leb

I am starting to plan a mid-October trip to Italy. The rub is that my travel companion wants to go to Southern Italy---Naples and then down to Sicily and I want to stop in Venice for the Biennale---something I do not miss. We have a two week timeframe and we could swing open jaw plane tickets. Fly into Venice, stay for 2-3 days (he?s never been to Venice and wants to go also.) and train---or fly--- to Naples? Then on to Sicily? Having never been to Southern Italy, is trying to get to Sicily/Palermo on this trip too much? Or should we skip Naples and go straight to Sicily? I?m concerned that this is just too much ground to cover on a short trip. I appreciate any direction from the experts here on this board.

lscott

Personally, I do not like to cover too much ground on one trip. I love Venice, and I love Sicily. In 2 weeks you should be able to do both if you don not try to cover too much in between. They are two different worlds.

If your companion has ancestry in Napoli perhaps a short visit there, otherwise on to Palermo and Taormina...Agrigento...Siracusa.

Sue_xx_yy

leb

I haven't been to Sicily, but trenitalia has : - ) and this is what they have to say:

The Eurostar train from Venice to Naples (change of train in Rome) takes around 7 hours, arriving 15:20. You have a few hours in Naples before the overnight ferry to Palermo departs from Naples at 20:45: it takes almost 10 hours, arriving Palermo at 06:30. You would, of course, need to schedule time to get back to Rome, say, to fly out.

Alice_Twain

Venice. Naples starts getting into that range of distance in which flying becomes not so unadvantageous when compared to train. Yet two weeks to me seem barely enough for seeing a bit of Sicily (that's a BIG place!).

Alice_Twain

Why get back to Rome? Sicily has two nice and big international airports in Catania (the biggest one) and one in Palermo.

kaudrey

leb - yes you can do it! Just have the correct expectations about how much travel time you need, and definitely look into the flying option. Venice for 2-3 days, consider flying to Naples, spend a few days there, then work your way to Sicily.

Sounds like a wonderful vacation!

jor

Without commenting on the specifics, I think you are lucky to have a travel companion who wants to go to Italy with you. Forget the differences and go for the spirit of it. Hell, I can not even afford to travel this year for the first time.

Sue_xx_yy

Sorry Alice, I should have been more specific. Some North American airlines do not fly into any Sicilian airport; it is necessary to take a connecting flight on another airline into a gateway where the North American airline does fly, which is not infrequently Rome. A friend of mine is headed to Sicily, they have to connect in Rome with something called 'Air One' which, at least in October, doesn't have flights every day. If this should be the case for leb, scheduling, even if going by air, could become important. (Sorry, leb, if my earlier post confused you.)

Alice_Twain

Still flying tpo Rome is unnecessarly: a round trip to Venice costs far less than one way Venice-Sicily (or Naples) and pone way Sicily-Rome. As I have said before, unnecessary to fly into Rome!

leb

Thank you for all of your responses. I feel like the general concensus is to skip Naples and the surrounds and head to Sicily..and it sounds like I should check out flights. Thanks for the heads up on schedules though Sue. Would hate to waste a whole day on the trains/ ferry. As far as sites/ towns in Sicily---Thank you for your suggestions Iscott---I?ll start there! Your input will prove a helpful starting point for my research. Anyone else care to weigh in? And if I could answer anyone?s questions on Venice and specifically the Biennale, I would be glad to!

AP6380

Check out my Sicily trip report, you should be able to gleam just how much there is to see & do in Sicily-

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34412340

I personally think there is just so much to see & do in Sicily you may just want to keep that for another vacation. Perhaps just concentrate on the mainland. I spent 10 nights and barely scraped the surface.

leb

Thank you for the report AP---a very interesting read! I will take everyones comments into consideration and let the planning begin! Now if airfares would go down and the dollar's value go up!

Alice_Twain

leb: well, actually MY suggestion is to skip Venice (which is famous but IMHO not worth speding more than a few hours there: looks fake, although it is real and basically it is too ornate and smelly for me) and spend a few days in Naples (do not forget to visit its undergrounds: Naples has even more underground stuff than Rome!) and than head to Sicily for ten days.

rbrazill

A couple of months ago, I created quite an uproar on this forum for decribing Venice as resembling a movie set. As I recall, Alice was one of the few posters who agreed with me. When you see all those beautiful canal-side houses and realize that no one lives in them, you realize that, whatever its origin or history, this is a place that now exists solely to attract tourists. Some people are OK with that, some aren't. I'm not sorry that I saw Venice, but I don't think I'd go back. And I agree with Alice that it doesn't warrant a lot of time. That having been said, Meridiana airlines has several flights from Venice to Naples or from Venice directly to Catania or Palermo. They all cost about 100 Euro pp each way. Two weeks seems enough to do it all, as long as you don't spend two full days on the train.

Clifton

Just from research but...

http://www.en.alpieagles.com/

Low cost airline going to various cities in Italy on point-to-point tickets. Maybe you could go Venice to Catania and then Palermo to Naples? Both flights less than 100EU per person. Venice to Catania or Palermo = 1:40. Palermo to Naples = 1 hour.