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The adventure began on March 27th, when after MANY flight changes by Delta we departed from JFK to Venice, Venice to Milan and then Milan to Palermo. Yes, you read that right. It was very frustrating!<BR><BR>Let me preface the report by saying that we had many mishaps, but we loved every minute of the vacation. Usually the mishaps are what you remember most, they add character to the trip.<BR><BR>We landed in Palermo finally in the afternoon on Friday. I had been corresponding with a woman from Palermo for months through Virtualtourist.com, and she was to meet us at the airport. It was really delightful to have someone pick us up after the plane ordeal. Our luggage was almost too much to fit in the typically small European car, but we managed to make it work by putting my huge suitcase across my lap in the backseat.<BR><BR>My friend brought us to Hotel Gardenia on Via Mariano Stabile. I was unaware that it wasn’t a free-standing hotel, there seemed to be about 5 other hotels in the same building. Being disoriented from the travel it took us a few minutes to figure out that Gardenia was on the 7th floor. We stayed in room 102 which had a very large outdoor area with a table/chairs and plants. The room itself was bare but clean, and the bathroom very narrow. The only complaint about the hotel was that the walls were extremely thin and that you could hear everything. Breakfast is also not included. For the location, and the price at 78 Euros a night I would definitely go back.<BR>

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After settling in we took a stroll in the neighborhood and found ourselves in an upscale shopping/pedestrian area on Via Principe di Belmonte. There were gelaterias, pasticcerias, etc.- everything you could ever need. <BR><BR>My friend came back later that night to take us out to dinner. Eating at 10-11pm definitely took some getting used to. They took us to the suburb of Bagheria where we ate at Trattoria Don Ciccio, Via del Cavaliere, 87- Tel. 091.932442. Definitely a wonderful introduction to the Sicilian cuisine! Their version of an antipasti was a hard-boiled egg with a shot of some sort of liquor. We had Caponata, Pasta con le Sarde, Pesce Spada Involtini, Braciole… the list goes on &amp; on! The four of us had a pasta dish, a vegetable dish, and a meat or fish dish. We had a carafe of wine and bottled water. The bill for all 4 only came to 52 Euros. I knew Sicily had my heart at that point. <BR><BR>On Saturday we walked to the Vucciria market. What a sight! Every kind of fresh meat (by fresh I mean the whole animal hanging by rope), fish, vegetables, etc. We bought several vacuum packed packages of olives and sun-dried tomatoes to bring back as gifts as well as for us. We then took bus 104 to Piazza Indipendenza, then 309 to Monreale. We waited a long time for the 309 at Piazza Indipendenza. #309 left us in the centre of town, where it was then about a 5 minute walk to the Cathedral. If we had taken #389 it would have dropped us right in Piazza Monreale. By the time 309 came we were just happy to be headed to Monreale. It was probably about a 50 minute bus ride.<BR>

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Monreale was very beautiful. The mosaics were amazing. We didn’t realize that the excursion would take the bulk of the day. We ate lunch at Piccolo Rifugio on Piazza Emanuele 50 where we each had an excellent panini and an antipasto dish with meat and cheese. With 2 sodas the bill came to about 12 Euros.<BR><BR>We tried to get to the Convento dei Cappuccini, but we got terribly lost and noone could help us- our meager Italian wasn’t enough and we couldn’t find anyone to direct us in English. We tried Cassata for the 1st time at D’Asca Pasticceria at Via Mariano Stabile 83, it was excellent and from that point on I was addicted to this dessert. For dinner that evening we at at Trattoria ‘a Cuccagna, Via Principe di Granatelli 21A. The fish there looked very fresh as the lobster were still moving on the ice display. I ordered Sea Bass, it was very good and the waiter de-boned and skinned the fish at the table. The antipasti table looked delicious but we didn’t indulge. My boyfriend ordered Veal Marsala, and we each had pappardelle with a cream sauce. We had 2 small carafes of wine. The bill was abount 63 Euros, somewhat out of our budget but we enjoyed it. <BR><BR>On Sunday we went to the Museo Archaeologico. On the way we found the Cuticchio puppet theatre, rang the doorbell but noone answered. We started to realize that almost everything was closed on Sunday. After the museo we walked Via Roma and turned right on Corso Vittorio Emanuele and stopped to take in the Quattro Canti. Continued eastward on Corso Vittorio Emanuele and went to the Cattedrale. It entered our mind to try and find the Convento dei Cappucini, but even if it was open on Sunday it wasn’t going to re-open until 3 pm, and it was (or so we thought) 1pm. You see, we were unaware that the clocks had been turned ahead that morning. The entire day we were an hour off without knowing it! Finally realized that the Palazzo dei Normanni was in the area, but of course closed on Sunday. Looking back if we had realized that on Sundays everything was virtually shut down, we would have tried to do the Palazzo dei Normanni Saturday. <BR>

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We took the bus back to the area where our hotel was, at went to a caf� called Spinnato on Via Principe di Belmonte, 107-115. We loved this place, a bit pricey and touristy, but everything from the arancini to the croissants were delicious. Most importantly, they were open on Sunday! We soon discovered that late Sunday afternoon was an excellent time to participate in the passegiata on Via Ruggero Settimo, it seemed like every family in the city was out strolling.<BR><BR>That evening my friend in Palermo took us to a very good pizzeria called Trattoria Biondo, Via Giosue Carducci, 15. Very reasonably priced, 4 pizzas, 3 beers, an appetizer of fried vegetables cost 52 Euros. Afterwards they took us to their version of a club, a place called �La Cuba.� They have a website: http://www.lacuba.com/ It had a nice atmosphere, it seemed to be in a park and an it was built around an old Arabic structure. <BR><BR>Due to our flight re-arrangements we only ended up having 2 full days in Palermo. The next time we will allocate at least 3. I really expected for some reason not to like Palermo too much, I thought it would be too gritty for me. It was wonderful and we wish we had more time there.<BR>

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On Monday we checked out of our hotel and were able to walk to Sicily by Car on the same street as the hotel, which is where autoeurope had booked us a car. We had paid for a stick but they gave us an automatic.<BR><BR>Getting lost definitely seemed to be a theme on this vacation- we got lost coming out of Palermo, and I definitely think we missed the highway and ended up on local rounds that wasted a lot of time. We finally made it to Segesta, what a sight. We took the bus that cost 1.20 Euros each up the mountain to the theatre. Our days in Palermo were pretty much rain-free, but this day it was raining on &amp; off. Our next goal was to go to Erice, you guessed it we got lost. We ended up in the heart of Trapani. Somehow we were going up the wrong way on a one-way street and the polizia were nice enough to let us continue and block traffic so we could get out. We finally found the right direction to Erice, and as we were driving up the mountain the fog was getting thicker and thicker. So much that you could barely see two feet in front of you. Normal people would have turned around, but we pressed on. We made it up to Erice at 3pm. I had some sort of fantasy that Erice was so far up that it would be above the fog- wrong again! We parked our car and started walking along the medieval cobblestone streets. It was very eerie, walking along not being able to see anything but fog. There was not one person anywhere, we then realized it was siesta. Even a pizzeria had closed. We were happy to have gotten a taste of the town, but we would love to go back when we could take in the stunning views from up there and see some sign of life! <BR><BR>We were spending the next 3 nights in Sciacca. We followed the Via Michelin directions from Erice to Sciacca. There were too many switchbacks, next time we may consider taking the coastal route even though it was longer. The next lesson to be learned was quickly approaching- AVOID driving through the city of Sciacca at all costs! Now we know that you should follow the signs for �Caltabellotta� which will take you around the town and up Monte Kronio. Following our usual pattern we didn�t call the owners of Verdetecnica self-catering accommodations where we were headed to get directions. We drove straight through that crazy town with streets so narrow it should be illegal for the traffic to go both ways, seriously we thought these streets should have been one-ways! Our mirrors came quite close to getting ripped off our rental. Stressed to the point of almost no return we finally found a woman who directed us up the Monte Kronio to Verdetecnia. The owners Salvatore and Pascale saw the distress all over our faces and gave us a bottle of wine to relax ourselves.<BR>

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We stayed in the apartment called Monika, which was bigger that the apartment we live in. Huge kitchen and 3 levels. When you walk in there is a basket full of water, fresh oranges and lemons from their trees, bread, jams, etc. They even supply you with organic olive oil that are produced by them in another location. This unit could accommodate easily a family of four. It was very rustic and comfortable. Very reasonable at 50 Euros a night. The grounds were beautiful and full of flowers and gardens. We chose to stay in this area for the close proximity to Selinunte and Agrigento. Out of all the places we stayed this was our favorite, you start to feel like you could live in that peaceful manner forever. There were even plenty of cats to amuse an animal lover such as myself. There is also a very large Supermercato down the mountain. We LOVED it there.<BR><BR>That night we learned from Salvatore that the trick to the town of Sciacca is to park on the outside and walk in. We figured once we recovered from the initial trauma we would attempt it. We headed down the mountain to Ristorante Le Gourmet, Via Monte Kronio, 7. We had an excellent frutta di mare and brasciola for appetizers, and a fruta di mare pizza and a salami pizza. We each had a dessert. We spent 30 Euros with the servizio included. The prices were reasonable and the seafood excellent. <BR><BR>The next morning, Tuesday, we headed to Selinunte. We took the local roads as there apparently was some construction going on on the autostrada. For whatever reason we did not see any signs for Selinunte and were lost for hours. We ended up driving up and down the coast of Marinella and Porto Palo. Next time we would take the autostrada as I am under the impression that the signs are much better. A nice woman let us follow her, and then put us in the right direction. <BR><BR>It was raining on and off all day again. Miraculously, as this is the first time I have traveled to Europe outside of the summer, the weather did not get us down. We were lucky enough that when we stopped at a sight the rain would let up enough for us to enjoy. Selinunte was a large area to cover, and was even more beautiful because of it�s proximity to the sea. We felt like we had the site almost to ourselves except for the two dogs that were following us around, it was so much fun just meandering around the ruins. We walked up to the acropolis where the sea views were stunning. <BR>

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Tuesday night in Sciacca- it seemed like a lot of restaurants and businesses were closed around 8. There’s definitely no rhyme or reason to the store/restaurant hours. We could not find a restaurant, we even parked on the outside of town a bit and walked in. Exhausted from our adventures we grabbed pizza and spinach pies from a tavola calda called “Arte del Pane di Bono Vincenzo,” and pastries from “Bar Gentile.” We took the food back to our cozy apartment and relaxed. <BR><BR>Wednesday, and finally SUN!! We went to the Valley of the Temples, There was no getting lost this time as it is very well signed. Everywhere we went there were many children on school trips, and of course this site was the most crowded of the ones we had seen thus far. Obviously there is a good reason for that, it was a wonderful site to behold.<BR><BR>Coming back we ate lunch in Sciacca at La Zabbara, Cortile Bellanca, 16. We both ordered frutta di mare for an appetizer. We also both had Shrimp Scampi. It came in a huge bowl in a zesty tomato broth with the freshest shrimp that I have ever eaten. The bill with servizio included was 26 Euros. Out of the 4 places we went on this trip Sciacca had the freshest and cheapest seafood. This simple meal was my favorite of the whole trip. I had never tasted anything like it.<BR><BR>We headed to the apartment for our siesta, we were finally getting the hang of the way of life here- and we were loving it. That night we headed up the mountain to a restaurant that had just opened that day, La Traviata, Via Monte Kronio, 495. That day was their grand opening, and they did not have a lot of what was listed on the menu as the deliveries were to come the next day. With the waitresses small knowledge of English combined with our small knowledge of Italian we were able to put a meal together. We ordered pasta alla Emiliana, which to my happy surprise was Berette (flat spaghetti), peas and ham in a pink sauce. I thought pink sauce may be an americani thing, I was pleasantly surprised to have found it in Sicily. It was delicious. I then had swordfish and my boyfriend had the shrimp speciality of the house. Everything was really good.<BR><BR>Thursday morning we sadly checked out of Verdetecnica and drove 3 ½ hours to Ortygia. We were only spending 1 night there, we really just wanted to get a taste of Ortygia as it sounded so wonderful. The drive through the interior was easy, we just had a little difficulty once in Ortygia. We checked in to Hotel Gutkowski. I really loved the color of the outside of the hotel, a light blue, and the d&eacute;cor throughout the hotel is modern and sparse. I really loved the ambiance. For whatever reason they stated when we made the reservation that they could not guarantee a sea-view room because they only had a few. I still do not understand that, we ended up with room #5 that faced an ugly run-down and somewhat loud courtyard area. The room had a mini-regrigerator and a great and powerful shower. Internet access was available in the lobby for 1.40 Euros for 15 minutes. We knew that we wouldn’t be in the room that much anyway so it didn’t effect us that much, it was just a let down not having the sea view. We had arrived in Ortygia around 2 pm and just strolled around for several hours. It was quite touristy but beautiful. It rained earlier in the day, but cleared up later. <BR>

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That night we dined at Trattoria Archimede, Via Gemmellaro, 8. They had a delicious antipasti table. We each had Veal and ravioli with shrimp. We enjoyed our meal, but the prices were definitely a bit high. Looking back seafood is their specialty, I should have gotten the Zuppa di Pesce. They have a website at trattoriaarchimede.it. <BR><BR>Friday- Raining again, but this time non-stop. We checked out of Hotel Gutkowski and drove to Giardini Naxos. It took us 2 ½ hours due to local road traffic and the usual wrong turns. We dropped off the car at the Sicily by Car location there as I had heard that driving in Taormina could be traumatic and I wanted to give my boyfriend a break. We took a taxi to our hotel in Taormina, Pensione Svizzera. It cost 16 Euros. <BR><BR>I had originally been considering staying at Pensione Grazia, but I was not able to confirm that it was a decent place to stay. I was definitely glad I chose Svizzera, especially that 1st day because of the non-stop rain. At least the view entertained us. The room was the smallest of the entire trip, I am still nursing a bruise on my leg from my inability to remember that the leg of the bed was sticking out. The bathroom was small, but I am learning that a decent size bathroom is more abnormal in Europe. They have a wonderful indoor and outdoor breakfast area with great views of the sea. For 90 Euros I am thinking this is a good bargain in Taormina.<BR><BR>Friday evening the rain finally died down. We walked the town from one end to the other and did our best to avoid restaurants that had a menu turistico. I have an aversion to them, I guess it’s too “touristy” for this tourist &amp;#61514; We found Trattoria Rosticepi at Via S. Pancrazio, 18. It is right near the Porta Messina. We each had delicious Gnocchi with meat sauce and Swordfish Involtini. They had wonderful and very cheap house wine, 5 Euros for a liter. We were very satisfied with this meal. <BR><BR>After taking in the prices in Taormina for ceramics I was extremely happy that I had bought some things at Collezioni Private, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 54 in Sciacca. The prices were very reasonable, and I believe Sciacca is known for the artists that paint the ceramics.<BR>

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Saturday- after having a good breakfast at the hotel we did our stroll taking in the sites in town. We walked through the public gardens which were gorgeous and had a view of the sea. We grabbed a cheap lunch at rosticceria La Fontana and the corner of Via Timeo and Via Patricio. They had very good prepared Gnocchi and lasagna. We ate lunch here 2 times during our stay. In the afternoon we went to the Teatro Greco, this has to be my 2nd favorite site after Delos in Greece. From one vantage point I could see my father�s homeland of Calabria, from another Mount Etna, and of course all around the brilliant blue sea. We then took the Funivia Cable Way down to the beach at Mazzaro to stroll on the beach and stare at the sea that I longed to swim in. I am a beach freak and this was my first time traveling off-season, I would do it again but I will always have that longing for the hot sun and sea. Obviously traveling at this time saved us a lot of money, especially in the airfare from the US. <BR><BR>In the evening we ate at Ristorante/Pizzeria Mamma Rosa, Via Naumachie, 10. We had their delicious antipasti table and pizza. We had something that was so delicious from the table but I don�t know what it was- it looked like a small pancake, and I believe it may have consisted of broccoli, eggs and breadcrumbs. If anyone knows what this is called please tell me, because they also had it at the rosticceria and I loved them.<BR><BR>Sunday- finally another nice day. We took the interbus to Castelmola for 1 euro each way. From where the bus dropped us off there were a good number of steps and a walk before we hit the town. There was also many more steps to where the ruins of the castle were. It seemed as if some people on the bus thought that the view from where the bus dropped us off was all there was to Castelmola, they didn�t seem to realize they had to walk. They got off the bus, took in the view, and got right back on. I didn�t get it.<BR><BR>The views from all over were amazing. We did a little quick shopping in the town where we sampled their specialty, Vino alla Mandorla (Almond Wine). It was delicious, so of course we purchased some. We only spent about an hour in the area and took the bus back down to Taormina. If it wasn�t a Sunday afternoon, and the bus schedule wasn�t so sparse we would have had lunch up there because the restaurants all seemed to have amazing views.<BR><BR>

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While in Taormina I started to miss the pasticcerias that were everywhere in Palermo and Sciacca. There were some but there didn’t seem to be so many. We took the cable car back down to the sea and walked in the area of Isola Bella and just hung out on the rocky beach for awhile. For our last dinner in Sicily we ate at Trattoria da Nino, Via Luigi Pirandello, 37A. They have a nice view of the sea if your table is facing the window. It was our best meal in Taormina. I had linguini with clam sauce, house wine, insalata and chicken cacciatore. Everything was delicious. We sadly tried to turn in early that night as the hotel had arranged a car service to take us to Catania airport the next morning, the car was getting us at 4am as the flight was at 6. <BR><BR>Our flight from Milan to JFK was great due to the fact we were flying Alitalia’s new 777 service that had individual tvs in every seat. It had games, tv shows, movies, music videos- hours of entertainment. The worst was almost being diverted to Boston due to the freak blizzard-type storm that New York City was having at the time of our landing. We finally were able to land in JFK. We loved Sicily, and if you have any questions I will gladly answer them as you have all been so helpful to me. <BR><BR> <BR><BR> <BR>

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While in Taormina I started to miss the pasticcerias that were everywhere in Palermo and Sciacca. There were some but there didn�t seem to be so many. We took the cable car back down to the sea and walked in the area of Isola Bella and just hung out on the rocky beach for awhile. For our last dinner in Sicily we ate at Trattoria da Nino, Via Luigi Pirandello, 37A. They have a nice view of the sea if your table is facing the window. It was our best meal in Taormina. I had linguini with clam sauce, house wine, insalata and chicken cacciatore. Everything was delicious. We sadly tried to turn in early that night as the hotel had arranged a car service to take us to Catania airport the next morning, the car was getting us at 4am as the flight was at 6. <BR><BR>Our flight from Milan to JFK was great due to the fact we were flying Alitalia�s new 777 service that had individual tvs in every seat. It had games, tv shows, movies, music videos- hours of entertainment. The worst was almost being diverted to Boston due to the freak blizzard-type storm that New York City was having at the time of our landing. We finally were able to land in JFK. We loved Sicily, and if you have any questions I will gladly answer them as you have all been so helpful to me. <BR><BR> <BR><BR> <BR>

Holly_uncasdewar

Wow, AP, great info! Thanks for the report.

JmVikmanis

Yes, thanks very much for going to the work of making such a complete report on this infrequently posted area. It's a true addition to the archives and I hope to get to consult it for a trip to sicily sometime soon.

Maddy

Thanks for posting - it was fun reading. We visited Sicily last summer (2nd time) covering a lot of the same ground and your comments brought back great memories from that trip. Seems like you kept your good humor in the face of the challenges getting to your destinations. If it makes you feel any better about getting lost, we just always assume that will be the case when we're heading to a new location..it happens every time to some extent. We've learned to build in some extra time...and not to start fighting about who screwed up the directions <BR><BR>In Palermo, we made it a point to find the D'Asta bakery you mention based on the recommendation of another poster here. We tried several kinds of pastry and they were all terrific. Actually, we enjoyed every meal in Palermo - maybe we were just lucky - but we thought Palermo had the best food of our trip. <BR><BR>If you visit Taormina again and like chocolate, try Pasticceria Etna on Corso Umberto for one of their chocolate croissants. If you can, go early when they are freshly baked, warm, buttery, and oozing delicous molten chocolate...just wonderful. We also had dinner at Trattoria Nino and thought the food was very good, especially the seafood. I'm not sure if it's the season yet for tomatoes in Sicily, but the Caprese salad we had there was perfect. <BR><BR>We stayed at Hotel Gutkowski in Siracusa too and liked it. We stayed in one of the seaview rooms and it was airy and spacious. My only complaint with the Gutkowski was the air conditioning which was pathetic. They are individual units so I'm not sure if our room just had a dud, but it was on the highest setting and it wasn't doing much of anything. The morning was still ok because there was a cool seabreeze but by late afternoon the heat and humidity would get stiflng. Of coure, we had to visit during a massive heatwave....even Northern Italy was boiling in tbe upper 90s so you can imagine what the temps were in Sicily. It sounds like you hit an unusually rainy spell for Sicily. <BR><BR>If you go again and decide to combine Sicily with a visit to Calabria, the ferry crossing to the mainland (Villa San Giovanni) from Messina is very reasonable, convenient and quick. They have it down to a science with ferries leaving every 10 or 15 minutes and the whole process takes maybe 30-40 minutes total. You can bring your car on, drive off the ferry and be on your way up the autostrada - very easy. <BR><BR>Thanks again for your report. <BR><BR>

AP6380

I actually think we went to D'Asta based on a post I read here- so I may have very well gone there because of your post! We actually did have great cannolis at Pasticceria Etna, it was one of the few pasticcerias that we saw in Taormina. I'm glad the report may be helpful to people here, as I have said before everyone has been so helpful to me.

Bnice

Thank you for the detailed info., you can certainly tell you put a lot of time into writing it! Sicily is a dream of mine, so I will definitely print this for (hopefully) future reference.

Angela_m

Great report AP! It's too bad you encountered so much fog in Erice--you would have loved the views from up there! Also, they had the best pasticceria run by the local convent. We ate the best cannoli there in all of Italy. And thank you for the report on Verdetecnica in Sciacca. I had read about it before we went to Sicily last year. We had passed a sign for it on the road when we went through Sciacca and so wondered how staying there would be. We're going back to Sicily next year and will definitely consider a stay there. Glad you enjoyed Sicily!

GAC

Great report, AP. Thanks for sharing your experiences; hopefully future visitors to Sicily will benefit from your observations.<BR><BR>By the way, I also encountered thick fog in Erice, to the point that I didn't see much of the town, and totally missed the views from the vantage points.

traveller212

AP6380, great details. Did you rent your car from Auto Europa/Sicily by Car? Did you book it from the US? Was your experience a good one?

AP6380

I booked it from the US, and it was definitely a good experience. Coincidentally the pick-up point ended up being walking distance from our hotel in Palermo. I booked a stick to save money, and they gave me an automatic which we preferred anyway.