I read your post on Sicily and really appreciate the quality of your thought. I wondered if you would be kind enough to consider my situation. My wife and I are planning a trip to Sicily, Italy and Greece for the fall. We have previously traveled with our kids now 11, 9 and 7 through England and the Northern Continent of Europe and also to Costa Rica. They are real troopers that already enjoy travel. We are planning on going in early October (we are home schooling the kids) and I would appreciate your thoughts on how to lay out the potential 3 week trip to Sicily, Greece and Italy. Is it just too much to try to take in Greece too? Would you rent a car? Where would you start/end the trip. Any decent ideas on hotels?

Thnaks

I am obviously not Nessundorma, but in my opinion, you could easily spend three weeks on Sicily alone. I was there last October, and thought it a wonderful place, although I did not get to see everything.

I found Jim Zurers trip report very helpful: http://www.zurer.com/Italia%202004/index.html

I wrote up my own trip report at :
http://www.microbes.plus.com/sicily2005.htm

Whatever you decide, I would definitly think Greece should be saved for a later trip.

Three weeks puts you in Greece in late October, something I'm not sure I'd be so excited about. I too would suggest 3 weeks strictly in Italy (including Sicily -- and maybe Sardinia?) is certainly not too much, depending on what other areas of Italy you wish to cover. You might even want to do a little side trip to Malta for a few days -- a fascinating place -- and easy to get to from Sicily.

Greece deserves at least three weeks on its own.

Thank you both for your kind replies. It sounds like we should save Greece for a separate trip. Any thoughts on traveling in October vs. September. I was leaning toward Oct. thinking it may be less expensive and less crowded but still pleasent weather wise.

I'd definitely go for October. I just clicked through a few years for October 20th and found mostly temps in the 60s and 70s, sometimes into the low 80's, and no signs of rain on that particular date. Certainly there should be fewer crowds and lower prices.

Hi,

Definitely rent a car. And it would make sense to base yourself on a farm and do day trips. There are a number of possibilities all over the island.

It's difficult for me to know how to answer your questions -- like where to begin your trip -- because I don't know where you are coming from and how much you want to see Sicily's most famous attractions from all eras (and see as many as possible), or whether you want to organize this so the kids learn something about ancient culture. Are you looking for a relaxing vacation, too, as part of this trip?

I'm not sure it is such a bad idea to include some of Greece IF you mainly want to make the trip an educational experience about how the Greeks traveled the Mediterranean and set up colonies. (In which case it would be fun to include Naples).

But there is no reason to force an educational theme if one wasn't already on the agenda. And if you want to experience the incredible variety of Sicily without rushing around, as much time as you can give it is best.

Are your kids interested in volcanos? Spending part of your time on Stromboli might really be worthwhile as well as touring Etna.

Where else are you going in Italy -- and why?

And what were you thinking of doing in Greece?

And -- I might as well ask -- why attracts you to Sicily as a family?

I'd also suggest that you read other trip reports like Jim Zurer's on the Slow Travel website and ask questions over there as well as here because they have a lot of info about rentals and driving distances.

Thank you for your thoughts. We are working a slightly different agenda in that we are flying into Rome around 9/14/06, spending 5-6 days in Rome, 1 day in Florence and then training up to Venice for 1 day. We will then train it over to Milan and catch a flight on EZ Jet to Athens-- terrific bargains are available. We will spend the remainder of our time in Athens and the Islands and fly back out of Athens to Chicago. How does that sound? We are looking at a one week condo rental in the rome area but I think it would be wonderful to stay on a farm and commute if it is not too much hassle.