Hi does anyone have any experience of travelling by train in Sicily please? Is there a regular service between Palermo and Catania, or Taormina? I have tried trenitalia's website which is usually excellent, but it can't find any connections. We are flying to Palermo then heading south but would like to avoid driving if possible....thanks

How far ahead are you searching? Look at schedules for the next month and you'll see plenty of options. Schedules for more than 60 days ahead or so may not be on the trenitlia.com website yet, but schedules won't change much, if at all.

I found routes from Palermo to Catania (changing at Messina), but they tended to be long trips. It would be far easier to take a bus from Palermo to Catania

see http://tinyurl.com/2kj5l4

from the linls on the top right of the page click COLLEGAMENTI REGIONALI
then the blue button marked Prosegui.

In the top box select Palermo in the bottom Catania. This will bring up the times - there is a bus aprox every hour from 5am costing €13
(Sorry, I was unable to provide a direct link).

As a follow up, itt is possible to connect via Caltanissetta, which means the train journy from Palermo to Catania would be around 3.5 hours.

For Taormina use Giardini-Naxos which is the beach town below Taormina and on the rail line.

Hy the train service from Palermo goes or to Catania or to Messina then change train direct to Taormina .The journey takes approx 5-6 hours.As well you can try connection with busses( interbus.it clik on orario) or you can try a cab service from palermo to taormina http://www.sicilylimousineservice.com/sicily/index.htm

We travelled around Sicily by public transport and it was reasonably easy but only used buses. I found that each small area in Sicily had it's own bus company so sometimes we would travel part of the journey with one bus company, then transfer to another bus company. It worked out OK and was fairly cheap. For example, we caught one bus from Taormina to Messina then a different one along the coast to catch the ferry to Lipari.

We flew into Catania, bus to Ortigia, bus to Taormina (actually got off at the town by the sea and caught the cable car up to Taormina) and Lipari by ferry.

Kay

Thanks for all your help, seems I was searching too far in advance on the trenitalia site! I don't think buses are an option as my husband gets sick on them, might just bite the bullet and fly to Catania from Manchester at 4 times the cost of Stanstead to Palermo!!
thanks again

even if the flight is more expensive is more convenient arrive to catania you save time if you need a transfer please do not use taxi outside the airport they are very expensive better to book a transfer before