Given how helpful this board has been, I thought I'd add my 2 cents on this wonderful part of the world (we'll see how far 2 cents brings us!). I spent 2 weeks in late Sept to mid Oct as follows:
4 nights in Palermo: http://www.hotelletizia.com/ , including a day trip to Cefalu
- then a stop for the day in Agrigento, on our way to -
3 nights in Siracusa/Ortigia: http://www.apprododellesirene.com/
2 nights in Taormina: http://www.pensionesvizzera.com/index.php
1 night in Capri: http://www.capri.net/en/c/la-tosca-2
3 nights in Sorrento - 2 nights here: http://www.sorrentohotelmignon.com/ , and 1 night here: http://www.villadarmiento.com/en/index.php
and finally, 1 night in Rome: http://www.romeluxurysuites.com/mariodefiori/
(friends stayed here: http://www.hoteldesartistes.com/ )

I tend to travel a bit more on the budget side, always looking to stay somewhere clean, safe and central. I also travel using public transportation. I've found that it's a bit more challenging finding advice on these counts, so I hope this trip report helps others who travel likewise...

Ok, now for the details.
Palermo
From my research, it was less expensive to fly into Rome on one ticket, then purchase a 1-way ticket to Palermo from EasyJet - it was (amazingly) only about 29 euros. We did have a long wait between the flights - 5 hours - but we didn't want to chance the earlier connection. The approach into Palermo was spectacular - sitting on the right side of the plane turned out to be a good choice. Upon arrival, we took the bus into the city, which took longer than I thought it would. At one point, we were stuck in traffic and I started looking around - we were near a harbor, then a park, and I thought to myself - I have a feeling our hotel is over here....about 20 minutes later we arrived at the train station, and walked about 15 minutes to our hotel, dragging the luggage along. After checking in, we took a look at the neighborhood - sure enough, we could have gotten off that darn bus earlier.

Hotel Letizia was well located; we walked everywhere. It is right off of Piazza Marina, and near the pretty port. That night we had dinner at Antica Focacceria San Francesco, which was in a beautiful courtyard in front of a church. As we were being seated, a wedding was finishing up (we were to see about 6 weddings over the course of the trip), so it was really an experience to see the bride and groom coming out of the golden church at twilight. Really beautiful. The food....not too much to write home about unfortunately, but nice ambience. We found that right on the same street as our hotel was a row of cafe's and bars with tables and patrons lining the street (cars and scooters still amazingly make their way through the crowd). It was nice to have a place to go out for a drink at night just steps from our hotel. Luckily, our room's windows had shutters so the noise wasn't that disruptive. The hotel was fine,perfectly adequate, though a walk up. The room was well-sized and clean, and we had a little balcony with Shutters. When we got there I mentioned to the woman at the desk that the shower curtain was moldy; by the next morning it was clean.

The next day we walked around the old section of town up Via Vittorio Emanuele. At the Palazzo Normanni we were wowed by the chapel's mosaics, but disappointed that the upstairs rooms were closed to the public. However, a nice police officer guardinig the chapel and his friend working for the gov't brought us up for our own tour - we even got pictures of ourselves sitting in the seat of Sicily's president (and wiggled out of the dinner invitation thereafter). Other sites in Palermo I enjoyed included the cathedral, the Piazza Marina, the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, the Saturday street market and just plain old walking around. We went to the San Giovanni degli Eremiti site - for 6 euros....well, I'm not sure it was worth it though the building from the outside was beautiful and I fell in love with the resident cat. Next door is another church where for about 2 euros you can climb the bell tower (wearing a construction hat) and see a beautiful panorama of the city. The Catacombe dei Cappuccini was morbid, but fascinating in its way. I liken the city to a crumbling beauty. There's a certain romance to it that is different from other cities I've seen.

We had dinner the 2nd night at Le Delizie di Cagliostro, where we found the food to be very good as well as the service. The last two nights we ate at Casa del Brodo (loved it so much we went 2x!). The food was excellent, and the fixed price meal was very well priced. We had delicious pasta courses (tortellini in meat broth, pasta in tomato sauce) and mains (a rolled beef on a skewer, and beef and potato stew), and the most amazing chocolate cake I have EVER had in my life.

The pope was coming in for a visit on the day we were leaving, and the day before the city was nuts. Tons of scouts (Italy's version of boy/girl scouts, I heard they follow the pope) were pouring into the city; it seemed as if they would be camping out at the many churches (seems about one on almost every block). It was interesting to see the preparations; we were grateful that we were able to get out of town on schedule despite going opposite of traffic (he was coming in at the marina near our hotel). We left Palermo via bus for Agrigento with our luggage, but more on that in a moment; first I'll tell you about my day trip to Cefalu.

So glad you had a good time in Palermo. I love the city. The more I go, the more I find, the more I love it. I'll be reading the rest of your report on La Bella Sicilia.

Yes, TravMimi - I know I definitely left some big things over for another visit!

A quick entry here on
Cefalu:
We took the train from Palermo to Cefalu for a day trip. We rushed to catch a 9:00a.m. train, which did not leave until around 10:00. Apparently the train driver (can't think of the right word) just wasn't there yet! Maybe this is why people kept telling me to take the bus in Sicily? Hmmm.... Anyway, arrived in Cefalu; the woman at the train office was very helpful and provided a map of the town. It is an easy 5-7 minute walk to the town from the train station, just to to the right towards La Rocca, the big promontory. The town is quaint, with a lot of ceramics shops and souvenir shops. The cathedral is well placed for a Kodak moment, with La Rocca in the background. We planned to walk around the town, have lunch, then tackle the rock.

The cathedral was very nice, and surprise - another wedding! We walked towards the water and found a nice outcrop looking out to sea, and a bit of a walk on the rocks which led to a part of the inlet opposite from the town and the beach. Very pretty. We had lunch at an outdoor cafe over there, which had a wonderful view, but a pretty unappetizing prociutto crepe - waaayyy too salty. Now in the afternoon doldrum, we almost decided against the climb up La Rocca.

We decided to walk over to the rock to check it out and little by little, made our way up with a goal of seeing the Tempio di Diana ("o.k., I think this is enough...this is a pretty view....I'm good with going down w/o seeing the temple...o.k., we'll go up a little more"....repeated every 15 minutes or so). There is a guy up there taking a count of people heading up La Rocca, just to be sure the same amount of people head off of La Rocca, which was reassuring. We made it up to a ruined stone building (Note to Cefalu travelers - wear good hiking shoes or sneakers!), assuming it was the temple. Click,, click of cameras, only to find a sign pointing up toward...Tempio di Diana. So up we went. We did make it to the Temple, and off to the side, found remains of what looks like a defense wall, and a spectacular vista of the town below and the sea beyond. Incredibly blue waters, and the golden city which looked a bit like a puzzle from our height. We were so inspired, we decided to make a shot for the highest point - (I think an Apollo Temple). Well, the path became more steep as we went higher, and as my friend had a bad ankle, and I was quite frankly pooped and extremely hot, we decided to call it a day. We made our way (carefully) down, and at one point I turned around to what looked like a flock of sheep charging us. I shrieked and we ran a few steps...once I got my senses and saw that they turned their course when they saw us, I turned to get closer to take pictures (my friend thought I was crazy). Ultimately, I'm not sure if they were sheep or goats, but who knew how scary they could be?

After that, we made it to the bottom w/o further ado, and toward a gelateria for a well deserved dessert, and a little bit of a nap on the (only 20 minute delayed) train ride back to Palermo.

On our last morning in Palermo, we made our way to the bus stop (on the side of the train station) to make our way to Agrigento for the day. I'll try to come back soon for the next installation!

I like your description of Palermo, it is an intriguing place, not like anywhere else I know. Romance + a degree of edgy dereliction. And good-looking men.

Robin: thanks for this ( and for your good humor!)

Tarquin - I can't believe I left out a description of the men!!! You're so right, there does seem to be a higher concentration of very good looking guys everywhere you look. And they are kind enough to boost one's ego everywhere you go, with comments of "Bella" as you walk by. Back home here in NY I'm feeling quite ignored!! LOL

This is great--please keep on!

Agrigento

We took a bus from Agrigento (left right on schedule!) with our luggage. We had found out that the train station had lockers, but when we arrived, we realized that going to the train station would have been inconvenient as we needed to get back to the bus stop for our bus to Catania. The office for the bus company was locked for no apparent reason, so we waited for a bit (with a few locals, also waiting for the bus office to open), and a very serious man showed up and unlocked the door. For some unapparent reason he had us wait a bit longer before letting us in. We confirmed the time schedule of the buses to Catania, and details of how to get to the Valley of Temples (the bus was across the street), and then per favore-d him a few times to stash our luggage. He nodded, still veerrrryyy seriously, and after lodging our luggage in a corner (I know, a risk, but it was a small office and we took the chance), off we went.

It wasn't clear from my guidebook (or the guy at the bus company) how the whole visit goes. You see that there are ruins in a row, but it seemed as if you might have to get on and off the bus. On the contrary, we were happy to find out that there was just one bus stop which left us off near the ticket office. Then, it was a lot of walking (I recommend bringing a bottle of water along). The temples are set beautifully on high ground overlooking some farms and then the blue blue sea. There was a sculpture exhibit going on, and at the Temple of Concord they actually incorporated some beautiful sculptures in and about the temple. There was also an art exhibit in the small palazzo on the grounds.

Even after reading up on Sicily before coming, I hadn't realized just how much Greece figures into the island, or at least, the extent of which it does. Like most aspects of travel, being there makes it real. I've not yet been to Greece but will likely be going next year so this was a nice preview.

I don't think I mentioned anything about the weather yet, but it was gorgeous for just about the entire trip. This day was no exception. The views of the temples with the clear blue sky and the blue sea in the background was spectacular.

After getting our fill of the site, we started thinking about catching the next bus to Catania, where we were catching another bus to Siracusa. Unfortunately, we had to wait some time for the bus back up to the town, which was quite unnerving. It was going to be a 3 hour bus ride to Catania, with no rest stops - and no WC on the bus. So we needed to get back to the bus stop, find a WC, find food (having missed lunch), and purchase our bus tickets. All in about 7 minutes. Well, we got everything except for lunch and made it on the bus by the skin of our teeth. Luckily, we had both packed snacks!

The bus ride across Sicily was beautiful. Rolling hills, changing landscape from brown to green, abandoned stone farmhouses...I was reading a good book but kept looking up as I didn't want to miss much.

We finally made it to Catania, and had an hour or so to wait for our connection. We were advised to get off in Catania proper instead of the Catania Airport to catch our next bus (from a different bus company), as the ticket office and connecting bus would be much closer to where we stop. We purchased our tickets, and picked a bar (bars in Italy are a place to get espresso, panninis, desserts and more casual than a restaurant) on the corner across from the bus lot to grab a bite. I had what proved to be the best arancine (rice ball of the entire trip). The proprietor laughed at me when I asked for a fork, motioning that I'm supposed to eat it with my hands (I'm from Brooklyn, I know all about rice balls, trust me!). I laughed and said it was too big, and he shared the laugh. After stopping by to see if I liked it ("Delizioso!!!"), he came by again with a few cannoli for us to try. More deliciousness. I don't know about you, but my experience of dining across the street from bus lots usually aren't this rewarding - or as appetizing. I'm sorry to say I can't remember the name of the bar. After indulging, and profuse thank yous, we caught our bus and were on our way to Ortygia, Siracusa - but I will leave that for my next entry

Great report...looking forward to more!

We arrived in Siracusa at night...it didn't seem like it would be too far to walk to our B&B from the bus stop, and it wasn't obvious how else to get there, so walk we did. Boy do I wish I knew that there was a local bus we could've taken, or how to get a taxi! I'd call it about a 20 minute walk, with all the luggage...not too awful, but not the best. I was glad that the B&B we chose was right near the bridge into Ortigia and easy to find, so we didn't have to tackle finding our hotel in the maze within the town.

L'Approdo delle Sirene had a small lift that brings you up to the main floor reception, where we were greeted warmly by the proprietress. She was incredible - right on the spot, explained most anything we would need to know, and gave us a tour of the place. There was a flight of stairs up to our room, but she had her son and his friend help us up with our luggage. It was spotless. Our room was shiny white; not too big, but with a skylight and good AC. The bonus - each room has its own little laptop with free internet connection! I thoutht that was a great idea!

We freshened up and found the part of town she recommended for dinner and a bit of liveliness. We took a stroll along the water and found a beautiful fountain with papyrus growing, all lit up. It was pretty late, but we found a place to have dinner. It wasn't remarkable in any way, but we got to dine alfresco as they projected a soccer game onto the wall of the restaurant outside.

One thing I forgot to mention about Palermo that held true here were the street vendors - they come over to your table, no matter how deep you are into food/drink/conversation and try to sell you toys, roses, gadgets, you name it. They are not easy to get rid of (assuming, like me, you want to get rid of them). A polite "no grazie" doesn't do it; I found we had to be very firm, or even just act like they don't exist - I saw an Italian person actually say (in Italian) - "go away!" They even come into restaurants.

Anyways, after a couple of drinks, we headed back to the room through this serene town. We walked through Piazza Del Duomo - all lit up with golden lights - and we were the ONLY PEOPLE THERE (by the way, the Duomo is fascinating, they built it incorporating into its walls the ancient Greek columns that were from a temple that was there first). When are you ever in a main square in a town like that? It felt like a movie set. We continued to Piazza Archimede, with its famous fountain, and again, it was serenely quiet, as was the Tempio di Apollo. A wonderful introduction to the town.

We had a good amount of time to soak it in over the next couple of days - the Archeological Park with its Greek and Roman theaters (took a local bus there; actually riding for free as we couldn't find where to buy the tickets the driver just waved us on), the Archaeological Museum which was fascinating, and of course the Duomo, the pretty Palazzo Bellomo with its art museum, and a boat ride too.

I have to say one of the wonderful things about Ortigia was also our B&B. Breakfast was served on the rooftop, and it was delicious - all home cooked. The owner does Sicilian cooking demonstrations; we did not sign up for them but I think we still benefited. Besides the usual croissants and Nutella (which I love), there were home made spinach tarts, pizza, and fruit tarts and pies. The cheeses and meats were also wonderful. All overlooking the harbor. Wonderful.

I unfortunatly do not remember the name of the restaurant we liked, it was on a terrace overlooking the water on the west side of the island, but I can tell you I was not impressed by the restaurant Ortygia. However, they were playing a trivia game (in Italian, naturally) that was interesting to watch even though we couldn't understand one word of it. One day we actually had Chinese food for lunch (I can eat pasta every day, but not at every meal!), which was delicious. I think it was called Shanghai Cinise, but I'm not sure, and I'm probably not spelling it right anyway!

If you're looking for a place to grab a drink, town has a lot of nooks and crannies, bars in a courtyard that, if in NY, I'd probably never dare to go in. There was a nice jazz bar in such a courtyard, and other cool spots like that.

During our stay in Siracusa we met a few locals and had some interesting conversations. One of my favorites was the guy who said, "what is star bucks?" - he'd never heard of it. Sicily is my kinda place!

I say to the person here on the discussion board (sorry, I don't remember who!) who gave me advice to cut one day off of the Taormina leg and add it to Siracusa, thank you!!! It was excellent advice! Like all good things, this ended, and we caught a morning train up to Taormina for our last stop in Sicily. More on that another time...

Thanks, fabulous read thus far, and as a classic reductionist I will be asking you (when your report is finished)what the greatest highlight/disappointment was you experienced.

Robin,

Thanks so much for this trip report. Sicily is my next trip and it has been long delayed, but I just can't wait. Nice to hear your experiences and impressions!

I'm back after a bit of time to share our experiences in Taormina. The train ride up went very smoothly, and upon arrival the man in the station information office was very helpful - provided maps and advice on how to spend the 2 days we would have there. We found out that we would have limited choices with visiting Mt. Etna, as there are only certain tours on certain days. The bus up to Taormina leaves from right in front of the train station - sit on the right side for breathtaking views of the water and have your camera ready! If you have a weak stomach, you may not want to sit in front; a lady up there was having a hard time with all of the tight turns.

Our hotel was very conveniently located from the bus station, when pulling wheeled luggage up a hill it's a good thing to not have too far to go. Pension Svizzera was very nice, and the staff very helpful. We had reserved a double room on-line, and found that it was street level, dark, with cars driving right outside the window and quite noisy. The hotel receptionist said that my confirmation noted that it was a room overlooking a small street; I just did not realize that it would be so unappealing. For 25 euros per night more, they offered to change our room to a triple as double room higher up in the hotel. We were not thrilled with having to pay more, but it was well worth the extra money - the room was much larger, and had a large balcony with mountain views. Ahhh!

With that settled, we walked up the road and stopped enroute for a quick bite - a pizza and a rice ball. Not as good as the rice ball in Catania (none other on the trip could compete with that one), but gobbled it up just the same. We eyed the case of gelato, but decided to refrain until we deserved it after more walking.

The main street in Taormina is just for walkers, no cars. This did not mean it wasn't congested. Immediately upon arriving in Taormina I was struck by the number of tourists - much more than the other cities I was in. Maybe it was just the concentration of tourists, but it just did not feel as much like a lived-in, authentic town as the others we visited in Sicily. Nonetheless, it is very pretty, and with spectacular views (and tons of shops). We found our way to the Greek Theater, which was as spectacular as I had heard. It was a hazy day, so it was hard to see Mt. Etna in the distance. We got the audio tour, which was a good move. Unfortunately, it was a bit difficult to hear with a guy on stage (very badly) playing the bag pipes. When a guard came to ask him to come down (there was a sign prohibiting people from going on the stage), he loudly protested, "Why? Isn't this why we liberated you people?" How embarrassing. And people were actually clapping for him and yelling "Encore!". Just awful. (not to get political, but wasn't the US at war with Italy, not liberating them? Either way, I'm sure it wasn't so some guy could live his dream of bad bagpipe playing on one of Sicily's most lauded stages). There are spectacular views from the top tiers of the theater and its surroundings, so well worth the climb.

From the theater, we had well-deserved gelatos and made our way to the Villa Comunale, a beautiful park with amazing views. There's a small fountain with pretty, colorful birds swimming around, and interesting houses/pavilions. There's also a small playground, which could be a good stop if you have children (we ourselves had fun on the swings!). That was the most of it; we kind of meandered around, stopped in churches (saw another wedding), the small Museum of Art (if pressed for time, I'd pass), and various shops. We were pretty tired, so stopped for an early dinner at Bella Blu (we were the only ones in the restaurant at about 7:00p.m.) which was good - but the real highlight was the view. We had planned on a nap then going out for a night on the town, but wound up just staying in for a much-needed nap.

Day 2 was reserved for beach and volcano. We took the gondola down to the beach (the hotel lent out beach towels) and made our way down to the beach near Isola Bella. It is a rocky/pebbly beach, very pretty. There are women there peddling massages for good prices; my friend had one and was in heaven. Unfortunately, while walking across the narrow strip from the beach to the Isola, I slipped in the water on a mossy rock and fell - and my camera was submerged! That was it for picture taking for the rest of the trip (I eventually gave in and purchased a disposable, but it wasn't the same). After a couple of hours of sun and relaxation, it was time to get back up to the hotel to get ready for Mt. Etna.

We had purchased tickets for the sunset Mt. Etna tour for 75 euros, which was the only one being offered during our stay. A regular-sized bus took us to a stop at the base of the north side of the volcano after going through a few interesting towns, including one with buildings made with lava stone, and one with a cemetary with beautiful headstones and mausoleums.

At the base of the volcano, you can see the results of the 2002 eruption - a hotel buried in the lava, and the remains of ski chair lifts. There was about an hour wait at this time, perhaps for visiting the souvenier shops and the small cafe. At this elevation, you can already start to feel the chill - I was glad to have brought a long-sleeved shirt, zip up sweater, and fleece jacket (the only time on the trip I actually needed the sweater and jacket). After the wait, we (about 25 of us) piled into a huge jeep-like vehicle,which took us to ever higher (and windier and colder!) stops up the volcano. There is some vegetation as you go up, except at the highest heights. I expected it to be black, but like a hard black river. Rather, it is tons of black rocks of differing sizes, from pebbles to boulders. We were told we could take some rocks. I took a few, and my nephew was never so excited by a gift I've given him. It became foggy, and we were above the clouds. We could not go to the other side of the volcano to see the actual sunset, but the colors changing on top of the clouds, with the black peaks peeking up was spectacular in itself.

We were informed (early in the trip) that after the tour of the mountain, there would be a stop for dinner, but that the cost was not included. It seems as if there must be some sort of agreement (or perhaps the tour operator owns the restaurant) as the dinner is at about 6:00p.m. - very early for Italian standards and returns to Taormina at 10:00. I didn't think there was a need to stop (and initially was very unhappy about it), but we were at their mercy. Luckily, although there were limited choices the dinner was delicious, as was the local wine. They were amenable to our request to alter the set menu (e.g., no salad), and once the entire party was done eating, we got back into the bus and back to Taormina. We had another quiet night, and the hotel was nice enough to arrange breakfast for us (they have an extensive breakfast buffet, with hot and cold food) early as we had a 6:30a.m. bus to catch to the Catania airport. On to the next leg - Capri via Naples!!