I am going on a yoga Retreat in Sicily in early October and am looking for a trip the week before with an easy connection to Sicily (Catania) . I am fairly well teaveld but a few holes in my European visits are Barcelona ( Actually most of Spain), Morroco and Croatia. Any ideas on these and ease with connections to Sicily? Am open to other areas as well. Have 1 week before yoga retreat to flit around

Well I would check air connections between Sicily and any of those - but even flying into Rome is fine - you can take overnight trains to Catania or of course day trains though it is a long haul on slow-moving trains. www.skyscanner.net is one site to scour for possible flights between any two airports.

From Barcelona for something different you can take overnight ferries to Italy as well - nice large ships with lots of amenities.

I use www.skyscanner.net to find budget flights. It has the advantage that you can plug in a whole country (e.g., "Spain") instead of a city, so that you can find the cities that have direct connections, or inexpensive connections.

Morocco is in Africa, not Europe, but maybe you know that.

Have you been to Sicily before? Because if not I would spend that week ON Sicily.

I agree with thursdaysd. Sicily is well worth a week or even more. Consider Palermo, Agrigento and Siracusa before you go to Catania.

I agree with thursdaysd and mamcalice -- if you haven't already been there, spend the time in Sicily! If you only have one week to spare, you'll need to be selective about what you can see in that time.

I'd also consider the Bay of Naples area--overnight ferries run from Naples to Catania. We stayed in Pozzuoli a few years ago on our ways to and from Sicily (Palermo), going back because we liked the area so much. The crossing was fun, if a little rough on the way back to Napoli

However, Sicily is really wonderful so that would be my first choice.