As I look at your trip plans, you are not planning to go to western Sicily. If that is the case, you can use the city to city train for travel from Palermo to Syracuse and take bus day trips to Agrigento and Piazza Armerina from Syracuse. The train stops at all the locations you are interested in seeing in eastern Sicily. You will be happy you don't have a car in most eastern locations. Parking is a nightmare. My husband drove in western and southern Sicily. We turned in the car in Syracuse. The driving in Sicily is challenging. It is as bad as northern Italy. Traveling by train was much more relaxing. Have a great trip. Sicily is wonderful, and the food is heavenly.

So, it sounds like the drivers are crazy. Of course, driving in the cities is not a good idea, but when you are driving from one destination to the next - what are the roads like? Are they flat? Are they in good condition? Or, at times are the roads along cliffs (like in Santorini or Crete)?

As I said before -

We've found driving outwith the towns very easy (especially compared to the UK) - the roads were good and quite empty.

I agree with Caroline. I am a pretty squeamish driver and we had no trouble driving in Sicily. Leaving Palermo we encountered the usual maze of one way streets and had the same problem entering Ortygia. Other than that, we found the roads pretty empty and the driving far easier than we had imagined. We drove from Palermo to Agrigento, and on to Siracusa and Taormina where we left the car. VERY easy.

great, thanks!

No cliffs, but Sicily is a hilly island, so the roads are definitely not all flat. Most are in very good condition and outside the towns, they are generally pretty wide. Much wider than one may find in Amalfi Coast, Southwest England or parts of Ireland, for example.

If Palermo is uniquely bad for driving, I presume one could just not use the car in Palermo? Or pick up the rental car on your way out of the city. Is there anywhere to park outside the city and take public transportation or a cab into the city?

Mimar, I have not driven in Sicily so I cannot offer advice on that matter. If you folks do decide to take a tour, I suggest looking into INSIGHT'S SICILY & MALTA tour. Looks great to me. I have not taken it but have gone on several other European junkets with Insight and have found their offerings most satifactory, especially the hotels. I have also been looking at STAY AND VISIT tours to Sicily which look promising although I have no direct experience with them.

In any case, enjoy Sicily!

Is it incredibly difficult to get an automatic transmission car in Sicily? Or, just incredibly expensive? Thanks.

Sally30 :

Last October we rented a car for 6 days, dropped it in Cefalu and took the train to Palermo (45 minutes away).

We dropped our car when we got to Palermo. We had planned to drop our bags at our hotel then drive to the car hire office which wasn't far away, but the hotel offered to take the car back for us and we gratefully agreed ! Having said, that, it's the same as driving in any big, busy city with which one is unfamiliar. (And on the 'wrong' side of the road, for us.)

Tengohambre, I think I picked up an automatic in the Catania airport.

Sally30,

Yes. One thing you can do is use the airport drop-off and take public transportation from there into Palermo.

I do think Palermo is the worst, but the Sicilian way of driving really does a greater amount of assumption that the other driver is prepared to make room for the fastest car on the road. So it gets quite aggressive on open roads. In urban congestion, it's just every man for himself, but since what we're most often talking about is gridlock, all you are going to risk is a fender-bender. That's not the problem.

Also, I tend to be somebody who uses a car when traveling to almost literally "go off the map." I tend to just plunge into the countryside. I'm used to dealing with bad roads in Italy. What I wasn't used to in Sicily was the number of drivers who entered onto roadways (from side roads or gas stations) without stopping to see if there was oncoming traffic. I never quite got used to it the whole time I was there.

I lived in Sicily for a few years, not far from Palermo. The driving is very erratic. Hardly anyone stops at junctions and the parking has to be seen to be believed. You need to be an assertive driver to cope. I found that Panda drivers were the worst, so look out!!!

PS Vis-a-vis not stopping at junctions, the reverse is true on roundabouts where drivers often stop midway despite having right of way!!