Sundried,

Astonished with the details in your excellent trip report. Did you journal daily while on your trip? We are still in the planning stages and wish we had 3 more days. I have been searching online to purchase the movie "Leaves of the Tree" but no success.

Your beautiful photos bring life to your trip report! Enjoyed immensely!

Thanks plufmud. I have tried to do a daily journal but just can't get inspired when I am tired from sightseeing. So I take photos and use them to remind me of what we saw and did. I sometimes take pictures of signs, name plaques of museums etc so I know where the pictures were taken, because sometimes I don't remember after a few months.

I hope you will have a great trip to Sicily. If you have any questions, just ask. There are a few of us on Fodor's who love Sicily, although we have varying opinions, but sometimes that's a good thing!

annhig, I guess hubby and I have navigated our way around Europe enough times that it takes a lot to put us off driving! Lol. But I must admit this trip I realized how many stairs and hills there are in Italy. And my knees complain about that a bit alright. If you get a chance to go back, you must see Palermo, Segesta, Erice. That side of the island is different again. But yes, Ortigia remains my favorite too.

sundried - I am very keen on getting back to Sicily and on seeing Palermo and that side of the island, the more so since seeing Rick Stein's recent prog from there. But as you say, Ortigia will always have a special place in my heart.

For those interested in Villa Romana del Casale, here is a link to a downloadable guide:

http://www.villaromanadelcasale.it/l...e-scaricabile/

In Italian, but the guide is available in English and several other languages.

What a wonderful report! Not sure how I missed it, but it certainly makes me long to get back to southern Italy! Thank you!!

Thank you ekscrunchy, your trip reports have inspired some of our travels. We like those less touristed places, like you, and good food too!

I continue to read and reread many wonderful Sicily trip reports. We are thinking about a tour guide in at least one site in Sicily and having difficulty deciding since this is our first trip.

We are not staying in an apt. so not interested in the food market tour as we think we can do that on our own.

Places we are are visiting~ with day trips from these bases
Palermo-day trip to Monreale and Cefalu
Trapani- Erice,
Menfi-day trip to Agrigento
Noto
Syracusa
Taormina-do have wine tour Mt Etna arranged during day

Trying to work in Villa Romana del Casale realizing it will be a long drive possibly from Noto.

Anyone can jump in for suggestions/opinions!
Thank you!

Enjoying your trip report as we plan for a fall visit.

Plufmud sorry we are in the middle of a move this week. You may get more response if you start your own thread, which is what I would recommend. We have not done any tours in Sicily but I'm sure others have.

Thank you starrs glad to help.

What an absolutely wonderful report!! Brought back wonderful memories of destinations we have visited and excitement for those still on our wish list. Bravo!

Wonderful report and photos, sundried!!

I enjoyed every minute of it - especially the last part about my favorite place in the world, Sicily! Thank you for posting.

I am sorry I will miss the baroque towns on my upcoming trip but after reading your comments and dodi's on her thread, I've already decided to go back in the spring to see the wildflowers and fill in a few gaps. There's never enough time to see everything...

I, too, have always wanted to see Calabria and will take a day trip, or two, from Taormina - bus to Messina, then ferry to Reggio. The town of Scilla was recommended to me as being very picturesque and easily reachable from Reggio, and with a hydrofoil directly back to Messina, so maybe I'll make a looonnng day of it and get it out of my system.

Thank you again for this wonderful report.

Thank you Panecott, I just caught up with your comment. I think Sicily is my favorite place in the world too.

Speaking of Messina, we never got to check out the Caravaggio paintings there, next time I guess.

On a previous visit, we drove through Scilla on our way north, and thought it looked very interesting and picturesque.

The baroque towns are interesting, and could be combined with another visit to Ortigia, and the coastal areas. My heart is always where the sea is.

bookmarking

Dodi and Panecott,

Just returned from our trip to Sicily and I am so glad you encouraged us to visit Mt Etna. We used Mt Etna People and our guide, Alessandro, was so knowledgable and passionate about volcanos around the world~kinda reminds me of tornado chasers! He drove us to the ski slopes where he operates a ski instruction school in the winter. Wonderful experience! We were with 3 other couples from Holland, UK and Australia and the interaction added to the experience!

Another highlight was visiting Favignana and riding E-bikes around the island.

We stayed at La Foresteria with a private cooking class with Angelo for 4 hours which was so informative, fun and delicious.

Agrigento with our guide, Lorenzo Capraro, was wonderful with his storytelling and history background to explain how and why the temples were built there.
Monreale~no words to explain the beauty!
Visiting salt pans were very interesting.

Again, thanks to ALL Fodorites for your trip reports and opinions.

plufmud So glad to hear you really enjoyed your trip! And thanks for adding info about your tours and tour guides!