Grazie TDudette,

I thought staying put on May 1 would be best!

I just tweaked a couple of reservations. Changed from Castlemola to Taormina at Hotel Taodomus. I felt since I'm where for such a short time, no sense making the extra trip up to Castlemola and back down again to see the theater in Taormina. Also agree with the comments that Taormina is probably much more enjoyable at night, like many of the main tourist/cruise ship destinations in Italy.

Added the final additional night in Palermo and booked the undecided night in Caltagirone.

Still have to get my head around the idea of moving so often, but after checking the drive distances between hotels, I think I'll be just fine. Most are very short drives compared to what western US residents are accustomed to doing on driving vacations!

Now I have to get on TripAdvisor and get some help with specific details on public trans for non-rental car days....

Even though it's 6 months out, it's going to go by fast!

> Changed from Castlemola to Taormina

I don't think you'll regret it! You might consider dinner at Osteria Nero D’Avola - it seems that it still gets great reviews. My very out-dated comments on it, and a few other restaurants in Sicily, can be found at:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...estaurants.cfm

> booked the undecided night in Caltagirone

I hope that works out as well for you as it did for me!

> Now I have to get on TripAdvisor and get some help with specific details on public trans for non-rental car days....

Or you can search this board (especially for posts by GAC) or check The Rough Guide, which generally provides rather thorough info about public transportation options.

Thanks kja,

I think I booked the B&B you stayed in for Caltagirone (I've learned the spelling :-) ). It looked like it was in a good location for parking.

I have GAC's "Navigating Sicily by Public Trans" bookmarked, but he used different towns/cities with bus hubs and I am not staying in those places.

I wanted to land at Palermo and go straight to Scopello, but my flight arrives too late for the last bus. My B&B has a shuttle to/from the airport, so if I have to pick up my rental car there a couple days early, I can. Right now it's planned pickup in Trapani.

Then I have to get from Siracusa to Milazzo. I believe this route via public trans has been discussed on several threads.

Several trip reports have talked about returning to Milazzo from the Aeolians, taking the bus, then train and on to Palermo so I think that won't be very hard.

Still trying to talk my best friend into going with for part of this. She bookmarked the Lipari vacation rental as a favorite, so I think she's weakening :-)