lreynold1

We just arrived home last night after a 20+ hour trip from Palermo to small town Illinois. Up at 3:30 am, what better way to while away the jet lagged hours than to start my trip report.

In mid-August, my husband and I (he is 75 and in good health, I am 65 and in good health) bit the bullet and decided to visit Sicily in October. We had the time, we've wanted to go for years, and the pieces all seemed to fall together. The forum was a HUGE part of this trip's success. Here's a link to my pre-trip agonizing and planning, in case that helps you see how it all came together. http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-itinerary.cfm Your help was amazing, and I can't thank everyone here enough for their patience and their opinions.

I will probably follow the style of the reports I relied on so much and provide a day by day summary with recommendations, high and low points, etc. But I also wanted to start with some general comments and observations. Helps me to gather my thoughts as I sit here still kind of bedazzled by the glory of it all.

WEATHER: October is a terrific month to travel to Sicily. Our experience may be unusual but we had nothing but warm sunny days. We had one few hour rain segment (the skies opened while we were in the archaeological museum in Palermo and then the sun came out -- we had seen the weather report and planned our day to be inside for the rain) and some misty/foggy hours of our Erice trip. The temps were warm, and I am so glad I threw in a pair of shorts and my Chaco sandals -- I didn't put my shoes on till the trip home. I would estimate daily highs in the low 80s, night temps in the mid-high 60s. I'm glad we traveled before the time change, because losing that extra hour of daylight would have been a pain for us.

CROWDS: By far the busiest place we stayed was Taormina. There was one big cruise ship in the harbor each of the days we were there. But they tended to congregate along the long Corso with all the shops, so we easily avoided them since we are not shoppers. Restaurants were sometimes busy, but we never had a reservation in any place we went. After Taormina, I would say we saw a few bus tours usually at the main sites, and a fair number of obvious foreigners like us in most of the towns both day and night, but nothing even bordering on crowded.

CAR RENTAL: We booked through AutoEurope and I am very glad we had the full coverage option. When we picked the car up in Siracusa, it was double parked on the main drag of town, cars honking, lots of chaos, so we just took the car and left. Big mistake. We should have inspected it as we usually do because it turns out we had a few problems when returning it to Palermo. There were scraped on the right front, which I am sure I did not do, and a big bubble in one of the tires, which I have no idea about. But I am very glad we had no blowout or anything else. My total coverage will take care of the damage, with the exception of an "administration fee" and some taxes on the repairs. The woman in Palermo's EuropCar office told me that the usual fee is 90 euros, but AutoEurope must have a deal with them because we would only be charged 50 euros plus whatever those taxes turn out to be. All in all, we feel very lucky with the way it all turned out. We got a good price and had no problems with the car, so we consider that fee our "Sicily surcharge.".

I have rented (and owned) cars in Spain and Portugal and have never had an International Drivers Permit, those folders issued by AAA. Based on reports on the forum, I decided it was such a trivial expense, I would just go ahead an buy it to be more secure. No one ever asked me for it. I asked the guy in Siracusa about it and he said that an official US drivers license is all they require. I'm not saying that people shouldn't buy one, it did give peace of mind, and I would probably go ahead and buy one again for another driving trip in Italy.

DRIVING: Thanks to you guys, our driving experience worked beautifully. We arrived in Catania and had a driver waiting for us. That was the first time I've ever exited the airport and looked for my name on a piece of paper, so it was a new experience. 75 euros, quick and easy ride to Taormina. We took the bus from there to Siracusa, and picked up the rental car at the end of our days there. Then drove counterclockwise till we got to Palermo, where we dropped off the car and took the bus into town. Getting back to the airport (gosh, was that just yesterday), we had an 8 am flight to Rome and had the hotel arrange a driver -- 50 euros well worth it for the few extra minutes sleep it provided!

We had a GPS with Italy maps, but also had bought a good old style folded road map. We had a few "challenges," and an occasional twenty minutes spent following our GPS voice as she took us around and around through small alleyways and impossible to navigate one way streets, but those moments were few. I was very careful to plan our hotels/B&Bs in places that were not located in (but very close to) the historic centers, so this made for a very stress-free arrival. I think that it is important to have a hard copy map as well as the GPS. There are many different ways to go from Point A to Point B and the GPS doesn't always take you on the main roads. There were several times that we ignored the voice and went on what looked like the more major road on the map. A couple we met in Piazza Armerina found that their "Sat Nav" (I'm assuming that European-speak for a GPS??) took them off onto dirt roads, frequently leaving them befuddled about where they were going. They also wound up with a flat tire at one point as their GPS took them on a lonely dirt road, but they had tires that allowed them to keep driving till they got somewhere for a change. That is one hassle I'm glad we avoided.

I had no problem on the Autovia, just stay to the right, they drive fast and don't give you a lot of room as they pass you, but I never felt anxious. On the smaller highways, the trick was getting in and out of smaller places. There are rarely "roundabout" routes through the small towns off the autovia, so you wind up getting the scenic "central city" view whether you want it or not. We actually found it very interesting and enjoyable to be stuck in traffic in a small city and watch the ebb and flow of life. In large part, that was because our itinerary was very undemanding and un-programmed, so we never felt rushed to get to our destination. If we didn't arrive in time to visit the main site we were headed for, we always had the option of visiting it the next morning.

I would be careful not to drive at night -- the one time we did it, coming back to Noto from Modica, it was dark so we didn't want to veer from our GPS instructions. For whatever reason, the GPS did not take us to the we SS 117 (?) or 115(?) and we wound up driving through the very deserted countryside. At one point we stopped at a well lit farmhouse, and just asked the person who opened the door if we were in fact on our way back to Noto. Turns out we were, but after that, we made a point of being out of the car by dark, which came around 6:30.

LUGGAGE IN THE CAR: I read all the many reports here, and for peace of mind, decided to structure our trip so that our first stop on a travel day was always our hotel (with one exception for a lovely little Greek theater/catacombs outside Noto, but I'll describe that later). We would then drop off the luggage with our hosts and take off for the rest of the day. But all of the car parks we used, either visiting towns, natural preserves, or archaeological sites, seemed perfectly safe and heavily enough traveled that I would be surprised to hear about break-ins. But I know it can happen anywhere. In hindsight, this plan may have been overkill, but it didn't hinder our touring at all. The only place it removed from the itinerary was Caltagirone. We're not shoppers; I thought it was too far from Noto for a day trip; and we only had one night in Piazza Armerina, so we didn't go.

TRAVELING LIGHT: I walk in Spain every summer with a small backpack and one change of clothes plus essentials, so I decided to introduce my husband to the joys of really traveling light. We each had a small carryon and everything was quick drying -- two pairs of paints, one pair of shorts, two long sleeved shirts, one short sleeved shirt, one fleece, one rain jacket and the basics. I brought along a bar of my favorite Spanish Lagarto soap and washed stuff out every night, hung it up, and it was always dry by morning. Having a carryon only made our travel extremely easy, and we even were able to put 2L of olive oil in each suitcase and check them for the trip hone. I can't recommend this approach highly enough, though I know many of my friends think I'm crazy. If you try it, you may be convinced, though.

PERSONAL SAFETY: We never felt threatened, uneasy, or on edge. Despite hearing lots about pickpocketing, we found that our normal precautions (leave passport in hotel, carry credit card and money in zipped pocket, carry small shoulder bag over shoulder and in front) were perfectly adequate. Never saw anything remotely resembling the situations I've found myself in in Barcelona or Madrid, but we didn't go to Catania, which may be the exception. And things may be calmer in the off-season.

THE PEOPLE: Here I simply cannot say enough to thank the people of Sicily for their warmth and help. Standing looking at a map in Palermo, we could count on having someone stop within a minute or two to ask if we needed help. Flagged down a motorcycle after taking the wrong turn going from Piazza Armerina to Agrigento, somewhere off in the dry hills of interior Sicily, and the man drew us a map. After taking a wrong turn to visit the Cave di Cusa (the quarry used to build Selinunte), we wound up driving through a very sad migrant workers camp. It was olive harvest time and we saw hundreds of immigrant men milling around near poor quality shanty huts, some playing soccer in the streets, many more just standing around, probably waiting to be picked up for their day's work. We never felt threatened, but we did flag down the only other car we saw driving our way, and the man very kindly took us directly to the entrance for Cave di Cusa.

THE LANGUAGE: I am embarrassed to say that my Italian is non-existent. I speak excellent Spanish, but that did not really help in conversations except that I frequently could get the gist of directions, basic questions, etc. We used our dictionary a lot, lots of hand signals, and also found that people were happy to try their English out on us. When we would stop people to ask questions, we always started with our attempt at "I don't speak Italian, do you speak English?", used the basic thank you, hello, goodbye, etc., but we found that English is widely spoken and with hand gestures and a good understanding of some Romance language, you will be fine.

FOOD: I thought the Portuguese liked sweets, but Sicily tops that by a long shot. Breakfasts inevitably had tons of sweet options, but very few in the way of fruit and multigrains. We usually could get yoghurt, sometimes could get eggs, but anyone on a low sugar diet would have a challenge here. I'm not a big breakfast person, so it didn't really matter, and I am NOT complaining about the gelato and street sweets we frequently indulged in, but I was surprised by the heavy focus on sweets.

We usually got sandwiches for lunch -- who can resist pane cunzato or any of the grilled paninis you can find just about anywhere? We also would stop in small salumerias and just ask the shopkeeper for sandwiches and were never disappointed. Lunch would either be in a cafe, a picnic in a park, in the ruins, or on the beach.

Dinner was either pizza, pasta, or fish. We are not foodies, so we weren't looking for the ultimate culinary experience, but we ate well and in recommended places. A couple of times, we bought food to bring back to the hotel/B&B for a meal on our balcony, out in a courtyard, etc, and always found that our hosts would happily cork the bottle of wine, give us plates, and set us up at a table. Never had a bad meal.

Well, I am starting to worry that I may lose all this text, so I will post now and start next with the day by day. Thanks to all you wonderful Fodorites, this trip just would not have been as marvelous without all of your advice.

lreynold1

So, I'm not sure how much more time I'll have to devote to this, but I will at least lay out the itinerary.

Taormina (2 nights) -- Villa Schuler -- 200 euros per night. That's a bit higher than we usually spend, but it was a wonderful place, well located, great views, nice people, lovely breakfast. We went for a room with a sea view balcony and enjoyed many moments out there. In fact, we liked being out there so much we bought food for a picnic lunch on the balcony one of the days!

Ortygia (3 nights) -- L'Approdo delle Sirene. 120 euros. Another room with a balcony overlooking the harbor. Breakfast up on their rooftop terrace with more views. GREAT location for us. It was about a ten minute walk from the bus station when we arrived, and less than that from the hotel to the car rental place on departure day. Also it made the walk to the ruins a very easy 2 kms. Not being centrally located on the island did not matter for our touring during the days we spent there, since it's small and we were going to walk all over the place no matter where our hotel was located.

Noto (2 nights) -- Villa Ambra, 65 euros. About a 10 minute walk (down and up, though) to the historic center. The B&B has a gated car park, is on the outskirts of the historical center with easy in and out of town (both for going to Modica/Ragusa and for our drive up to Piazza Armerina). The second generation of this family owned place told us they were the very first private lodging option in Noto. Nothing fancy, perfectly clean, extremely nice people.

Piazza Armerina (1 night) -- Villa Clementine. 90 euros. Very nice old family home, pretty grounds, right off the main route to the ruins. We did drive into town one early evening to check out the vibe and buy some groceries, but we could have avoided it entirely. It's not a stunningly beautiful place, but it was lively and people were as always friendly and helpful as we looked for a grocery store. Rita, who runs the B&B is a great hostess, I very highly recommend this stop. If you have more things you want to see in the area, stay two nights, you won't regret it. We had our three hours at the Villa Romana and that was really all we wanted to see there.

Agrigento (2 nights) -- Villa Lumia. 80 euros. Another very well located place. Nice family owners. The entire complex is gated off. It is located on the way driving up towards town from the "lower parking lot". It is off on the right after the turnoff to the left for the church/archaeological museum and before the turnoff to the right for the "higher parking lot.". Sign on the right will indicate a short driveway down to the gate. Lovely breakfast patio with a view of several of the temples. How cool is that?!

Selinunte (2 nights) -- Villa Sogno. 80 euros. Lovely. Extremely well located for visiting the ruins. Wonderful hosts.

Scopello (2 nights) -- Tenute Plaia Agriturismo. 55 euros. I had originally made a three night booking on booking.com, but when I arrived I explained to the woman that we had been doing a lot of reading about Palermo and had decided we would really prefer to spend an extra night in Palermo. My booking.com price was 62 euros per night. She told us to cancel the whole reservation and that even though the website would say that there was a cancellation fee, those cancellation fees are charged directly by the establishment and not by booking.com. She said she wouldn't charge us the cancellation fee and would book us for two nights at 55 euros rather than the 62 booking price. I explained that I was more than happy to pay the 62 euro price but she insisted. Another good location outside but easily walkable to the village, good secure parking, no hassle with driving in the ZTL (zona trafico limitado). The accommodations were low on charm, but were perfectly fine and clean. The view over the water outside on the terrace at breakfast was fabulous.

Palermo (4 nights) -- Hotel Garibaldi -- 80 euros. I can't remember if it was kja or yestravel or some other kind soul who gently pushed for four nights in Palermo. This is absolutely spot on advice. We had one half day (driving in from Scopello, filling up the car, dropping it off at the airport, dealing with the damage report, and then taking the bus into the city got us into our hotel about 1:30). And then three full days. Just barely enough, we did manage to see everything we wanted to but could have easily spent another day wandering around, and popping our heads into yet another nondescript church facade waiting to be blown away by what we saw inside (and this is said by someone who isn't a huge Baroque fan), sitting in yet another charming piazza, etc etc. We had originally booked in Palazzo Pantaleo, but there was no availability for the fourth night, so we cancelled and I googled around to find another place in the same general area. For me the key was finding someplace that is easily walkable to the center, but well located to the airport bus stop so we wouldn't have too much schlepping. This hotel fit the bill perfectly, about a block and a half from the airport bus stop, an old hotel renovated to a "sleek modern" look, totally functional with no charm, very helpful staff, good location for restaurants, just on the edge of the old town.

Palermo is just amazing, don't shortchange it if you go. New things opening all the time. My husband is a fan of the Sicilian painter Guttuso and we saw two of his pieces in the modern art museum. But then he asked about whether there were other pieces exhibited anywhere in Palermo (there is a museum dedicated to him but it's off in his birthplace town, and we didn't get there), and the woman told us that his painting of the Vucciria Market, probably his most famous painting, is actually in the university rector's office, the Chiaramonte palace, near Piazza Marina. We went there one afternoon to find that yes indeed we could view the painting, and we could also visit the "inquisition museum" if we wanted to. Turns out that when the university was renovating the palace for their offices, they discovered the old cells where prisoners had been kept during the Spanish Inquisition and there was graffiti -- drawings, prayers, maps, excerpts from literature -- all over the walls. We went through cell after cell and it was quite vivid. The tour guide pointed out so many interesting features -- the map of Sicily with a little game going on, one little square box for each prisoner who had been in each little town; quotes from Dante's Inferno (showing you this was one highly educated cohort stuck in these confines), some writings in English, Hebrew, drawings mocking the inquisitors, etc etc. Why is this in no guide book? We had Michelin's 2016 Sicily edition and there is no mention of either the painting (which is STUNNING) or the prison cells, or for that matter no mention of the Arabic pottery ovens and work tables they have uncovered and preserved. We went here on our last afternoon in Palermo and were pretty blown away by it all. And of course the location is great for a stroll around the harbor/Cala, a drink in a cafe near Piazza Marina, just another entirely enjoyable few hours. Sorry, I will leave all the details to later day by day accounts, but just wanted to make the point that if you are planning a trip to Sicily, IMO, you should give Sicily at least four nights. Just my opinion, but it is a vibrant, beautiful, somewhat chaotic, highly animated city. A great way to end our trip.

Ok, next up will be a day by day report, but now that it's nearly 6 am, I can get going with a normal day and turn to the much less interesting details involved with returning from a trip out of town for almost three weeks.

Adelaidean

Fabulous start

annhig

oh dear, lreynold1, you have been to Sicily and come back and started your TR, when i haven't even finished mine. oh the guilt!

anyway, a great start, and I'm so pleased that you had such a good trip.

looking forward to reading more. much more.

bon_voyage

Off to a glorious start--looking forward to more!

Envierges

Please continue!!! Palermo is my second favorite city on the planet coming right after Paris. Maybe guide books don't cover much about Palermo, because most do a fast trip from a cruise ship and miss Palermo's splendor and squalor.

The link below will get you to more information on the Palazzo Steri where you saw the Guttuso and from there to the net magazine The Best of Sicily.

http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art369.htm

I await your next report

sundriedtopepo

Ahhh someone with my travel style! Looking forward to more. Villa Schuler is really a little island of peace isn't it?

Dayle

L
What a really great TR! Cant wait for the rest. So glad you had great weather and enjoyed Sicily. Also thanks for the info in Tenute Plaia. I think you are the first to report back on it.

annhig

But all of the car parks we used, either visiting towns, natural preserves, or archaeological sites, seemed perfectly safe and heavily enough traveled that I would be surprised to hear about break-ins. But I know it can happen anywhere. In hindsight, this plan may have been overkill, but it didn't hinder our touring at all. The only place it removed from the itinerary was Caltagirone. We're not shoppers; I thought it was too far from Noto for a day trip; and we only had one night in Piazza Armerina, so we didn't go>>

lreynolds, that was it experience too. we started off very wary of leaving the luggage in our car, but we soon realised that our worries were groundless, [though we never chanced it in Catania]. such a shame that you missed Caltagirone - by the time we got there we were quite blasé. It's one of the places that we didn't stay in that I'd most like to go back to as I can't get enough of presepe and we never did make it to the presepe museum. But those steps!

and I'm glad that we didn't try to squeeze Palermo into our trip - it really needs more time than we had for it as your trip demonstrates.

Now I might have a go at doing my TR!

lreynold1

Ok, let's get started with the day to day.

Day 0 -- long travel day, but nothing that everyone else hasn't experienced. We had to change airlines in Rome, from AA to Alitalia, and they are not partners. When I checked in at home, my agent could not give me boarding passes for the Alitalia segment to Catania. She did print out a ticket receipt that comes out printed on a boarding pass with all the relevant information on flights (both ways), ticket numbers, etc. This turned out to be very helpful, since we had to go through security in Rome without having gotten a boarding pass for the flight out of Rome. With this ticket receipt there was no problem at all -- I'm sure we would have been fine without it, but having the receipt just made it all very easy. It also made it easy for the Alitalia agent to find our information.

Day 1 -- from Rome to Catania to Taormina
I had read on the forum about someone who experienced extreme turbulence on a flight into Catania, due to activity on Mt. Etna. We must have been lucky because our flight could not have been smoother. We took that as a harbinger of things to come. Our driver was waiting right outside the door from arrivals, and by 1 we were checked into Villa Schuler. We walked around a bit to get our bearings had lunch at Tirami-su, which was fine but nothing special IMO.

My husband deals with jet lag with a short nap on arrival day, but I just power through, so while he slept I walked over to the bus station to get the schedule for buses to Siracusa. I had originally planned to take the train, but someone here suggested that bus could be easier. When I saw how close the bus station was to downtown and saw the schedule of fairly frequent buses, I didn't even bother to head down the hill to look at train options.

Our afternoon walk around town gave us our first exposure to the throngs you had all told me about. It wasn't crushing, but there were a lot of people walking up and down the Corso Umberto. We joined the promenade, stopped for a coffee, sat in a square listening to music, went to the supermarket for fruit, water, etc. and just generally had a low key day. We walked around looking at several of the restaurants whose names I had written down and wound up at Pizzeria Zuccaro. It is off the main drag, with a terrace that adjoins a pretty (and quiet) piazza. It was about 8 and there was a decent crowd, but no reservations were needed. We found this to be the case every night in every town.

A relatively low key, early to bed day for us -- what a treat to sit outside on a balcony at night with the lights of the boats and the town twinkling all around us -- not something I get to do in Illinois on a regular basis!

Day 2 -- in Taormina

By far the best breakfasts of our trip were the ones we ate in Taormina. And not just because of the lovely views. Many choices, lots of freshly made baked goods, delicious local cheeses, good yoghurt, exceptional coffee, etc. On a rather relaxed plan, we made our way to the Greek theater by about 10 or 10:30 and found that though we were not alone, there were no crowds. There may be more spectacular Greek ruins in Sicily, but the framing of Mt. Etna behind the stage was something else. We enjoyed a long visit, walking up and down to seize every possible view of the surrounding natural beauty. After that, and a walk through the public gardens for yet more views, we decided to make sandwiches and eat lunch on our balcony, just so we could continue the theme of spectacular views that the morning had already provided. That was a great idea and very relaxing.

In the afternoon, we hunted down what looked to me on the Taormina map like a pedestrian path up to Castelmola. Sure enough, if you cross the Circumvalazione and go up Via Crucis, you will find a pathway up through trees (and frequently shaded) to the church of the Madonna in the Cave. The sweet little church was open, and you could see the Theater from the lookout. The adjacent castle was locked, not sure if it was because of the time of day or whether it is closed to visitors. From there, you do have to walk on the side of the street for a short while (Leonardo da Vinci), but a well marked pedestrian turn-off through a residential area takes you out of traffic and up to the Piazza of Castelmola. Not much to see in the town, but a big bottle of acqua frizzante sure tasted good in the cafe. I may have already said this, but I was so happy to find that Sicilian fizzy water is not salty and very tasty. I liked every brand we were served, and that is not the case in Spain or Portugal, where it is often way too salty for my taste. My husband decided to take the bus down to the hotel, and he had a very hard time explaining to the driver that yes indeed he did have to pay a fare to go down because he had walked and not ridden up. It seems that most people buy a 3 euro RT ticket and then no ticket is collected on the way down. Finally, we were able to convince the driver to let him pay 2 euros for a one way ride back down. I walked, and it was dusk by the time I arrived, adding a nice calm gloss to the whole thing. This is not a hard walk, I don't think it took us more than an hour to get there, and that's going at my husband's pace, and with a leisurely stop at the church and for the views. Definitely a fun thing to do.

Our dinner that evening was at a place recommended by the hotel, the Giardineira. It is not far from the public gardens. We were slightly disappointed to see there was no outside seating (probably our only indoor restaurant meal the whole trip) but decided to stay since the hotel had recommended it. We both had good fish, mine was a name I can't remember (capuno ??? or capano ???) while my husband had something more standard like swordfish. A couple near us had ordered a whole fish covered in about a 3" hard salt crust. Has anyone ever had fish prepared that way? The crust was cut off of course, and the waiter took care of the bones and the skin with very expert strokes. After many years of going to Lisbon I am finally able to deal with a whole fish without embarrassing myself but I will never be that good at it. After dinner we walked the streets some more -- what a difference a few hours makes. All was quiet and crowd-free.

I know that there is a lot of variety of opinion about whether it's "worth it" to go to Taormina or not. I am quite glad we went. It was a great, low key relaxing place to start a trip, especially after an overnight flight. It is true that even though it was off season, there were crowds (pretty big crowds) walking up and down the Corso Umberto, and it is also true that most of the establishments on that street sell variations of the same tourist junk you will see near every attraction on Sicily. But still... the views, the theater, the walk up to Castelmola, all were very enjoyable.

Day 3 -- from Taormina to Siracusa/Ortygia

There are relatively frequent buses to Siracusa, so we didn't rush, and I think our bus left at around 11. We had to change buses in Catania but that was painless. The bus stops in town before going to the airport, so most of the people on the bus had to weave all the way through the city before heading to the airport. It turns out that the bus station in Catania is actually a big enclosed parking lot type space with benches around the perimeter and some covering from the sun. When we got off our Taormina bus, we first thought that the building we could see across the street was the bus station, but it was the train station. The "bus station" is actually on the other side of the wall where the bus drops you off. There is also no bathroom, but the cafe right across the street is perfectly happy to let you use their services. Just buy a coffee or a water in exchange.

I had seen the location of the bus station in Siracusa, and had a general idea of how to get to Ortygia. I am pretty seriously directionally challenged, but even I could figure out that if we kept walking to the bridge and walked over it, we would be in Ortygia. Our B&B was a perfect location and extremely easy to get to from the bus stop. Cross the bridge and turn right and you'll see it. Once again our rooms were ready, and it was getting late for lunch so we hurried out to see what we could find at the market. Fratelli Burgo was still going strong and we looked around to see what people were eating. We then pointed to a board of meats, cheese, and some pickled veggies and were soon eating the same thing. Nice variety, great tastes.

After lunch, we meandered all around the island, visited the Cathedral and saw the Caravaggio painting of the burial of St. Lucia in the church nearby (it was displayed in the church and not in the museum as our guidebook had said). That is one heck of an amazing painting, kind of reminds me of some of the figures in Velazquez's Vulcan's Forge the way the light highlighted the muscular arms of the grave diggers and the faces of the grief-stricken were hidden and slightly blurred in the shadows.

As we did most nights, we took a little walking tour to check out the restaurants on my list. We wound up at Sicilia in Tavola, quite good. And then a walk for a gelato to end the day. I didn't think they did a great job of illuminating the Apollo Temple ruins, but still it's not every night you get to stroll around ancient Greek ruins, so I am not complaining. Ah, Sicily, by Day 3 we were totally smitten!

kja

Nice to hear that you enjoyed your time in Sicily -- it is glorious, isn't it?

I definitely pushed for you to consider more time in Palermo -- and not necessarily gently! From your interests, I felt confident that you would enjoy that city. So glad you did! And I'm also glad that the location of L'Approdo delle Sirene worked for you. I loved that place -- particularly its breakfast and the rooftop.

lreynold1

Day 4 -- In Siracusa

Another breakfast with a view!!! This was one place where there were small cannoli at breakfast, and I couldn't resist (yes, I know, I'm the one who complained about all the sweets at breakfast). There was a very good fruit selection also, along with the standard pastry fare, some good cheeses, meats, etc.. And the rooftop terrace was so pleasant. What a treat to be able to have excellent coffee, sitting outside on a mild sunny morning, with a view of the water! I am sure my coffee intake doubled while I was there, but how can you resist the enjoyment that comes from an extra cup or two in that environment?!

We walked from our B&B to the ruins, about a mile by google maps' calculation. I always enjoy walking through the "real" parts of cities and this was no exception. It's not a stunning promenade, but it goes on busy thoroughfares where people are conducting their daily lives and the wheels of commerce are churning. Upon arriving at the theaters, once again, we found that we were not the only visitors, but there were certainly not any large crowds. We probably saw a total of four or five bus groups during our visit to both the Greek and Roman theaters. I have very little experience with Greek and Roman ruins so I had frequent "wow" moments and enjoyed climbing up and down and taking it all in from all vantage points. We were there for probably about an hour and a half, maybe a little more, and then we took the short walk across to the Archaeological museum. I loved the coin exhibit and enjoyed many of the displays, but frankly after my 300th priceless Greek urn or the 20th case filled with votive statues of Demeter, my eyes did glaze over a bit. There were some beautiful sarcophagi (if that's the plural) and a headless Venus statue whose beauty even an untrained person like me could appreciate. My husband has far more interest in museum collections than I, and thankfully after a couple of hours, his stomach was calling him away to eat.

We wanted to go to the Catacombs of S. Giovanni and St. Marcian's crypt, both at the church of S. Giovanni, so we found a little outdoor cafe in between the museum and the church. Once again, we just pointed to a good looking meal being eaten nearby -- in this case, a spinach calzone, and we soon had the same thing sitting in front of us. Though I had no interest in seeing the catacombs, I had read a bit about the crypt of S. Marcian, with its amazing 6th century capitals and marking the spot where Saint Paul preached in the year 60, and also the spot where St. Lucy, patron saint of Siracusa, was martyred. The entire thing was very interesting, even the catacombs, I was surprised. The tour provided just the right amount of information, I thought, not an overload but enough so you could really appreciate the places.

From there, we walked by but did not enter the modern church with the big pointy spire. I wanted to take a different route back to the hotel, so this was one way to do it. I make a point of not looking at a map unless absolutely necessary and though we did not take the direct route by any means, we made it back to the bridge over to Ortygia after a walk that went through some more parts of modern Siracusa. Nothing spectacular, but always enjoyable for me.

Another cruise for restaurants after a shower, and this night we ended up in A Putia. Another great choice, I thought.

Day 5 -- in Ortygia

This was our day to explore the island, and our first stop was back to the market to see things in action. It's a lovely market, complete with fishmongers yelling across the square. We saw the sandwich production beginning at Caseificio Borderi and decided we would probably return for a second day of lunch at the market.

Next we headed to the Papyrus museum (right across from where I think you stayed, annhig). Who visits the papyrus museum? Well, go figure, it was actually very interesting, did you know Siracusa had papyrus production as early as 300 BC? There were actual pieces of equipment along with some videos, so you could really get an idea of how the paper was made. And there were several papyrus rafts that looked like they came right off the set of Cleopatra. Truth is, I like going to these kind of oddball museums quite a bit -- for one thing, it gives you a destination as you make your way walking around the place, and for another, you always wind up learning things you had no idea about.

We are suckers for walks on water promenades so we did that for a while and by 2 found ourselves back at Caseificio Borderi. It took a while, but we figured out how it worked. On the outside, the grandpa makes sandwiches, he seems to basically make whatever strikes his fancy, in between he cuts up smoked mozzarella and passes it around to the people in line, all the while engaging in a steady stream of dialogue that must be very entertaining if you understand Italian. On the inside, the husband makes sandwiches to order. If you want a grandpa sandwich, get on the line outside. If you want inside sandwiches, go inside and get a number from the little machine. The daughter/wife spends her time moving back and forth between the two, helping out, answering questions, and also passing out delicious mozzarella. There is a woman sitting at the cash register, which is located between the two different sandwich making stations, and she takes everyone's money. I'm not sure if she's the grandma or not, but she was quite subdued in comparison to the other three. It is not an efficient operation, but it is quite an enjoyable experience! And the sandwiches are great.

The highlight of our afternoon was a trip to the mikvah. Apparently when the hotel Giudecca was doing renovations, they found ancient Jewish baths several stories underground. They are oh so interesting, and the little tour in English was quite good.

Ortygia is a very beautiful place, sitting in the Duomo square at night is just as magical as all the trip reports here have described. Our day on the island flew by and we were sorry that the next day we were going to have to move on.

Leely2

I remember your planning thread. I also LOVED Palermo, what a city, so much to do.

I don't like driving in the countryside at night either. I always (always!) seem to get lost. Glad to read you didn't get too turned about.

<i>Ortygia is a very beautiful place, sitting in the Duomo square at night is just as magical as all the trip reports here have described.</i>

And now yours too. Wonderful, and looking forward to reading the rest!

Dayle

I'm delighted you were impressed with the coin exhibit at the Arch Museum. I was amazed by it and I'm not even into coins!

I really thought the piazza in front of the duomo is one of the most beautiful I've seen. Especially at night.

I envy your visit to the Papyrus Museum. I just didn't have time, even with a 3 nt visit.....

Your TR is bringing back wonderful memories. Grazie mille!

thursdaysd

I don't have a sweet tooth, but I love cannoli. I figure since it's made with cheese it doesn't count as sweet....

Sounds like they have moved the Papyrus Museum - it was next to the Archaeological Museum.

So glad you enjoyed Sicily, and thanks for the TR, you are making me even more sure I need to go back.

lreynold1

Once again, jet lag has me up and about at 4:30 am -- might as well use this time productively!

Day 6 -- To Noto

We were once again not in a hurry, so we were able to enjoy breakfast sitting up on the terrace adjacent to the little breakfast buffet table. After a few days of cappuccino, I was ready to start drinking more coffee and less milk, so I began to ask for cafe americano, maybe after having a first cappucino. Since they brought it with hot steamed milk, I enjoyed being able to decide the proportions between coffee and milk. I found I liked the less milky version better, especially since the coffee was so good.

Today was our first car day, so the routine was about to change. After one last walk down to the duomo and a fizzy water in the square, we bit the bullet and rolled our little bags the 5 minutes over the bridge to EuropCar's office on the main drag. It was quick and efficient, maybe in hindsight too much so. As I said earlier, the agent did not take us round the car with an inspection to point out existing damage, so we got hit with some in Palermo that I am sure was not my doing. But oh well, I guess I was a little blasé because I knew I was totally covered with Auto Europe.

We had brought a Garmin GPS that has Italian maps and used it regularly. In hindsight, I might have been better off with a SIM card in my smartphone and google maps. The thing about the GPS is that it seems incapable of distinguishing main roads from back roads and on many occasions directed us to secondary (or tertiary, or even less) highways. And with the "recalculating" going on every time we took a different turn, we were sometimes not sure we were actually going right.

For instance, on our way from Piazza Armerina to Agrigento, the hard copy map suggested that we would be better off going straight south to Gela on the coast (looked like the straightest shot and the best roads) or going through Caltanissetta and then wind down through the hills coming into Agrigento more or less from the north. We wanted to try going through the hills -- and boy did we get our wish -- we wound up on back roads through small places like Mazzaria, but ultimately made it to our destination. Compounding the GPS's inability to favor major roads, there was a fair amount of construction and detours in the countryside that also sent us in new and unknown directions. But when I look back at the total time it took, I see that we really were not spending hours driving around in circles. Our GPS always got us there, even when we confounded it by refusing to take the unmarked dirt road on the left.

The places where it really helped the most was driving through small towns on our way from one place to another. On those occasions, it worked like a charm, but again we sometimes had to override its directions that we turn down an alley way barely wide enough for the two of us to walk. But I did appreciate that as I was winding my way through a little, but very busy town, I was able to enjoy the activity knowing that in the end I was going to get to the other side and plunked down on the SS or SP road I wanted. Sorry for that tangent, but I hope it will reassure others about driving in Sicily. Not an easy task all the time, but if you relax and know that the GPS is ultimately going to get you there you can enjoy the places you see.

Anyway, our drive from Siracusa to Noto was an easy straight shot once we got on the road, and the GPS took us straight to our little B&B, the Villa Ambra. Like most of our B&B selections, this place was clean, functional, nothing fancy, with very helpful family members pitching in to make our stay as enjoyable as possible. We got there in plenty of time to check in, park the car, and head down/up to town to enjoy lunch and the afternoon there.

I thought Noto was a perfect "base" for visiting the Baroque towns. It is small, easy to navigate and very pretty. So we spent our arrival afternoon/evening in Noto, and the next day after breakfast driving to visit Modica and Ragusa. Then back to Noto for the night. I've already mentioned that the Villa Ambra is located about a 10-15 minute walk from the main pedestrian drag. I know an in-town charming place would have had its advantages but for me, the considerations were -- easy to drive into and leave the car without worrying about the ZTL; and within walking distance to historic center. I very much like having to walk to and from restaurants to add some postprandial exercise and movement to the routine, so this is one way to force us to do it!

We had lunch in a little place on the main street in town, an absolutely excellent sandwich that we once again got by pointing. I would say the sandwiches were almost as high on my food list as the pizzas and pastas. Crunchy bread, great cheeses, fresh tomatoes, and every now and then we let a little of that highly fat laden cured meat creep into our diet. They are ridiculously cheap and usually big enough for two normal appetites. By now we were well into the "sit outside and enjoy the life around you" routine. My husband likes an espresso after lunch, so that always gives us a chance to pick out a different place after lunch and continue the street viewing from a different vantage point. This time, we chose a cafe right in front of the cathedral, and also added a gelato to the coffee routine.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the architecture, mainly from the outside. The inside of the duomo didn't really do much for me -- it was far more spectacular to climb the two church bell towers (one on either side of the duomo, on the opposite side of the street) and enjoy the views of the square and the buildings from the top. And the palazzo whose name I can't remember, off on a side street, had equally pretty exterior features.

By about 6 pm, we were ready to head back to the B&B, shower and come up with a list of possible eating places. We usually used the 6-8 pm slot for shower, clothes washing, chilling. This was not a conscious decision on our part but just became our normal routine. Since we were not rushing from place to place or town to town, we found it gave us the opportunity to recharge and regroup, and we were never exhausted or drained.

Our first evening in Noto, we ate at Trattoria a Fontana d'Ercole, located very close to the main drag down a little street. At the recommendation of our B&B guy, I had the pasta fino al pistachio, which was a great choice. My husband had some very good fish dish. After dinner, the duomo cafe beckoned again, so we had another opportunity to enjoy the architecture basking in the night lights. It was later than we had expected by the time we got back to the B&B, but our modest plans for the next day meant we could sleep in without being worried about having to rush around in the morning.

jamikins

Loving your report!

We have found that sometimes our sat nav takes us down non-major routes if we have it programmed to 'shortest route' rather than 'fastest route' because it will look at the mileage rather than the speed limits on the roads and will divert us down some strange non-major routes! Maybe something to check?

Can't wait for more!

lreynold1

Day 7 -- Visiting Modica and Ragusa

At home I never sleep in till 8 or 8:30, but this seemed to become our usual wake up time. With a breakfast spent enjoying a couple of cups of great coffee and pouring over the guidebooks to get a good sense of our day's plan, we usually were on the road by 10. Our first stop was Modica, and the GPS worked like a charm. Unfortunately I had no real destination in Modica to search for, so when the GPS took us to the ZTL sign (a white circle with a red border, signifying that the area is off limits to folks like us), we then just stopped the car and asked someone where we might park. Again, our luck and the incredible friendliness of the Sicilians combined to put us in a free parking lot on the Via Tirella right before the traffic circle at the start of Corso Umberto (I reconstructed this by looking at google maps from my iPad). It was a perfect place, adjacent to all the sites and no problems with parking meters, etc. Though Google maps tells me it was a 45 minute drive, it took us almost an hour and fifteen minutes to get ourselves located in the parking lot.

We then decided not to concentrate on the insides of churches here, having not seen much that jumped out at us in our three trusty guidebooks. So with our map from the centrally located tourist office in hand, we meandered our way up to the duomo, took a few minutes to stop and rest and enjoy the view from outside, and then carried on up to the Belvedere for the view. We knew it was up, so we put away our maps and just wandered. Enjoyable walking, lots of narrow streets, balconies with flowers and laundry, and great views from the top. After some water and some of an obligatory chocolate bar we had bought down below, we wove our way back down to the cathedral and from there back down to the street where the tourist office is located. We had a sandwich lunch in a cafe on the street, not sure what its name is but it was perfectly fine and relaxing.

After lunch we went back to the car and with the GPS found we were in a great spot for continuing on to Ragusa. That was an easy drive, short, direct through the hills, on some incredibly engineered highways that cut across valleys (though they made our driving easier, they did not exactly have a great impact on the views). The parking lot others have described at the bottom of Ragusa magically appears as you get near the town. Since it was off season, the lot was not crowded, and the bar was up so that there was no charge. Looking up from the parking lot, we knew our next few hours would consist of more walking up and down, and so we just chose one road up, not really sure of the layout of the land. Turns out we had chosen to go up first to the "new" old Ragusa.

We got to the church of Santa Maria delle Escale and there were able to get our bearings. Sitting on the square, eating the rest of our chocolate bar and drinking water gave us the pep we needed to keep on trekking. There were some spectacular clouds with bursts of sun and the views out over Ragusa Ibla kept changing dramatically. We must have stayed on the little lookout for a half hour or more. Just amazing views. We then took another route back down towards the parking lot, crossed over to Ragusa Ibla and did more of the same (this time with the tourist office map in hand -- the tourist office magically appeared as we crossed over to Ragusa Ibla) -- walking through little streets, turning around for the views, watching the children who were out of school, etc. The cathedral was locked up tight, but we had a water on the square and a nice chat with our English speaking waiter who was eager to practice.

It was probably way too late for us to start out for home, but this was the day we learned that lesson the hard way. It was dark before we got back to Modica and rush hour to boot. In Modica, our GPS just kept taking us up and down and around. Helpful Sicilian to the rescue, and after about a half hour we were on our way out of town. That was the good news, the bad news was that we never made it back to the main road between Modica and Noto. I have no idea where we went or how we got back to Noto, but the GPS was quite confident we were on the right road. At one point, out in the middle of nowhere and after 10 or 15 minutes seeing no signs of human habitation, we saw the lights of a country home (kind of a villa/farmhouse structure) and brazenly pulled into the driveway. My husband went up and tentatively knocked, and after the woman peered through the window and decided we looked harmless, she opened up and confirmed that yes indeed we should just keep straight on the way back to Noto. We made it back to our B&B by around 8:00 or even a bit later, which means that we had had a pretty total fiasco driving from Ragusa. . It was a bit stressful, I admit, but the GPS ultimately came through. As I'm the driver and my husband the navigator, it was always up to him to keep telling me, look, we're in Italy, not on the moon, we are going to wind up somewhere we can find on the map and from there we'll just make our way back to Noto. Once again, husband knows best.

It's amazing how a shower and a few minutes sitting and relaxing can help change the trajectory of the day and your mood. Around 9 pm, we were back on the road, this time walking into Noto, headed for the Pizzeria Al Terrazo, excellent, relaxing outdoor terrace. So that meant another late day for us, but once again that was fine, since we knew we were not rushed the next day. Our modest goal for the next day was to make it to Piazza Armerina and if there was time, to visit the Roman villa. If we got there too late, so be it, we could visit the villa the next day. I am so glad that we gave ourselves all of this wiggle room, because it really does take the stress off what would otherwise have been an even more frustrating night drive on unfamiliar roads.

lreynold1

Thanks for that tip, Jamikins, definitely something to look into. We really just need to get more familiar with using the GPS here at home. It was a new device for us, with about a month of "practice" before heading to Italy and the learning curve was pretty high. We are going to take the GPS with us back to Portugal next spring, so it is something to keep working with and playing with. And we are very familiar with Portugal, so we will have a backdrop of self-confidence that we just didn't have in Sicily. I had read comments about how frustrating and how hard driving in Sicily is, so I was sort of prepared (I think Dayle is the only one whose report I've read on the forum who breezed through without an issue). Bottom line for me is that it is definitely more challenging than driving in Spain or Porrtugal, where I've driven many thousands of kms, but it is not the horror story I feared.

lreynold1

I see that I am very chatty and rambling in these posts, but that's what jet lag does to you. I hope that some of these comments will be of help to others, though, and I am finding that this recounting helps me to remember and "re-live" this wonderful trip.

Day 8 -- To Piazza Armerina and the Villa Romana deal Casale

Today we had nothing on the "must do" list except driving to Piazza Armerina. Since that's about 120 km, I figured it was a reasonable goal. Our B&B gave us a good map showing the easy way out of Noto (avoiding all of the in-town, once again) to get on the route to Piazza Armerina. We had seen mention in the guides of a theater and some ruins in the environs of Palazzolo Acreide (Akrai), so we decided to stop there since it was right on the way. The GPS took us straight there, restoring my confidence in my little friend, and this was one place where we just left our car in the little parking lot with luggage in the trunk. There were about three other cars there, not exactly a big tourist draw, but it seemed totally safe.

We loved this, the small scale, the group of Polish archaeology college students working enthusiastically washing chards, drawing maps, documenting who knows what. The Christians seemed to have taken to this place with a vengeance, carving out cavern after cavern of catacombs all around the theater itself. This is a low-key stop I would highly recommend, if you like walking around, poking in and out of catacombs without a tour guide on your back, and just sitting and enjoying the theater and thinking about life thousands of years ago.

From there it was a straightforward drive to Piazza Armerina (way to go once again, GPS!). We had put in the street address of our B&B and it turns out it is right off the road that goes from the town out to the ruins. When we got to the turnoff for the street, though, and crept down the dirt road, we were not sure we were on the right path. So we backtracked and tried to find someone to help us out. That took us about another 20 minutes when we should have just continued a little further down the dirt road, because in fact the B&B was right there. On these dirt roads, the GPS frequently tells you you are at your destination before you actually are, so it pays to forge ahead. But that was a minor distraction.

The Villa Clementine is a lovely place, has a pool that must be great in the hot summer and lots of green space. It's down below town right off the road that goes directly to the Villa Romana. We were surprised that we had arrived in such good time, so we decided to just drop off our stuff and head out to see the mosaics that afternoon. We had hours of daylight, no crowds to speak of, it was perfect.

We hadn't eaten, but I had made note of progol's suggestion for La Ruota. We continued on to that place from our B&B, but it was closed for the season apparently, so we backtracked about a km to a pretty nondescript hotel with cafe. Google maps suggests its name was Hotel Mosaici. Overpriced, not outstanding food, but oh well, we were eager to get to the Villa Romana.

There is a huge parking lot, but it was virtually empty the afternoon we were there. I think we had to share the site with two, at most three tour buses, which arrived, burst on the scene, whizzed their way through, and then left us alone. The temps were also quite moderate, so we didn't have to deal with the heat that somehave experienced while walking under all those coverings. I have to say I found this site to be breathtaking. Our Michelin guide does a great job of explaining the layout and the themes of the mosaics in each room. There are also informational panels in English that add historic and artistic detail. We must have been there for more than three hours, virtually till closing time. We fell in with a young Italian couple and they were very interested in hearing all about the circus that our presidential election has become. Since they have experience with a president who shares some of the characteristics of one of our candidates, they did not display the same level of incredulity that we got from other Europeans we met along the way, but they were very interested to hear our take on things. Our guidebooks say these are the best Roman mosaics anywhere in the world, and though I have no basis for comparison, I can't imagine that it could get much better. Thank goodness for 7 or 8 centuries of mud!

We decided that since our surroundings at Villa Clementine were so nice, we would just drive into town and buy some groceries for a meal. Getting into the center on a Saturday evening meant withstanding lots of traffic, and we did violate our own self-imposed rule about not driving after dark, but we were only a few kms from "home" and had a pretty good sense of how to get in and out. Just follow the signs to the Roman ruins. As we were stopped at a traffic light, we just asked a woman with grocery bags where we should go, and she directed us to a very adequate supermercado. I sat in the car while my husband did the shopping and enjoyed the vibrancy of this place -- a pretty tiny, pretty nondescript place with a lot of life and a lot of human warmth. Oh, these Italians have really got a much better balance between life in the public spaces vs. life inside the home, IMO. My husband got some good recommendations on wine, cold cuts, etc from some local women who seemed to think it was their patriotic duty to make sure we had a high quality experience. Back at the B&B, Rita brought us a table cloth, plates, cutlery, and a corkscrew, all we needed for a dinner out on the little patio. WONDERFUL!!! I had not had any wine since our arrival, but a decent bottle of something from the area was tempting, so I went ahead and partook. After all, my husband couldn't drink a whole bottle himself!!

I hope I am not waxing too enthusiastically, and I realize that my ravings may make you think that either I'm a loon or I'm embellishing. But for us there's no doubt that this was the most magical trip we've taken probably in our 38 years of marriage, and it was proof positive that careful planning without setting up a rigid schedule provides immeasurable rewards. We just sat there that night marveling at our good luck, thinking back over what we had done so far, and realizing that the most spectacular Greek theaters were still in our future!

and a p.s. of thanks -- there is no way this could have all come together without the input of so many of you.