I’m hoping for a couple weeks in Sicily too next year. CaWino, did you write a trip report by any chance?
Sorry to say, but I did not write a trip report. We spent two weeks of independent travel. This was not strictly SlowTravel because of time constraints. We stayed no more than three days in each location. Some locations only one day. Here is a snippet of our trip:
We flew into Catania and had a driver take us to
Siracusa where we stayed three nights at
Hotel Gutowski, a nice little midrange hotel. The historical center of Syracuse is located on the island of Ortygia - most of the visit was here. Lots to see and do here with plenty of Baroque architecture.
With some trepidation, we rented a car and drove to
Modica for the Baroque architecture. Modica, like the other towns in the Val di Noto, was badly damaged in the 1693 earthquake and largely rebuilt in Sicilian Baroque style. There were other options such a Noto, but I chose Modica so we could also dine a Michelin starred restaurant, "
La Gazza Ladra Ristorante", located in
Hotel Palazzo Failla. I understand that Chef Accursio Craparo has since moved on, opening a new place in Modica, "
Accursio Ristorante".
Our next one night stop was
Piazza Armerina where we stayed at
B & B La Casa Sulla Collina D'Oro. The view from here is stunning (they have an observation deck with view of the city) and their breakfast was fantastic. The primary draw here were the mosaics of
Villa Romana de Casale. Well worth the one night stay. The next day on our way to Taormina, we spent a few hours in
Caltagirone, The City of Ceramics, on our way to the next stop.
We spent three nights in beautiful
Taormina, staying at the
Villa Schuler. Taormina has an upscale jet-set feel to it. Lots of things to see with good restaurants and shopping. We took a walk from Taormina to the neighboring village of
Castelmola where the views were stunning. It was a strenuous trek where it seemed to be perched in the sky.
We dropped the car in Taormina and headed by train to
Cefalu, a small seaside town 30 minutes east of Palermo. We stayed two nights here but it could easily be a day trip from Palermo. We stayed at
Hotel Villa Gaia. The beach is right across the street and center part of town was about three blocks away. The beach was very nice with umbrella rentals, if needed.
We spent our final three nights in
Palermo at
Hotel Ambasciatori. The view from the rooftop terrace was beautiful. See picture below. I was impressed with Palermo, and it is deserving of more than the three nights that we allowed. We also took a day trip to
Monreale Cathedral.
Final thoughts: We limited the trip to the eastern half of the island as Sicily is just too big to see the whole island in just two weeks. Our planned return trip in September was to have included the western half, but that trip has been canceled due to covid issues. Ian's above characterization of Taormina and Palermo seems fair and accurate.
Driving wasn't too bad, the roads were good and I avoided large cities like Palermo and used train when practicable. There were some navigation issues as our Garmin GPS led us astray on more than one occasion. The food was fantastic everywhere we went in Sicily. We can't wait to return.
View from Hotel Ambasciatori, Palermo
Beach at Cefalu