Sorry, I was being a bit fussy at noon>>

that's funny, bilbo - i posted something just after noon to the same effect but it's not here! did it appear and disappear or are you telepathic??

Re Siracusa, not sure about the puppet museum which we missed but if you would miss the puppet theatre you would miss a treat - we found it tremendous fun. Otherwise we spent about ¾ of a day in the greco-roman area, and another whole day in Ortigia plus half a day just wandering around and enjoying ourselves. we weren't that fussed about the Duomo to be fair but the whole place is a joy and I'd love to go back. And the food was great too.

If you have so many days in hand, why not go to Venice. You can stay there for 2 days. Also, Pisa can be covered in one day and its very close to Rome.
Cinque terre is also amazing and can be covered in 2-3 days. Think over it.

In Matera, I was very pleased with the Locanda di San Martino, which still gets great reviews. It's added an indoor pool since I was there, and so I suspect the prices are much different than when I stayed there.
http://www.locandadisanmartino.it

I like mangeshbhagat27's idea of adding time to Venice and the Cinque Terre, rather than trying to fit in a few days on Sicily. No matter where you go in Sicily with just a few days, you will (IMO), not get a sense of what that island offers, as it offers too much in too widely separated areas to let you "sample" it in such a short time. JMO.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am still deciding where to go. I'm not going anywhere north of Rome. I just want to see the south on this trip.