Sicily
 

I am planning a trip in june 2008 to visit Sicily after a cruise in and out of Rome. I am looking for suggestions on travel to Sicily and whether I should rent a car or arrange a driver as I am planning on visiting a couple of small villages north of Agregento where grandparents came from. Suggestions whould be appreciated.

First of all, in my opinion: yes, you MUST rent a car, so that you can enjoy Sicily at the best.
Then, I see, your focus is Agrigento.
Well, depending on how long is your trip, you have to decide which part of Sicily you want to visit.
Let's make a game: look at the map of Sicily and pretend to cut it in two parts: west and east.
Then you decide which part now and which the next time
As you stay in Agrigento, I suggest the west part.
If it is so, I would like to tell you what you have not to miss.
Please, think about how hot it will be, so think also about few days for swimming in a wonderful small isola close to Agrigento: Lampedusa.
June is a very good period to spend there few days and have great dinners, also.

Ciao.

Vincenzo

The port used by cruise ships for Roma is Civitavecchia. The easiest way from there to Sicily is by overnight ferry to Palermo (www.gnv.it or www.snav.it).

If you prefer to fly to Sicily from Rome, check out Windjet or Blu Express.

http://w1.volawindjet.it/

www.blu-express.com

Hope this helps ...

Steve

I would probably fly, there are quite a few carriers and it's a quick flight. I would definitly rent a car. Driving in Sicily was very easy, good sinage, nice roads. Some rural roads are only two lanes so can be slow going if you get behind a farm truck or whatever, but we drove all over for 11 days and never had a problem. How long do you have. I thought our 11 day trip was a perfect amount of time and we saw a nice sampling of the area - Palermo, Cefalu, Erice, Segesta, Selunite, Agrigento, Siracusa and Taormina. We also visited some small towns in the interior mountain region south of Palermo. There are many good trip reports here if you do a search.

Time will be short as we will have been on the trip about 2 1/2 weeks before getting to Sicily. Have been there twice before but this stay will be only to visit those small towns I mentioned and probably stay in Sicily only say 5 days tops.

If you only stay 5 days, then fly to catania or palermo from rome and rent a car at the airport.
If you want to stay in Agrigento itself, check http://www.terrazzedimontelusa.it/en/