I would depart from Palermo becaus flights from Catania sometimes face serious delays becaus of
the nearby volcano spurting ash. You don’t want to miss your connection home.

I have traveled with a small group of women and prefer starting the journey from the Catania side because the towns are smaller and more relaxing than Palermo. I love the energy of Palermo too, but I worry it might be off putting from the start of the trip. We did not stay in Catania, but in Ortigia we stayed at the Antico Hotel Roma 1880 and I believe it is a decent size since there was at least one larger group when we were there and the location is spectacular, right next to Piazza Duomo. I would not stay in the part of Siracusa that is not Ortigia. I do not find the city that attractive, with the exception of Ortigia, which is like its own little island, and where most of the tourist attractions are, with the exception of the archaeological park. You can just get a few taxis to drive you to the archeological park. I used Enrica DeMelio (viaggio a sudest) as a guide and she helped me set up a taxi for our trip to the archaeological park.

Hello Everyone!

I hope my message finds you and your loved ones well. The Coronavirus situation is like something out of a movie. What's going on is just crazy..... Here in Tokyo, we are all wondering whether the long-awaited Olympic Games will actually go ahead as planned.

On a more personal level, I've decided to reschedule our planned October trip to Sicily to the spring of 2021. Will keep planning in hopes that this horrible situation comes to an end very soon. We cannot wait to visit Sicily and wish everyone in Italy and everywhere else in the world strength and the best of luck.

best,
Anna

hi Anna,

Thanks for the update and for the good wishes which I'm sure are returned by everyone here. Good decision to postpone your trip. I think we are all interested to see what happens about the Olympics and indeed other big sporting events like the FIFA European cup which is supposed to take place all over Europe in June/July. I found out about it by accident when I tried to book a hotel in Bilbao where some of the games are being played and discovered that hotel prices were unexpectedly high. I can see already that the football tournament and my trip are unlikely to take place but of course that's nothing really compared to all the physical and economic suffering that some are undergoing.

Best wishes to you and your friends.

If you are havin g problems finding hotel rooms, reverse the order of the trip. We did this and we had much better luck traveling from Palermo to Catania rather than Catania to Palermo. This was in October.
Best wishes for the Tokyo Olympics! We loved Tokyo and our visit in Japan last spring.