Eight days is not enough time to see the 3 places in Sicily so I would not suggest taking a day to go to Malta unless you absolutely have to see the Caravaggio. It is spectacular but there are Caravaggios all over the world.

Agrigento is worth a night but not more if the choice is between Syracuse or Agrigento. Personally I found Palermo fascinating (more so than Syracuse). I spent 4 days in Palermo and could have stayed longer.

Between Palermo and Agrigento are the small towns of Tripani and Erice which are interesting.

From Syracuse you can visit the Baroque towns.

If there is any way to increase your time on Sicily I would do so.

You can search trip reports for yourself by choosing Italy from the country list and scrolling to the bottom to see all the trip reports for Italy. People normally put Sicily or a Sicilian town in the heading.

You might want to take a look at my trip report; click on my name to find it. Part of our travels could obviously be shortened so that what we did (minus Erice?) could easily fit in 8 days.

Thank you Adrienne & Michael... yes, I'd planned to read your trip report, Michael, and a couple of others. And we appreciate hearing specific guidance about Malta, and time in Syracuse vs. Agrigento.

There is no Syracuse vs. Agrigento issue. These are two completely different areas, and neither should be missed. I think that the ruins of Agrigento are more important than the ruins of Syracuse, but the museum of Syracuse is definitely worthwhile, and Ortygia (part of Syracuse) has little to do with Greek or Roman ruins.

It takes more than 8 days to see Sicily---we did 15 days and still did not cover it[ click on my name above for TR]
I would plan 3 destinations and Palermo would be one for sure.

<< There is no Syracuse vs. Agrigento issue >>

The OP wanted to know where to spend more time. It's not a question of seeing one or the other.

Hi jmmcmanus,

It doesn't sound to me like you are trying to see all of Sicily. Don't know how that came up. And I disagree you can't see Palermo, Agrigento and Siracusa in 8 days. Obviously you won't conquer Palermo unless you stay 3 months, but it sounds to me like you are a focused sightseer.

Is there any chance you could fly into Malta first, or are tickets already bought? If not, I would probably fly to Palermo and tour it, fly out of Palermo to Malta, fly back into Catania and rent the car from there, see Siracusa, see Agrigento, drop off car at Palermo airport.

However, if you are thinking "less is more", then something has to give. I took my first trip to Sicily and spent 7 days, knowing I wouldn't see everything and cut out Palermo (except for gawking at Monreale at its edges and getting beach time on Mondello -- which I think is an ugly beach, and would generally tell people not to look for beach time in Sicily).

So everybody takes they trip they want to -- and should! I'm glad I cut Palermo, bobthenavigator didn't want to, adrienne has different ideas. There is no "formula" for Sicily. Trust me. Pick what you want to see at the pace you want to go.

I don't know why you need to make decisions on hotel options if you trip is in May. Booking.com has lots of options with good cancellation policies.

Also, jmcmanus427, as someone who has oftens traveled over hill and dale and crossed many bodies of water just to view one specific work of art, it has never failed to be rewarding, it has always been enlightening, and it has always repaid the effort. That doesn't mean you should go to Malta this trip. That's up to you. You should arrange this trip in the best way it works for you, which may mean not going to Malta. But the fact that there are Caravaggios "all over the world" is a million miles wide of the point. There are greek ruins in other parts of the world, most everything you can find in Palermo you can find someplace else -- I mean really. There are all kinds of ways to travel, and traveling to see something specific that has meaning for you is, in my book, so much better than marching off to view other people's lists of "must-sees."

You might enjoy reading this if you haven't already, even if you don't make it to Malta

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/apr/06/caravaggio-in-malta

http://www.pauldoolan.com/2010/11/its-300-p.html

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/oct/25/empathy-caravaggio/?pagination=false

We spent two weeks in Sicilia, and then other 4 days in Malta. As you understand, I would not avdise you to include Malta in your trip, because in my opinion, you have not enough time to visit Sicily.

We loved Palermo, we stayed there, and visit (by bus or train) from there Monreale (not to be miss), Erice and Cefalu.

Then we moved to Taormina, with its splendid Greek theater, pittoresque streets and views. By bus we went up to Castelmola, from where you can see how beautiful Taormina is.
We took a day organized trip to Piazza Armerina and Agrigento. It was a long day, but having a guide with us, we save a lot of time and received interesting info about what we saw.
I strongly recommend a visit to Piazza Armerina, with its unique mosaics.

Then we moved to Siracusa (Ortigia), visit them and made a day trip to Noto, which is a very beautiful baroque town.

You can read my trip report about this vacation, maybe it will help you.

> My wife and I are planning a late-May '13 trip from the US to Sicily

Gorgeous time to visit Sicily! The wildflowers should be in bloom and the weather reasonable. See if you can find bobthenavigator's spectacular photo-journal.

> Flight plans call for us to arrive in Palermo late Friday afternoon, and we depart Palermo on the following Saturday on a noon flight back to Milan

Have you considered an open-jaw flight?

Also, do consider making time for Monreale's cathedral - truly magnificent IMHO, and unlike anything else I've ever seen.

> A big question, too, is whether this amount of days is enough to make a trip to Malta worthwhile.

Of course it depends on what you want to see and experience, but IMHO, no! You'll have enough trouble figuring out what to skip in the part of Sicily you plan to see. But of course, if you really want to see Caravaggio's Beheading on this particular trip, that would change the scenario substantially.

> Caravaggio's Beheading is one of the main reasons we'd want to go

Then I trust you'll make it a point to see his Burial of Saint Lucia in Siracusa.

> Siracusa or Agrigento ... which of those two towns would you spend more time in

I chose to spend less time in Agrigento (maybe about 20 hours, including overnight) than in Siracusa (2 full days, including nights, just for Siracusa/Ortigia, and not counting Noto which I visited after leaving Siracusa). But that was for my interests, which are probably not quite the same as yours.


Of the half-dozen or so guidebooks I used when planning my trip to Sicily, I thought the Rough Guide most useful for my purposes.

Enjoy!

Sicily is definitely bigger than you might think. Hard to cover a large chunk of it in eight days, but I agree that if Malta is a must-do, you should try to fly to Malta and then to Palermo.

You could then spend 2 days in Palermo, then drive to Agrigento and see the ruins in the late afternoon/evening - very beautiful at sunset and not so crowded - stay the night, then up early for the unfortunately ugly drive to Ragusa for lunch, then to Siracusa for two days, then to Catania and up to Taormina/ Etna, departing out of Catania.

Would not spend more than one night in Agrigento.

I warn you it will be a lot of driving, not all of it pretty and some of it, especially near Siracusa at rush hour, maddening.

But . . . totally worth it. Sicily is glorious. Enjoy.

May in Sicily !


http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/showgallery.php?cat=3828

Thank you all for the specific and general guidance! Among other things, you've given us ideas as well as a dose of excitement. I enjoyed going thru bobthenavigator's pics and we'll take under advisement suggestions about not overdoing it. After I read the trip reports, I'll be back with a specific question or two, possibly, but for now, I'm glad to have heard from you all.