Barb19

We will be traveling to Sicily in late April and I think we will base ourselves in Taormina and Siracusa for four days each. We will rent a car. My questions:
1. How far is it from Siracusa to Agrigento (driving time)? Can it be done in a day trip? How are the roads?
2. Does anyone know the driving time from Siracusa to Caltagirone? Has anyone been there? bought pottery? Is it like Deruta pottery?
3. At Pompeii we were able to hire an English speaking guide at the admission booth. Is this the case in Agrigento?
4. What is the best way to see the sights on Mt. Etna?
5. Any hotel or restaurant recommendations (moderate to expensive) would be greatly appreciated for Taormina and/or Siracusa. Are there better towns to stay in?
6. Good day trips from either city?

Thanks for any help. Barb

JQReports

Hi Barb, can't help you with driving questions, but Caltagirone is worth a trip, and there are hundreds of ceramic shops. (I wrote in my notes that there are 200 stores and 4,000 people employed in the Caltagirone pottery business--and that it was easier finding a ceramic store than it was postcards). If you do go, try to get a tour of the Capuchin monastery--my highlight of Caltagirone.

It is easy to visit Noto from Siracusa, and should not be missed.

shelly10983

We went to Sicily in 2000 with our family. Siracusa is a great fishing village with great restaurants for fish. Don't be surprised when the waiter brings you fish on a platter still with the eyes and heads on the shrimp. But its delicious. We drove from Catania to Agigento in about 3 hours. Agrigento is a great city with ruins and beautiful olive trees on the hillside. We never really bothered with a tour guide at these places as we either brought a book and read up on it or snuck behind one of the tours already in progress that spoke english. Ooooo - Mt Etna - this was fantastic. At the bottom of the mountain you can purchase a ticket that will first take you on a lift ticket part of the mountain, then a moutain terrain van up another part. You can either walk around here way up in the mountains and the clouds or yet walk up a little further with a guide. When we were there the mountain had erupted a couple weeks before and the lava rocks were still a little hot. (sounds dangerous but not at all or I wouldn't have brought my kids there). It was unbelieveable - and very cold - be prepared to wear winter clothes up the mountain - hats, gloves, coats)When you're up at the top - all you see are mountains and clouds. It's the closest thing to heaven you'll ever see. Oh - at the bottom of the mountain you'll see a house that was buried in the lava many years ago probably during the eruption in the 50's. There is a little shop at the bottom of the mountain where you can buy a snack and gifts. Taormina is the best city in all of Sicily. High up on a mountain top - The first thing you'll see is the Wunder Bar Hotel, next little coblestone streets, with stairways with flowers and little pubs and restaurants. All with a german flare. By far - I would stay there the longest!!!I would check out where some of the festivals will be in some of the sicilian towns. They are something to see. Sicily is much different than Rome or Florence. Much of the architecture was destroyed during the war and vocano eruptions and is rebuilt in stark 50's decor. Hope this helps

susanna

I can answer a few of your questions, we were in Sicily for 3 week, 3 years ago.
1. I'm not sure how far between Siracusa/Agrigento BUT the roads are good and the driving is fast so you should be able to do a day trip( I would prefer to stay one night in that area and see a few other things)

2.Caltagirone: I believe it was just about an hour away. I too have been to Deruta many many times and have a lot of pottery from there. Although there are many shops in Caltagirone, I did not buy very much. The cost seemed a lot higher and there didn't seem to be nearly as much variety. Being a ceramic nut, I have to say that I was disappointed. If you do go, the stairs in town with all the ceramic tiles are beautiful and fun to walk up. In this area worth seeing is Piazza Armarina.

5. Hotels: Belvedere in Taormina was very nice...loved the food at A Zammara
Siracusa, Gran Bretagna had been recently redone into a nice reasonably priced 3 *..loved the food at La Foglia. If you stay in Siracusa, be sure to stay on the little peninsula, Ortygia, not the mainland, which I found to be ugly.

Eloise

I beg to differ with Shelly: Most of Sicily was NOT bombed during World War II, and most of Sicily has NOT been built since the 1950s.

It is true that there are certain sections of many or most towns and villages that have ugly post-war architecture, but almost all the historic cores have survived unmarked.

Sicily has architecture built by the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, the Angevins, the Aragonese and the Bourbons of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. It would be difficult to find another place in Europe that is such a palimpsest of cultures.

Sicilian Baroque is a uniquely indigenous style with an exuberance encountered nowhere else. From Siracusa, go to Noto, as has already been suggested, and do not miss the Palazzo Villadorata on the Via Nicolacci (if memory serves). Ragusa is another Baroque Sicilian town that deserves a visit from Siracusa; incidentally, not a single building has been built in the old town of Ragusa since about 1750 (so much for 1950's architecture...). Noto and Ragusa can probably be seen in a day, if necessary.

With respect to your other questions:

Pottery styles in Italy differ from place to place. Caltagirone's pottery generally has geometric patterns with blue and yellow as the dominant colours.

On the east coast of Sicily, Siracusa and Taormina are definitely the best towns to stay in. In Siracusa, be sure to stay in a hotel on the island of Ortygia, the historic centre; the rest of Siracusa is, in fact, dominated by ugly post-war architecture. The hotel I stayed in on Ortygia is probably too modest for your requirements, but I do not think that you will be disappointed by a meal at Don Camillo (moderate to expensive) on Via Maestranza. A very much more modest choice is Da Mario; it is a member of the Slow Food movement and serves traditional Sicilian dishes at unbelievably low prices.

vnh

Just a couple of brief points. The cable cars on Etna were destroyed (again!) in the 2002 eruption when they decided not to bother rebuilding them again. You can go up to the central crater in a 4x4 with a guide but i have a feeling this might only be possible in the summer.
It will still be cold and snowy on Etna in April. I was up there last week and we couldn't even get as far as the Rifugio Sapienza without being turned back by the police because of snow and ice.

But if you do get up there then the Rifugio Sapienza is where the tours leave from - you can take a walk independently but it isn't recommended due to the fact that there are some craters around. There are some souvenir shops up there though and a bar.

If you're going to be basing yourself between Syracuse and Taormina, then you might like to spend a day in Catania. It isn't the most beautiful of cities but it comes alive at night and has a buzz to it. You'll be around for the opera season so it might be worth checking out if there's anything on in the theatre there as it's of a good quality.
I personally really liked Caltagirone but I'm not a great connoisseur of pottery - I thought it was quite inexpensive too but I'm British and we have a stronger currency!
If the weather is good then another place I enjoyed was the Gola di Alcantara which is a little north of Taormina. It is a natural gorge which is apparently where the European and African plates meet and has led to some great-looking geological formations, but April might still be a little too chilly for walking there.
Piazza Armerina has already been suggested and I'd concur with that. I went there a few times and enjoyed the town as much as the mosaics, but then, I have a fondness for the Sicilian interior. If you are going to Piazza Armerina you can also stop off in Morgantina which is an old pre-Greek Siculo settlement which was hellenised. When I was there I was the only person for miles around but it's very well preserved - not quite as good as Pompeii but you can still see the remains of the houses, bakeries, theatre etc and it is a few hundred years older than Pompeii. They have a tiny museum in the neighbouring town of Aidone which some of the things they have found.

As a day trip from Syracuse I'd probably choose Ragusa over Noto.

bobthenavigator

wwww.viamichelin.com for routings, timing and maps.

Barb19

You guys are great! Thank you so much for answering my questions and then some.
Susanna: I, too, have bought many pieces of Deruta pottery. Have you been to any other pottery towns in Sicily (I think Santo Stefano is one) and if so, how is that pottery?

vnh: Do you know what the weather is like in Taormina and Siracusa in April? I thought it would be warm. The Gola di Alcantara sounds very interesting as does Morgantina. I will make a point to visit each one.

Shelly: What time of year were you there? Where is that house covered by lava? That sounds cool.

Thanks again, Fodorites. Barb

susanna

Santo Stefano was on my list but we never made it there, let us know how it is if you go. Even though I wasn't too keen on the pottery in Caltagirone I did buy a few pieces to hang on the fence in the garden, which I am still enjoying today. Another mecca for pottery for me was vieti sul mare on the Amalfi coast, which has nothing to do with Sicily, just thought I'd mention it so that you might be able to compare my taste with yours and decide for yourself if a stop is worth it to you.
We were there in Sept and wanted to go to the Gola di Alcantara but were told that the water would be too cold so I would imagine that to be the case in April. I think you will have beautiful weather and all the spring flowers should still be in bloom.

vnh

As Susanna says, the weather should be warm and sunny in April - it just gets a little bit colder down at the Gola and up the top of Etna for obvious topological reasons - but saying that, the first time I went to the Gola di Alcantara was in May (I've been back in August and it was jam packed - much better when it's quieter).
The funny thing about sicilians (and to an extent all Italians) is they have a type of mentality that summer is June until September and you can't go to the beach out of these times. When I was living in Sicily, I happily went swimming in the sea on my birthday (beginning of November!) as it was a beautiful warm sunny day, but everyone thought I was crazy. For me, it was much much warmer in November in Sicily, than an average August day in England!
Anyway, have a great time, I have a great deal of fondness for Sicily and maintain that it is one of the best places for holidays but to live there - well, another question entirely, but don't start me on that!