TOMMMO,

Lucky you -three weeks in Sicily. I didn't have time to read every suggestion her, but must put in my vote for my favorite place on the island - the OLD CATHEDRAL in SIRACUSA.

It's built around the remains of a Greek temple - breathtaking.

Enjoy Sicily...

yeskathy,

I would not recommend "just driving around and stay where you want" for Ragusa/Modica. I believe you have been to Italy before, so you should know that most lodging options are small. Not huge hotels where they have hundreds of rooms needing to be filled. With time a consideration, the last thing I want to do on my trips is have to go from hotel, to hotel, to B&B, trying to find my way while I try to find availability. I prefer to know where I'm going and spend the time in planning at home.

I stayed at Il Gigliotto near Piazza Armerina, a wine estate. Beautiful views, gardens, pool and buildings. So so dinner, pretty good wine. Reasonable price - if you want an idea for an agritourismo near Villa Romana.

bmk -

>I would not recommend "just driving around and stay where you want

I have to agree with Dayle. In Modica, all of the boutique hotels are buried up the hills so you can't even see them from the road & Ragusa Ibla is a drive in/park/drive out kind of place. Book ahead & have a good map or GPS co-ordinates.

Ian

I must have missed the post where somebody suggested "just driving around and stay where you want", but this phrase in quotes this isn't a straw man, I personally wouldn't hesitate to go without reservations in Sicily in October, even in Ragus and Modica, provided I have an internet connection and can book through booking.com. If you want a boutique hotel, you can do some research beforehand and scout out the likely targets.

What is definitely a straw man is that improvising, freewheeling travelers in Italy go from hotel to hotel and b&b to B&B looking for a place to stay. I do it all the time and am glad I am not locked into hotel reservations long in advance. In fact, I learned this lesson in Modica, when my husband had some severe allergy attacks and it would have been better had we stopped traveling for a night, but we were already booked in Modica, so we felt obliged to press on. I quite enjoyed Modica (he stayed in the room with the air con!), but we vowed the next time we would either eat the hotel cost or, better still, not bother making reservations months in advance. There were other spots in Sicily where we might have stopped and spent the night on a whim (Ragusa, for instance), had we not hammered in our plan with hotel reservations so early.

Different strokes, horses for courses, etc, and of course for some people the "last thing I'd want to do" is an accurate description of how they approach travel. But there is nothing about Sicily, except in the most touristy places like Taormina, that means you can't go road-tripping freely. There is plenty of accommodation, with little risk of being homeless and lost.

I agree with Sandra. I think finding hotels via Internet as you travel would work well in Sicily inOctober. We did it a bit in May with no trouble. A couple times we had to contact more than 1 place, but eventually got a bnb. We tend to like small places so we generally contacted small inns and B and B's. We met 2 couples staying at our small hotel in Palmero and that is how they were doing their entire two week stay with no problem.

This all sounds quite lovely and is starting to feel quite easy, driving in Sicily notwithstanding.
I have a few more questions that I am hoping you great Fodorited can help with...

We have a Garmin GPS with Europe maps that are supposed to be 2014 although they didn't seem that accurate when we used them in 2014 in Greece. Is it worth paying quite a lot for 2015 ones?

Also I have looked for the recommended Michelin maps in Australia but can only find very old ones. Others would have to be brought in from UK and can take ages. Will I be able to buy reasonable maps in Sicily and the mainland? Any recommendations about what is best?

I won't have gps on my phone - don't use global roaming and usually just buy the cheapest local sim for emergencies.

On that point - is it easy to buy a local sim when we get to Catania - if I was able to buy one in Naples airport (we have a few hours to wait there) would it be ok to use in Catania or are they area specific??

yesshekathy,

I found the driving I did in Sicily very, very easy, and I drove for 9 days solo. I did use my own Tom Tom gps and it worked well for the most part. You really have to expect that it won't be perfect in the ancient towns where sometimes it can't tell the difference between an actual road/street and a stairway with a road-like name.

If I can't easily find my hotel within a few tries and a couple of go 'rounds, then I try to find a parking place nearby and find it by walking a short distance. This worked well for me in Scicli when I arrived on a hopping Friday evening with lots of traffic. I knew where my hotel was, but there was a very clear ZTL sign so I didn't dare chance it. The Hotel Novecento explained that I could drive in and park in front, so I did. No problems, no tickets, but I was glad I checked.

As for the phone, I just bought a 90 minute international block from ATT and that was almost exactly what I used over 3 1/2 weeks. For me this was only $1.00 / minutes USD.

Hope this helps, buon viaggio!

A Garmin with 2014 maps will do. Our maps are much older and we travel all over Europe with them.

Local sim cards with a few GB of data shouldn't be expensive and can be used all over Italy, including its islands.

I just booked for about 2 weeks, flying into CTA and out of PMO.

But now, I'm wondering about flying out of PMO because I want to get to the Aeolian islands for 2 or 3 nights and also want to spend 5 or 6 days among Ortigia, Noto and Ragusa.

The logistics for getting from Taormina to Milazzo are tough though, because I won't pick up a car until after the Aeolian islands.

Also wanted to do one of those night boat tours to see Stromboli erupting. However, most of the tours I could find departed from Milazzo, some from Lipari.

I did find some from Salina, which is where I was thinking of staying but they only have like 11-hour tours where they take you to Panarea and Stromboli during the day and then in the evening, they take you out to see the eruptions before returning you to the island somewhere around 10 or 11 PM.

What a long slog. Not sure I'm up for it. It would be easier to stay on Stromboli itself but the accommodations are suppose to be better on Lipari and Salina.

@ scrb11 -- is there a question in there? Maybe about the logistics getting to Taormina to Milazzo without a car? If so, you might want to start a new thread -- I think you will be more likely to get info there. FWIW, when I was there in 2007, I took a taxi from Taormina to the train station in Giardini Naxos, a train to Catania, and a bus to Milazzo. I have no idea whether that option still exists. And keep in mind that there is no guarantee that you will see Stromboli erupting -- as I noted upthread, it was quiescent the night I passed it.

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