It’s a rush but entirely doable.

I would drop one of the day trips from Palermo and spend more time in the city.

Its my joint favourite city with Charleston and Bordeaux. All are vibrant and fresh to tourism without being mobbed like Amsterdam or Salzburg. The locals still seem to want to talk to you rather than see you as a money fountain.

The food scene is a fascinating mix and the city just has a feel of flourishing since the Mafia appear to have stopped shooting everyone in sight.

Just a note on driving and the ZTL in Palermo, the zone is huge and covers the sea front promenade, it’s really difficult to traverse town without getting caught (I did! ) and some of the ZTL maps are outdated.

Have you booked anywhere in the SE of the island?

Which route are you taking to Selinute?

Early September is still high summer.

The past two years haven’t been too bad but summer can mean 110oF which can destroy whistle stop tours over two weeks. Pick the wrong hotels and you will not sleep at night, the signage on the roads in some areas in non existant and the drivers in Sicily can be a little less than forgiving, it could be stressful and be aware that in some areas the traffic around beach areas is just biblical, easily lose an hour.

I like it a lot. I'd find a way to visit villa casale. That I found our highlight of Sicily.

You do want to explore Valley of the Temples and the Archeological Museum, all are fascinating, breathtaking. . Do not, however, waste any time going up the hill to the seedy city of Agrigento with closed storefronts, unpleasantness.

We heard Monreale was a must. Originally we were going to visit Segesta after picking up a car in Palermo and driving to Selinunte. However, after reading warnings about not leaving luggage in the car, we thought a bus trip from Palermo would be the best option.
We will pick up the car after leaving Palermo, either in town and drive out or at the airport. Which do you think is best?
If by SE you mean Ortigia, we plan to book there.
The route to Selinunte I would use would be whatever Google Maps tells me. My understanding is that GPSs don't work well and Google Maps works best. What do you think? Is there something I need to watch out for?

We haven’t visited in September , just three times, in late October and twice in August. Some of the coastal areas in August were swamped, although as you probably know Italy goes back to work in September just be aware of the weekend traffic.

Ive always found google maps to be creepy accurate, creepy as it can clearly track phone locations and knows when phones aren’t travelling at 50mph in a car ie the software knows where traffic jams are.

One route from Palermo to Selinute takes you directly inland and past Poggioreale both new and old. In 1968 the old and beautiful village was badly damaged by an earthquake leaving most of the houses as uninhabitable.

The centralist Italian government based in Rome came in and spent huge amounts over- designing a new town 2 miles down the road. The best architects in Italy were consulted but unfortunately the residents of the village were not. A new town to house a population of 10,000 was built and they hated it. To cut a very long story short, one family moved to Texas, phoned home and told everyone how great life was and the town all moved over to Texas. New Poggioreale is nearly devoid of life and only 10% occupied.

What’s left is one ancient ruined village which is left with rooms as they were in the day of the earthquake and another village left as a monument to centralised control. One ruined by the power of nature, one ruined by the misuse of power which humans control.

I found it a fascinating insight into social history,

Just up the Belice valley is a further surreal sight. It was decided that the town of Gibellina which was destroyed in the same earthquake should be entombed in concrete. It’s probably one of the worlds largest “art” installations and is a strange sight from miles away. I’m not sure if the artist, Alberto Burri should be too proud of the result. Looks a little like a large piece a the Star Wars Death Star fell to Earth.

While you are in Selinute try to eat at the Planeta vineyard down the road in Porto Palo, the food and wine are high end, Also in Porto Palo is the raucous Da Vittorio, run by a celebrity chef, it is chaos, on the beach, hugely busy, friendly but a lottery, we’ve eaten there four times and it’s varied from some of the best seafood I’ve had (62 countries, 5 continents) to down right awful (send it back). It’s worth a try because it’s usually all theatre, on the beach, very noisy, lots of strange characters and what Sicily is all about. Just don’t get there before 9pm or else you’ll be eating in your own.

Theres a beautiful nature reserve near Noto called Vendicari with large numbers of birds, flamingo and four beautiful beaches.

Ortigia : stay in the old town, dump the car in the car park at the entrance to the island, any further is a ZTL. Everything is on the island and it’s architecture is simply stunning Sicilian Baroque at its best.

If you love Montalbano (we do) many of the old Palazzi which were also used in the Godfather are round the back of Ragusa Isla on the way to Noto. Just drive round and keep your eyes open stock to the country roads and there are stunning old country Palazzi littered around.