Ciao! We're planning a 16 night trip to Italy for the latter half of June and I'd love some feedback/advice on a possible itinerary. Just some background: my husband and I are about 40yrs old, frequent travelers, and have been to Italy recently (here are my travelogues from the past few years: https://hitherandthither.net/?s=Travelogue%2BITaly); we have yet to make it south of the Amalfi coast. Our flights in and out of Rome are set; so I'm afraid I can't change to an open jaw. We will be traveling with two children, ages 7 and 4-1/2. They come with the usual challenges, but are good, curious travelers and are accustomed to moving around. We try to keep our budget low, but that's not fixed. We're happy to splurge when necessary for lodging and experiences.
We love photography and food. The kids will love the beaches. (Sand not required though! Equally happy with a rocky shore—and less mess!)

I tend to try to fit too much in to start and have to scale back a little. Not sure where I should do that...

Here's my initial thought. The city names represent lodging for the night:
June 9 Fly to Rome-FCO (21:20 out of OAK)
10 Rome (Arrive 6pm FCO)
11 Rome
12 Rome
13 fly to Bari, rent car, and spend night in Polignano a Mare
14 Polignano a Mare
15 Ostuni
16 Ostuni
17 Ostuni vs Matera
18 Matera
21 Sicily Aeolian Islands?
22 Sicily Taormina
23 Sicily Noto
24 Sicily Noto
25 Flight from Catania to Rome (Arrive late and stay near airport?)
26 Flight home 10:35am FCO to 14:00 OAK
19 Maratea vs Tropea
20 Tropea

Here were my thoughts that got me here:
We've been to Rome before and know we'll find any time too short there. On our most recent visit, however, we skipped the Colosseum and the Vatican--so I'd like to see them with the kids.

For efficiency's sake, I'm thinking we should fly to Bari rather than train to Naples and drive, but if we did the latter we could stop at Herculaneum. On the fence.

Driving from Bari to Otranto is about 200km... about 2hr straight through, but we'd like to spend time exploring Puglia. Towns we are interested in:
Polignano a mare (w grotte di castellana); Valle d'Itria--Alberobello (just a daytrip), Locorotondo? beautiful centro storico, Ostuni (to stay?); Lecce; Otranto

Otranto to Matera = loop back 225km/2-1/2-3 hrs

Matera in Basilicata (1 night?)

From Matera drive to Maratea and take the SS18 coastal road to Tropea.
(440km/6hrs)
Or could skip Maratea and go straight to Tropea—it's 4 hrs (300km) but you skip the coastal drive.
Stay in Tropea (2 nts)

Tropea to Messina is 2hrs (requires car ferry to cross into Sicily)

Siciily:
Aeolian Islands via Messina?
Someone in another forum wrote: "hyrofoil to Lipari, stay overnight and do one or two of the other islands the next day, returning to Milazzo in the evening." Is this a worthwhile endeavor? Worth it to visit the islands if just one night?

Highlights in Sicily for us:
Taormina (1 hr from Messina)
Val di Noto--Ragusa, Modica, and Noto
(2 hr from Taormia)
Valle dei Templi in Agrigento
(3 hr from Noto)

Fly from Catania to Rome (19 ns flghts/day)
Maybe just fly in evening and stay near airport before our morning flight back to California?

What do you think? It's probably a bit too much moving at this point, but which to modify? Are there places where we could stick with one home base and do daytrips from there to minimize moving?
Also, has anyone done the one way car rental into Sicily? Is that usually an option?

Thank you for any advice!

That is very little time for Sicily, and I would spend it in Ortygia, not Taormina.

Are you sure you can see and do what you want in this time frame? I would find it FAR too rushed – and I travel hard and solo.

Like thursdaysd, I would stay in Ortigia, not Taormina (which can be truly and unpleasantly overrun by daytrippers) – but then, I wouldn’t try to fit Sicily in unless I had at least 2 weeks. JMO.

I urge you to decide on what you most want to see and do and plot it out on a calendar. As you do so, remember your opportunity costs – all the time you spend moving from region to region is time you are NOT seeing or doing anything IN any of these wonderful regions.

Good luck!

That’s helpful—it’s the first anyone has mentioned Ortigia and two votes!
I agree that it’s too much moving as it stands, but I wonder: if you wanted to combine Puglia and Sicily, how would you do it? With two weeks, it seems like we should be able to split the time. Which home bases would you choose? I’m not sure we will ever be able to give a full 2 weeks to Sicily. What’s the minimum number of days that make going that far South worthwhile?

I did combine them -- in a trip of 3.5 weeks. I personally wouldn't do it with 2 weeks, but of course, you can see some wonderful things if you are willing to devote that much of your time to transportation and are willing to skip a LOT of the things many consider most special about these locations. And as often noted on this forum, Sicily does not lend itself easily to home bases.

What the minimum number of days would make it worth going anywhere FOR YOU is something none of us can say. You would do well to consult some decent guidebooks, check opening / closing hours on the web, and plot things out on a calendar.

Good luck!

Why not consider taking a train Rome to Bari in just under 4 hours - two fast trains daily leaving at 8am and 3pm - as quick as flying really and you'll see the lovely countryside in between - city centre to city centre. And, there is a direct ICN Inter-City-Night train too - get a private compartment and bring any drink or food onboard and mellow out - ultmate time saver.

Get really cheap tickets at Acquista il biglietto con le nostre offerte - Trenitalia - www.seat61.com has didactic info on booking own discounted tickets online -other sites good for general train info like what to expect on overnight trains - BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

And there is an overnight train from Catania and other Sicilian places to Rome too.

I hadn’t considered taking the train—but of course! Yes! That’d be much more pleasant. Thank you for the links!

I have my doubts if you mean the night train. I did Naples to Siracusa by day train, and it was pretty ancient rolling stock, even though it was an Inter City. It took forever, too. Admittedly, you might get to sleep some of the way on a night train, but you will certainly not get to sleep until after the ferry crossing - after midnight. I would recommend booking a sleeper rather than a couchette.

There are ferries from Palermo to Naples and Rome which I would think would be better bets for a night's sleep, but it's not clear there is one from Catania to Naples, and the Messina to Salerno ferries leave at 2:30 in the morning.

Yes overnight trains are not for everyone.

There are night trains and night trains. I have slept well on some, and got no or little sleep on others. I suspect that the train from Sicily may be one of the others.

I took an overnight ferry from Milazzo to Naples, which worked well for me, but I don't know if it still runs or would be convenient for you. I reached the ferry by public transportation from Taormina, spent a few hours on Lipari (which I wanted to do -- you may be able to catch a later ferry for a more direct routing), and then the overnight segment through the Aeolians (several islands as dusk set in; Stromboli after it was dark), past Capri and the Faraglionis at dawn, and into Naples shortly thereafter. You should be able to explore your options on rome2rio.com

We like your general itinerary. That’s the way we like to see things. A few comments:

PUGLIA: If you are interested, here is a link to our trip report on Puglia: 7 days/6 nights in Puglia
Polignano a Mare, Alberobello and Ostuni were all great. Locorotundo not so much except for a great little historic pastry shop. As a base, we would favor Lecce, a very vibrant affordable town. One of our best bases ever in Italy.

MATERA. This may be the surprise of your trip. Watch the latest Ben Hur movie or the Passion of Christ before you go. We took photos where movie scenes were made and combined them with actual scenes from the internet in a little trip book when we returned. Your kids will love this place, and the hike amongst the caves across a rope bridge from the old town. Stay more than one night.

TAORMINA. You like photography, and busy or not, it is simply one of the most beautiful spots anywhere especially from the ancient theatre. Admittedly we stayed there during a warm November but most days you will be out and about when day trippers are there, and when you return, you will enjoy a relatively quiet evening in dazzling Taormina. Siracusa and Ortigia are worth a visit (we did a day trip by rail from Taormina), but it didn’t feel like a base to us. We have based ourselves in Palermo and Trapani in the past to see Greek ruins, etc., and liked both of them.

Well, everyone's experiences are different. But I found Ortigia to be an excellent place to stay as well as a base, and aside from the view really didn't care for Taormina. And you don't have to stay there to appreciate the view. Once you have checked out the view, the theater and the communal gardens, there is nothing to do except escape to Castelmola for the same view with fewer crowds.

I have not visited Puglia but I just wanted to drop a line and say that I will be looking forward to reading your trip report on your blog. I love the fact that you have been traveling with your children since they were babies. Oh! And thank you for making me discover Elephant Hills.(planning on going with my own kids).

I haven't really applied my mind to the rest of your trip but as you are locked into round trip tickets, why not put your nights in Rome at the end of the trip? That will put you in the right place for your flight home and save last minute stress and effectively give you another night.

When I travel I try to get the most value for my time and money. To me, that is concentrating my sightseeing more than what you have planned. From your planned itinerary, it seems Sicily is just an afterthought compared to Puglia. I would not bother for only 4 days.

I also think you are greatly underestimating the time and effort it will take to get to Sicily even though it may seem you are "that close". Your plan shows 4 days, but really you only have 3 full days and two half days. You have to allow for getting there and back to Rome.

Personally I did not care for Taormina. I liked the other Greek theaters I visited just as much (Segesta and Siracusa). I loved the Aeolian Islands, but I was there for 5 nights. I wouldn't bother if only for 1 night. If I were to recommend a place for your 3 days, I would also recommend Ortigia. You can easily enjoy 3 full days there and in the historic sights of Siracusa. If you really ran out of things to do, you can take a short train trip to Noto.

I would sit down and decide what your priorities are and focus your short time on those.

That's wonderful! You'll love it!!
It's been exactly a year since that trip and I think about it all the time—wish we were back right now!

Thank you all so much for the thoughtful replies. We're still working out the details. I'm having a hard time with the idea of letting of Sicily, even if we will need to concentrate our stay.
I looked at putting our Rome nights at the end of our trip, but we arrive fairly late and I'd be worried about making a connection that first evening.
So we will rent a car from Termini station (as we did on our last trip to Italy) on the 13th and drive to the Puglian coastline. I'm still thinking we'll split our bases for 2/3nights each—maybe Ostuni and Lecce?—rather than choose one. A lot of the Masserias I'd been considering are already booked up or too expensive, otherwise that would have been a more tempting solo base.

Then, we'll take out the two nights in Tropea (or should I keep one?), and add those to the Sicily portion.

So we'd arrive in Sicily on the 19th or 20th and have at least 5 nights there. Our last day we'd likely leave out of Catania late (returning our rental car and flying out around 5 or 7pm) to FCO and then stay close to the airport before an early flight out of Rome to California.

I have a few remaining questions I'm trying to address:
--which two bases do you prefer in Puglia? We look forward to strolling and taking in the town's feel, and swimming, most of all, and will probably spend at least one day driving around, stopping in Alberobello.
--do you have a favorite hotel in Matera? Everyone suggests Sextantio... which looks incredible... but it's 600 euro/nt for that time. I'd love to find something in (or under) the 200-350 range.
--Back to the Sicily question... I realize 5 or 6 nights is still short of perfect, but I think that's the best we can do on this trip.
If we take out Agrigento and the Val di Noto and concentrate our time around Taormina and Syracusa (Ortigia), might we also include an overnight in the Aeolian islands? Thoughts on basing ourselves if we split those 5-6 nights into two places?

Thank you!

I enjoyed the Hotel Caveoso in Matera. It's built right into the sassi and some of the rooms have wonderful views of the church on the hill directly facing it. Ask for one of the rooms that are reached by the outdoor stairs facing the church. I was there in 2009 and it was very reasonably priced. Rooms were spacious and comfortable. Read my trip report for more info on Puglia.

As for the Aeolian Islands, I once took a day trip that went to Lipari and Vulcano and one other island I can't recall. It left from Taormina via Milazzo and really was quite enjoyable. If you want to get a little flavor of the islands it is very worthwhile. With your very limited time in Sicily I think a day trip is preferable to an overnight. You can actually do it on your own - train from Taormina to Milazzo (frequent hydrofoils to Lipari). You'll need to take a bus or taxi from the train station to the hydrofoil.