motto, so we did miss many big attractions, such as Agrigento. The constant dramatic beauty of Sicily, whether manmade or natural, was incredible. We hope to return!