Here's an apartment not far from where Thursdaysd's stayed. Not recommending it or the neighborhood personally. Don't know a thing about it - never been there at night -- except I did have a wonderful lunch not too far from there at Osteria Paradiso (no menu, no English spoken) via Serradifalco

http://palermoeasytour.altervista.or...a-s-house.html

One more thought -- I am going to repeat my advice that you use a map to mark up all the places you want to visit in Palermo, and then pick an area to stay where it is most convenient to your wish list, then ask here and on TripAdvisor about safety concerns, which I always take seriously. I wasn't afraid walking around Palermo, but I was aware of its reputation and kept it in mind.

oh -- I just saw yestravel's comment about Ortygia.

I stayed for a couple of nights, but I stayed on the corner of the island furthest away from the duomo and the Fonte Artusa, at the end of the long market street that feeds into the parking areas. (Roughly between the Temple of Apollo and the Lungomare di Levante Elio Vittorini). If you come in for a day trip and go sightseeing, or book near the Duomo or Fontane di Artemide, you are definitely going to see mainly touristy areas, and you might not see the areas of town unaffected by that. However, because Ortygia is an island, and so many tourists are attracted to water, lots of tourists wander everywhere, and lots of b&bs are created to offer water views, so I think you will see tourists wherever you go on the island.

But if you are not in Sicily to see lots of sights of antiquity, Ortygia might not be as an intriguing a destination for you as other towns.

we, my wife & i (70), spent 3 weeks last may wandering sicily by car. ortygia was probably our favorite 3 days - many restaurants, in town beaches, museum & gallaries, fab market, excellent street entertainment in evening. our 2nd fav was 4 days on the islands - lipari + day trips to others. liked palermo but 4 days a lot. enjoyed the drive around mt etna. avoid taomina unless you like tour buses and 1000s off of cruise ships in the harbor. noto was our fav of baroque towns. always rented villas for 3-4 days and it was like being at home rather than in hotel or even a b & b. one of our most enjoyable trips ever.

modica was our least fav day - sites in crowded city. ragusa was much better. your style of travel sounds very similar to our except wife doesn't bike. biking in sicily/italy is NOT relaxing. mostly 2 lanes with no bike lane and a lot of trucks and buses. they seemed to be very polite to riders.

Modica remains my favorite memory of Sicily. I enjoyed the city thoroughly, and its food. Liked Noto, but preferred Modica.

Well, we've decided to take a completely different approach. We are going to base in Scicli for two nights and see what we can of the Baroque towns from there. As I understand, they are all fairly close, and we certainly don't need to see them all.

I had tried (unsuccessfully) to start a new and revised thread, but have had no luck. The Fodor's gods are not smiling on me.

enjoyed scicli, most laid back of the baroque towns

"Ortigia--2.5 or 3.5 days."

If you have decided against visiting the Baroque towns from Ortygia, then I would think 2.5 days should be enough. But you might want to think about the things you would want to do there and decide based on that -- after all, none of us can say what YOU want to see or experience or how much time you would likely spend doing that! FWIW, I spent almost a full day at the archeological site and museum in Siracusa, a day on the island of Ortygia itself, and about a half day seeing things I hadn't fit into either of the previous days.

<b>NOTE</b>: The OP started a new thread:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ary-take-2.cfm