Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Sicily Italy Itinerary

Is it possible for you to fly into Catania and put Palermo at the end of your trip? You can rent a car at Catania airport and drive fairly quickly to Taormina, then follow your plan to Erice, drop off your car at the Palermo airport after seeing Erice, and use the airport shuttle to get into Palermo for several days, then take it back to fly home. That way you can skip (if you want to) getting from Palermo to Taormina. But it's no biggie.

Personally I would stay in pretty Castelmola, the town ABOVE Taormina, rather than in Taormina itself because tiny Taormina can get swamped with cruise ship tourists. Castelmola has all the same views -- including a view of Taormina! However, if you want to spend time below Taormina at the seaside, or have reasons not to want to climb hills or stairs, Castelmola is not a good option for you.

Most people prefer staying in the historic, lovely and lively village island of Ortygia, which is attached to Siracusa by a short bridge, rather than Siracusa itself.

I've not been to some of the places you are going, but when I was in then general areas of Sicily you've targeted, I most enjoyed seeing the 'baroque' towns of Sicily -- Modica, Noto and Ragusa. I don't think you have time to add them, but you might want to read up on them and see if you want to subtract some destinations from your present itinerary and add the baroque towns. Up to you. I can't compare. Maybe your choices are better for you!

Finally, Sicily can get whopping heat in June so if you need air conditioning to sleep, you will want to read reviews of lodgings before booking them to make sure other people have found AC lived up to their expectations.

Buon viaggio!