LizTD

Here is a trip report from our fall 2009 trip. I HIGHLY recommend the use of public transportation. Sicilian driving is blood curdling and who needs that pressure on vacation?? As for Palermo, while it was a frenetic and wonderful place to visit, I endorse your decision to skip it in favor of the south. We stayed 3 days and would have been better off with two.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-to-sicily.cfm

bon_voyage

Coming from SoCal, we found the freeway driving in Sicily to be a relative breeze. Driving in towns was no different from anywhere else in Europe where streets were laid pre-car. I was not thrilled with some of the high, windy roads with low stone guard walls, but they didn't bother the rest of the family at all.

dutyfree

Coming from Chicago I didn't think that the car driving was bad in Sicily at all. I wouldn't drive in Palermo or Catania but the rest of the island was not stressful except one city which had too small of streets to get through.
Personally there are so many wonderful little towns and cities in Sicily that Palermo was painful to stay in for 3 days as I wished that we had used those days for longer stays elsewhere!

iamq

bookmarking

ggreen

The nice thing about driving in Sicily is that people really obey the practice of staying right except to pass. So while they do drive really fast, it's sooo much more orderly than driving here in the Northeast US!

Good point about the heat! My sister was living in Sicily, and said that August is very hot and dry. Two other pieces of info from her when we were there: Even an updated Sicily GPS should not be taken too literally; and the one place she told me to put my purse out of sight (when we were in the car) was in driving through Catania - from the airport, and again en route to the ferry.