Moving to Sicily
 

Going to be living near the Naval Air Base Sigonella, I belive the actual associated town is Motta d'Afferma. I am having some trouble finding any online infor about that area, and as the move isn't final yet I have not gone guidebook looking.
Any advise on the area, or about sicily guidebooks?
I'm really looking forward to hiking Etna, I already did Vesuvio, talk about a view!

I can't believe it: I found a whole Web site devoted to Sigonella Naval Air Base, with all kinds of bureaucratic bumf about rules and regulations and all kinds of good advice about how to get over culture shock, but not a single indication WHERE Sigonella Naval Air Base is located! I don't know how you managed to find Motta d'Afferma, but that name didn't bring up anything on Google.

As far as I can make out (from the Web site of a Sicilian hotel), it is on the eastern coast of Sicily, perhaps at the half-way point between Messina in the north and Siracusa in the south.

You will be close to Taormina, one of the most beautiful and most beautifully located towns in Sicily with a well-preserved Greek temple with a view that can be compared to the one from the top of Vesuvius (Taormina is quite heavily touristed in season), not too far from the foot of Mount Etna, within easy driving distance of Siracusa, where the old part of the city -- almost completely Baroque, with a unique cathedral that incorporates a 6th-century B.C. temple of Athena, the columns of which are still visible, a little worn around the edges, but full of charm -- is on the small island of Ortigia.

Fodor's has a guide book to Sicily, which will probably give you a good introduction to the island.

I hope you enjoy your stay in Sicily: I love the island!

I am pretty positive of the fact that it is at the base of Mt. Etna.Military base websites don't often give much useful information travel wise.

this is all the Sicily website has to say in english about the city:
Motta d?Affermo is a city of nearly 2,000 in the province of Messina. It stretches between the Tusa and the Fosso Mulinello valleys at some 660m a.s.l. The Chiesa Madre, containing a prized painting of Our Lady of the Assumption, and the Chiesa di San Rocco, with an altar-piece representing Saint Rock and Saint Andrew, are its most attractive buildings.

I see I guessed wrong! If it's in the province of Messina, it's farther north than I had placed it in my imagination. Motta d'Affermo may be quite picturesque, but I think you will have to go a little further afield to find the real points of interest in Sicily.

Messina itself hasn't a great deal to offer; most of it was destroyed by an outbreak of Mt. Etna in the 1890s or early 1900s. The medieval city hall survived, which has a clockwork tower where figures parade out every hour on the hour, but that's about it.

But you're then closer to Cefalu, which is basically a beach town with an Arabo-Norman cathedral with a lovely Byzantine-style mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in the apse. And Piazza Armerina, with its Villa del Casale, should be within striking distance. The villa has 4th-century (if I remember correctly) Roman mosaic floors; not the finest Roman mosaics, perhaps, but probably the largest area of Roman mosaics anywhere.

And as you say, it's at the base of Mt. Etna. I'm not a hiker myself, but I think I read somewhere that the best approach to Etna is from the southeast, i.e., from Catania rather than Messina. But that is only a vague recollection on my part...

If you go to Destinations at fodors.com, click on Italy, then click on Sicily, there is quite a bit of information about Sicily available on line before you decide to invest in a guide book.

I gather from your post in the "How do you travel so much" thread that you are already in Italy. If you read Italian, I can highly recommend the Conde Nast Traveller Gold publications. I had their issue on Umbria and found it very good. They have two issues on Sicily that you can order on line for 6.80 Euros (I think) each:

http://abbonamenti.travelleritalia.it/travelleritalia/

(You have to go to the year 2003 to find the issues on Sicily.)

And generally speaking, I find the Cadogan guides very good: they are thorough both on points of interest and restaurant and hotel recommendations.

Again: I hope you enjoy Sicily! And if -- I'm guessing again here, so I may be wrong -- you are now in Naples, I think you might find the much less hectic pace in Sicily a pleasant change.

Sigonella air base is the the Catania airport.

I also live here near Mineo (30 mins from NAS Sigonella). It isn't online or on a map per se because it is a military inmstallation in a very prime location in the med - think security.
It is about 20 ins from Catania. Sicily is brilliant we just moved here one year ago and love it. Culture shock yes, but its Europe NOT USA! Great food, wonderful people, many places to visit and you are in Europe with reasonable fares all over from Catania or Palermo airports (think ryanair!) Any questions email me [email protected]

Town is Motta Sant' Anastasia. We were also stationed at Sigonella but we lived on Mt Etna not in Motta. Motta is town closest to base. Closest city is Catania. It is in Catania district not Messina.