Redlandsneen

I have 9-10 days in Sicilia and 4 nights will be spent in Naxos (Taormina). Besides the lovely town of Taormina, from this base we can take a tour of Mt Etna Park. Does anyone have any thoughts on going to Catania by public transport for the day? I keep hearing about the great market there. I don't want to hire a car until we get to Siracusa (by bus or train from Taormina) and start our road trip from that point. We would like to see the areas of Noto, Modica and Ragusa (from one base, not sure where) and then drive to Agrigento for 2 nights and from there to Palermo where we will drop off the car. Are there any interesting stops to be made on the way to Palermo (aside from Corleone which is NOT where The Godfather was filmed, I believe). TIA

kja

First and foremost, 9-10 days is exceedingly little for Sicily, so you will need to be extremely selective.

I assume you mean Giardini Naxos, the resort "town" below Taormina? Not Naxos, an island in the Cyclades?

Why not take public transportation into Catania for a day if you want to? I'm not sure I understand your question.

Noto can be easily visited by public transportation from Siracusa / Ortigia.

There are MANY interesting places between Agrigento and Palermo, and they are well covered in even the worst guidebooks to Sicily that I've seen. If you don't already have it, the Rough Guide is, IMO, excellent.

Leely2

Either Modica or Ragusa would be good bases for the Sicilian Baroque part of your trip. Scicli (I haven't been) would also work well. We loved Modica, which felt considerably less touristy than Ortigia, and even managed a day trip to Villa Romana del Casale from there.

Redlandsneen

Thank you. To answer your queries first, Google Maps shows the town as "Naxos" no matter how close you zoom, but yes Giardini Naxos is the name of the town below Taormina. I didn't know there was an island called Naxos in the Cyclades, so thank you! The reason I asked about going to Catania by public transport for the day is that currently (and possibly due to road works), Google Maps is showing the journey by car and train as taking close to 2 hours when the distance is approximately 40 kms, so I wondered if anyone had first-hand knowledge.

We will probably pass through Noto on the way to the Modica area from Siracusa.

If I had my way, I'd skip Siracusa and Agrigento because I've been there, but my sister hasn't. I "selected" the southern route over the northern one (Cefalu) because I wanted to see Ragusa which was on a calendar one year. My sister will stay a little longer in Sicily than me, as I intend to fly to Milan from Palermo, but that is not cast in stone either. I will have a look at the Rough Guide to Sicily and appreciate your input.

Thanks again.

Dayle

If your sister is going to be in Sicily longer than you, can she visit Agrigento and Siracusa on her own, after you leave, so you don't have to repeat places you don't want to repeat? Just throwing this out there.

Redlandsneen

Hi again all! We are now starting to book accommodation since we more or less have the itinerary. Travelling by car from Siracusa, we are interested in spending one night in either Modica or Ragusa, which are very close together. Does anyone particularly favour one over the other? Whichever one we stay in, we will visit the other one. I believe we can visit Noto on the way from Siracusa. We will move onto Agrigento from there. TIA.

valgalchi

We stayed in Modica and visited Ragusa as a day trip. We preferred Modica. It just felt a bit livelier and had a good vibe we enjoyed. We also really enjoyed the day trip to Scicli.

Leely2

Ditto valgalchi, except unfortunately we did not get to Scicli.

In Modica we stayed at Casa Talía.