NFT: Travel advice wanted: Sicily

Taormina and Palermo last September and it was fantastic. We flew from Rome to Catania but didnt spend any time there so cannot comment on it but Palermo, like a lot of Italy, is loaded with old churches, neighborhoods, etc.

We fell in love with Taormina. Stayed in a hotel on the beach and took the cable car up to town. Great shopping, restaurants and absolutely beautiful. We also did a day tour of Mt. Etna with some stops in a couple of small towns on the way. Very cool.

My only semi-complaint about Taormina was that since it was September it was peak tourist season so a bit crowded but not unbearable.

I can give you restaurant recommendations in both cities but they are at home and I'm at work.

I have been there a couple of times. The most recent trip was last summer and I have family there.

I haven't spent a lot of time in Catania but I think you will have a great time in both places. I think if you split them evenly you would be fine. Remember though, that there are a lot of great places to see near each of them. From Palermo you may wish to visit places like Erice. From Catania, you are close to Siracusa which can be a little touristy but has some spectacular ruins to see. Great food in both places.

As for trains, I love them as well. And there is no better train departure than Milan where you can be in Rome in 3 hours and Switzerland in less. However, do your homework on Sicilian trains and getting from A to B. The train network isn't that great down there. We were talked into the bus to get from Palermo to Siracusa (and the bus wasn't that fun either).

Enjoy!!!!!

from Taormina to Palermo with a change in Messina. It was fine with the exception of a panhandler roaming the cars but he was promptly arrested in Messina.

so it's a while ago, but in Sicily, time moves slowly except in some of the glitz spots.

The comments above are good. I'll weigh in with these:

- to me Palermo is Sicily, crowded, hot, dusty, traffic like nowhere else on the Continent, seamy, and colorful as all get out. That sounds like a disaster, right, but it's beautiful in its Sicilian way: walk down a dusty side street, huge old double wooden doors are parted and you look into a fantastic, shaded tile courtyard with a well and balconies above. Hole in the wall restaurants, the outdoor market as you approach the Port area, can't say enough good.

- If to Palermo, a 20 minute drive west of town takes you to the wonderful monastery, columns and archways all around, each column with a different capital.

- Continuing on that road takes you to Trapani (old village perched on a hill top), Marsala, and the Roman ruins high above the beaches of Selinunte.

- Skip Agrigento, where there are other Roman ruins.

- Ragusa and Ragusa Ibla, the former destroyed by an earthquake and re-built: from the latter, its ~ 600 steps down to the new city.

- Siracuse, a magnet

- Taormina, I say yes to all that above; we stayed at the posh San Domenico Palace (was our honeymoon, after all), and it was worth it. The gardens spread through the town, which is situated on a series of rising hills are beautiful, and to be near the water. It was the most touristy place we stayed but didn't mind the indulgence.

- Mt. Etna, like RinR said, very cool, vineyards and neat villages on the road from Taormina to mountain base, good places to have some eggplant and antipasti before or after; we took a bus up, and I stayed on the summit through a thunder and lightning storm (the wife thought she had lost her newlywed) and walked down. It was very early May when we were there, snow on the mountain top.

- If the opportunity arises, check out the Aeloian Is., esp. port of Lipari, which you can get to by ~ 1 hour hydrofoil from Milazzo, on your way back to Palermo!!

20 minute drive west out of Palermo is to the monastery and cloisters at Monreale.