During our month trip to Italy in September, my wife & I plan to spend a week in Sicily. I want to visit the towns of Mussomeli & San Cataldo, where my father’s parents are from, which are about 40km inland from Agrigento. We also want to see Mt Etna and the Roman mosaics in Piazza Armerina, as well as enjoy some beach time somewhere. I'm thinking of flying into Catania and renting a car (I don't know how else to do all this without renting a car) and maybe flying out of Palermo if that's feasible and worthwhile. Any advice would be appreciated.<BR>Thanks again, <BR>Tony<BR>

Renting a car is the way to do Sicily. Driving is easy and there are a number of architectural sites (Greek Temples, etc.).<BR><BR>The very best advice is to buy a guide book and consult a travel agent. Everything worth seeing will spring to live.<BR><BR>We've made three trips of about a week each and still want to do it again.

Your plan for Sicily sounds like a good starting point; flying into Catania and out of Palermo saves backtracking. We did a similar open jaws itinerary in Sicily this past June for a week. We took the bus from Catania airport to our first city (Taormina) and rented a car there since we didn't need it for the first day in Taormina and you avoid the 14% airport tax on the rental by renting from an off-airport location. We also ended in Palermo and took the overnight ferry from there to Naples. Get your hands on a good map of Sicily, then go onto shellgeostar or viamichelin web sites to map out the most efficient route to maximize your time. Note that the autostrada runs between Palermo and Catania, between Catania and Messina, and if I remember correctly from last trip, also between Palermo and Agrigento. Other routes may be on secondary roads for at least a portion of the trip. <BR><BR>Driving in Sicily, with the exception of Palermo, is easy. Main highways are good and traffic is sparse once you get out of the cities. Some of the smaller roads that lead up to the mountain towns can be windy and narrow but no worse than similar roads in mainland Italy. We also did some daytrips to towns where my family was from. Driving is definitely the quickest way to get to some of these smaller towns as you'll have bus/train connections otherwise. One piece of advice...plan to arrive before or after siesta if you aren't going to someone's house and want to see the smaller towns when they're lively. Siesta really shuts them down from 1:00 until 3:30 or 4:00; you'll find very few people on the streets and maybe one or two bars open during these times. <BR><BR>The coast near Mt. Etna has some decent beach towns. Taormina is beautiful and touristy, depending on the rest of your itinerary, it might be a good base for visiting Mt. Etna and the beach portion of your trip. If you decide to include it, run a search on Taormina and you'll find plenty of information on this board. Palermo also has Mondello beach to its west. <BR><BR>As for Palermo, it really is very worthwhile if you can give it sufficient time. It's a chaotic, gritty, but fascinating city, with sights and treasures from its many layers of history and, as an added bonus, wonderful food. With one week, I'd recommend including Palermo if you can have at least 2 full days there. We stayed at Hotel Joli in Palermo and would recommend it; there's a review on the board here if you run a search. <BR><BR>We went to Agrigento on a previous visit to Sicily. If you are planning to base there, don't miss seeing the Valley of the Temples when they're lit up at night.<BR>

Maddy: welcome back! How was the ferry from Palermo to Naples? How were the cabins? Air conditioning? Cafeteria? On time performance? Crowded? Would you do it again?

Hi GAC<BR><BR>Thanks for the welcome. I did post some comments here recently but I'll recap. I thought the overnight ferry was a great way to get from Sicily to the Naples area and would definitely do it again. It gave us a full extra day in Palermo and was a very relaxing way to reach Naples. <BR><BR>The ship was the Vincenzo Florio - one of the newer ones as you had mentioned it would be. It's quite large and, at least on our trip, very stable. I barely noticed any movement at all. We booked an inside cabin and space for one car. We picked up our tickets day of sailing and were told to arrive at 7pm for the 8:30 sailing - totally unnecessary as most people, cars and trucks were arriving just before 8:30.

The cabin was small but I expected that. It was well-designed though to maximize the space. You entered and there was a bathroom with shower on one side, closets on the other. A desk and chair in front of the closet. And 2 beds against the far wall with a nightstand in between. Cabin was nicely air-conditioned with a nozzle to adjust the flow on the ceiling. The bed was a little narrow but surprisingly comfortable. Bathroom had a decent stall shower but it could have used a better cleaning. Not disgusting but not sparkling clean either. <BR><BR>Food in the cafeteria looked better than it tasted - well at least the lasagna which was mush - but a custard dessert was really good. There was also a restaurant with waiter service, and a bar that served coffee and alcohol. The bar was next to a large lounge with sofas and tvs and there was also a game room, and card room/library. <BR><BR>The ship was pretty full (this was a Monday) and my husband told me that the lounge was quite crowded when he went for a walk later that night.

For a good show, watch the trucks getting loaded on. They ended up putting some trucks in the car hold as they ran out of space. We saw two truckers playing a game of chicken as they were jockeying to be the last to get their trucks on board. One guy didn't get on and he was, as you might guess, pretty animated about his displeasure. <BR><BR>The ship left Palermo around 9:30pm. The next morning, I was sleeping so soundly that I didn’t hear the announcements when we docked in Naples. It is scheduled to arrive at 6:30am but it may have come in early because by the time we went down to our car shortly after 7 it was literally the last one left in the car hold. We couldn't believe it. There were still some trucks unloading but getting passengers and cars off was done incredibly quickly.

Maddy: your description of the cabin on the Vincenzo Florio seems heavenly compared to my description of the cabin on the Pier della Francesca (Siremar Lines, Tirrenia sub) from Lipari to Naples. Two big rigs were loaded at Lipari; they were so huge that I was concerned that they would sink the faily small ferry. And let me keep silent about the public rest rooms! By contrast, the Florio is brand new and BIG. I saw its sister ship, the Rubattino, docked in Naples. Together, they ply the waters between Naples and Palermo daily, year round.

Tony,<BR><BR>Last September, my 2 sisters and I spent a week in Sicily...we spent one day in Mussomeli, which is where our father and grandfather were born...we met several people with our same last name. Spent 5 hours in the pastry shop on the edge of town meeting distant relatives....a great experience. Hope you love it too. We took the ferry from Italy into Messina and rented a car and drove ourselves throughout Sicily....Palermo was a bit dicey (traffic wise) but everything else was great...autostradas were excellent and even the country, mountain roads were an experience. You will love the food....better than food on the mainland. September was very hot....especially in southern Sicily (near Agrigento). Have a great time!!!

Sicily is my favorite place. I would make sure to include Syracusa and the Aelion islands on your trip.

<BR>Maddy,<BR><BR>Your trip sounds wonderful! My family and I are planning a 2-week trip to Sicily as well. I can't wait!<BR><BR>I hope you won't mind some questions coming from this way as our plans evolve. <BR><BR>E

Rent a car on the way out of Palermo make sure you have an international drivers license and all the insurances necessary.<BR>With all due respect to the person that recommended Hotel Joli, if you stay there, bring earplugs.<BR>Stay three days in Palermo,see Palermo visit Mondello,Monreale. Drive to nearby Segesta.<BR>If possible go to Sciacca stay there 2 days at Hotel Delle Terme,from there it's an easy trip to Agrigento and Selinunte. Go to Taormina for 2 days stay at the Villa Fiorita, get rid of your rental car,take bus to Giardini Naxos beach which is a real short bus ride. Take a cab to airport in Catania. BTW,for all you want to do, you're going to have to get up real early each day if you are only there for a week.

If you could afford it, stay at the San Domenico Palace when in Taormina!<BR>Beautiful and a great location!