Going end of March0- beginning of April - would like recommendations for a nice place to stay as a base for 5 nights. Reasonable Priced but clean, cheerful and maintained well.

Sicily is a large island with many points of interest.

If you gave some indication of the city or area that interests you, it would be easier to make suggestions.

We will be there or 5 days - Still working on itinerary - Day 1 Palermo, Day 2 Drive to Agrigento and onto Syracuse for night or two and then to Taormina for 2 or 3 nights? How far a drive is it between these cities? Open to suggestions.

Given your plans -- and since you have only very lmited time, it seems a good mixture of Sicily's high spots; I might add a night to Palermo and take it away from Taormina -- there is no way that you could do it from a single base.

For Palermo, this b&b sounds terrific; I've made a note of it for my next trip to Palermo:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34422854

In Siracusa, I like the Hotel Gutkowski, a funky combination of old and high tech at reasonable rates.

Taormina is lovely, but just too touristed for me. If you put <Taormina hotel> (without the arrows) into the search box, you should come up with many reviews.

I'm afraid I can't help with travel times, as I don't drive, but www.mappy.com is frequently suggested here for such information.

I just read in this months Smithsonian Magazine that Sicily is the size of Vermont. So that might give you some idea of distances. Nice article.

We will be going to Sicily and South Italy with Perillo tours in September. Been there before but to want to go back.