roadtrip – Amparo's Travels & Musings

23 days on the road in sunny Sicily

Secluded beaches, charming old towns and temples built by the ancient Greeks. Welcome to Sicily! We had been looking forward to this for months! As soon as we saw that there was a possibility of booking a holiday, even if still within the country, we started planning and chose Sicily. After an 8 hour drive down to Naples where we stayed for a week, we then drove 5 hours further down to Calabria to get the ferry over to Messina in Sicily.

Let the road trip begin!!

Ferry from Villa San Giovanni Imbarchi to Messina Imbarco

We took a ferry from Villa San Giovanni to Messina which took around 30 minutes. For tickets and prices click here.

A website that I find quite useful when travelling is Rome2Rio you can book train tickets, flights, hotels and search for great deals on car hire. Discovered it when I moved to Italy last year and works really well for me.

Another great app and website that I like to use is Get your Guide; they have really great tours and so far, I haven’t had any complaints.

We wanted to see as much of Sicily as possible without spending too much and booked mostly all our accommodation via Booking.com and the rest via Airbnb.

Here’s a quick overview of where we stayed:

Our Itinerary

Day 1 – 3: Taormina with accommodation in Riposto.

Day 4 & 5: Catania

Day 6 & 7: Siracusa (Syracuse) with accommodation in Ortigia

Day 8 – 10: Agrigento

Day 11 & 12: Marsala

Day 13 – 15: Trapani

Day 16 & 17: Baia Guidaloca (San Vito lo Capo)

Day 18 & 19: Palermo

Day 20 – 23: Salina

I realise not everyone can do a trip this long so you can definitely reduce the number of days in each place and even skip staying in Marsala as it’s quite close to Trapani. You can also remove Salina from your itinerary and do a mini cruise that will take you on a tour around the islands if you like. I would also skip staying in Catania and would do a half day trip.

1. Taormina

Our first stop was Taormina, a beautiful city I would definitely recommend you include in your itinerary. I think Taormina was probably one of my favourite stops during this trip. Wandering round the streets of Taormina you could smell freshly baked brioches, it was wonderful! An absolute must whilst in Taormina is to have a granita with a brioche; and Bam Bar does not disappoint. Best to go in the evening as during the day it’s packed with avid granita and brioche fans! And tourists love the photo op!

The most important things to see in Taormina are:

Teatro Antico di Taormina (best early AM or for sunset)
Parco botanico
Porta Messina via Corso Umberto
Piazza IX Aprile
Villa comunale
Chiesa di san Giuseppe
Castelmola for sunset views.
Isola Bella. A must!

Chiesa di San Giuseppe on Piazza IX Aprile

Whilst in Taormina we also booked a tour of Mount Etna, it was an incredible experience. If you have a car you can drive to Rifugio Sapienza and then from there you can take one of the tours available to book at the ticket office or book one of the many Etna experiences available online.

I found the tour below which sounds brilliant and wish I had booked it before going to Mount Etna. It would have saved us quite a bit of money.

Make sure to take a light cover up and water as the higher you go the windier it gets!

2. Catania

Catania is the second largest city of the island and sits at the base of the volcano, Mount Etna. I would skip staying the night here and do it as a half day trip from Taormina or Siracusa. If you don’t have a lot of time I would skip it completely.

The most interesting sites in Catania are:

Centro storico

Piazza del duomo: Fontana dell’elefante, basilica della Collegiata. Graeco-Roman Theatre and Odeon
I see a lot of people mentioning Palazzo Biscari on their must see lists, but for the price and what you get it really isn’t worth it. There’s the main ballroom which is nice and I am a huge fan of palace interiors in general, but this one was a little disappointing. I’ll keep it here on the list in case you’re curious to see it anyway.
Storico monastero san Benedetto di via crociferi
Benedictine Monastery of San Nicolò l’Arena
Catania fish market – head over to Scirocco for some great food!

The owner of the hostel where we stayed recommended we eat at the fish market in a place called Scirocco and it was brilliant. There’s a little indoor area where you can hide away from the scorching summer sun and enjoy fresh fish from the market.

3. Siracusa

Once one of the most powerful cities in the ancient Greek world; Syracuse is now a UNESCO world heritage site. Their reasons for choosing Syracuse… because “monuments and archeological sites situated in Syracuse are the finest example of outstanding architectural creation spanning several cultural aspects; Greek, Roman and Baroque“, Ancient Syracuse was “directly linked to events, ideas and literary works of outstanding universal significance” (UNESCO).

Whilst in Syracuse we stayed in beautiful Ortigia, the historic centre of the city. This city really comes alive at night with little market stalls lining the streets towards the bustling main piazza; it’s nice to finally see restaurants and bars full of people again.

Some highlights from Siracusa are:

Ortigia street market
Castello Maniace
Cathedral of Syracuse
Piazza Duomo
Fountain of Diana
Palazzo Borgia del Casale – brilliant view of the Piazza Duomo.
Arethusa Spring
Neapolis Archaeological park
Ear of Dionysius (we skipped this one)
Watch the sunset from one of the restaurants/bars along the lungomare.

Foodwise, we found a place near the market which has some great arancini that are also gluten free; it’s called Arancina Gluten free. Great for a quick bite.

For dinner we chose one of the restaurants near the seafront that had outdoor seating called Mokrito – Fast Casual Food. Very affordable and the food was great.

Pasta with a pistacchio pesto and ricotta

Parking tip: Parking in Ortigia can be a bit of a nightmare, your best bet is to use one of the three car parks available in the city, we preferred the Talete parking lot as it was close to where we were staying and seemed to be less busy. If you’re parking on the road, watch out for the ‘residents only’ areas, some signs aren’t as clear as you would hope they would be. The other two places where you can park are, ‘Molo Sant’ Antonio’ close to the centre and ‘Della Marina’ which is the most expensive for parking at a rate of 2€ per hour and it closes at 01:00am.

Beach recommendation: Fontane Bianche, it’s a beautiful sandy beach that you can reach by car or bus.

A nice half day trip that you can do whilst staying in Ortigia or Siracusa is Noto. A beautiful little town not too far from Siracusa with some amazing architecture and beautiful sculptures.

4. Agrigento

The two most important things to see whilst in Agrigento are the Scala dei Turchi, where you can also enjoy a day at the beach; and the impressive Valle dei Templi.

It’s best to visit the Scala dei Turchi early in the morning, then spend the rest of the morning at the beach and then late afternoon head over to the Valle dei Templi, an incredible archeological site just outside the city of Agrigento. It can get extremely hot in the summer in Sicily so make sure you time your activities well.

If your travelling via public transport just know that the timetable you see is more of a guideline so you may find yourself waiting a little longer than expected. Bring water with you and a hat, you can top up your bottle at the many fountains available inside the archeological site. Something that I also brought along with me was a little spray bottle which I filled with water and used to mist my face and neck to help keep cool.

5. Marsala

Marsala is a small town in the province of Trapani famous for their sweet dessert wine and salt pans. The old town centre is beautiful and quite lively for its size. The thing that left me completely speechless though, were the Marsala salt pans at sunset. We had arrived a little early, so took one of the boat tours to Motya (Mozia) which is a little island in the Stagnone lagoon. The island of Mozia is owned and operated by the Whitaker Foundation (Palermo), famous for Marsala wines. On the island you’ll find a small museum and several archeological sites. In the museum you will see that Mozia artifacts display Egyptian, Corinthian, Attic, Roman, Punic and Hellenic influences. A nice and interesting little museum.

A few pics from Marsala town centre…

6. Trapani

I will always remember Trapani for its beautiful sunsets and pink salt pans. Such a stunning view.

Trapani is also a great place to stay if you want to visit the islands of Favignana and Levanzo. There are boat tours which you can book either online or go directly to the port and book it from there.

To visit the salt pans of Trapani, type “Museo del sale, Trapani” into your navigator and you will find this amazing site. We visited just before sunset and then stayed on for dinner at the restaurant adjacent to the musuem and it was lovely. If you walk round the back of the restaurant there’s a little stand where you pay 1 euro to walk to the end of the pier. The views here are magical and there is so much more space to wander around and take photos; or just to enjoy a quiet moment whilst watching the sun set.

Whilst staying in Trapani, we booked a mini cruise to Favignana and Levanzo using GetyourGuide.com which cost 42.50 euros per person and included lunch on the boat. It was a great trip and there were several stops where you could jump off the boat and enjoy a nice refreshing swim in the sea; very much needed during August in Italy, specially in Sicily where temperatures were around 36-37 ° C and even higher some days.

Another place we visited whilst staying in Trapani was Erice; a beautiful medieval town up on a hill.

You can get to Erice by taking the cable car from Trapani. If you’re visiting during low season you can also drive up to Erice and there’s parking available just outside the entrance. Otherwise, it’s best to park around Trapani and take the cable car. Parking is also available just outside the entrance to the cable car.

7. Baia Guidaloca

This is a stop you can skip, you can base yourself in Trapani and do most of your excursions from there or from Palermo which was our next stop.

We chose to stay at Baia Guidaloca as it was a nice little break to relax for a couple of days and it was close to San Vito lo Capo and Riserva dello Zingaro. Unfortunately, due to winds coming from the south east, something called Scirocco, it was too dangerous to enter the Riserva dello Zingaro so we booked a boat tour so we could see it from the sea. Not our best decision but we were tired and the idea of doing a boat tour and visiting all the little inlets and caves as well as seeing the reserve from the boat seemed like a good idea at the time.

As you may have guessed, the boat tour was a disappointment. We zoomed past all the caves, they pointed at the reserve as we flew past it as well as a few other things and then we were left at San Vito lo Capo for 3 hours at midday; the heat was unbearable. The combination of anger and frustration from the passengers, the heat and being left to wait was not a good mix.

One good thing is, we were able to try the famous ‘Caldo Freddo’ of San Vito which everyone kept talking about. It was delicious! It’s a combination of ice cream (your flavour of choice), brioche soaked in rum, whipped cream topped with a hot dark chocolate sauce served in a little terracotta pot.

8. Palermo

The capital city of Sicily has been ruled and influenced by the phoenicians, greeks, romans, byzantines, arabs, normans, germans, spanish and bourbons to name a few! You can see it in the mix of architecure throughout the city as well as in their cuisine.

The most impressive sites in Palermo are:

Palazzo dei Normanni (Palazzo Reale di Palermo). Piazza Indipendenza. Embodies the cultural mix of Palermo. Arabic, Norman, Spanish.
La Cattedrale di Palermo
Il Mercato di Ballarò
I Quattro Canti
Il teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele.
Villa Garibaldi
Galleria d’Arte Regionale della Sicilia, a Palazzo Abatellis.
L’Orto Botanico e Villa Giulia.
Teatro dei Pupi
San Giovanni degli Eremiti

A restaurant we really enjoyed was Tannura Osteria. A beautiful restaurant with a spectacular terrace, I suggest asking for a table up on the terrace if it’s not busy. I’ll leave the link here so you can have a little look at the restaurant.

This is what we ordered…

Fish cakes with a sesame seed crust on a bed of caramelised red onions

Grouper ravioli in a tomato, capers and olive sauce

A great place for coffee and cake is Antico Caffe Spinnato. There are several cafe’s in this area to choose from if you don’t find a table at Spinnato; it can get quite busy. Look out for Spinnato’s selection of coffee, it’s insane. The café is on Via Principe di Belmonte.

9. Salina

To get to Salina we took the ferry from Milazzo to Santa Marina Salina. The cost for two people with a car, in our case a medium sized vehicle, cost 212.80 euros for return tickets.

Formerly known as Didyne, it is formed of two old volcanoes. Mount Fossa delle Felci to the East and Mount dei Porri to the West. There’s also a small crater in the small village of Pollara to the North-West of the island. These volcanoes are of course no longer active, however, every so often you get a slight smell of sulphur. The island is divided into three comunes, Santa Marina, Malfa and Leni.

Salina is the second largest island of Sicily’s Aeolian archipelago. The island produces tons of capers, chestnuts, olive oil and much more. Some homegrown favourites are Gelsi (mulberry), limone (lemon) and fichi d’india (prickly pears) so take advantage and eat as much as you can.

Beaches

There are a few beaches to choose from but our favourite is definitely spiaggia dello Scario. It’s very clean and you can rent inflatable mattresses as well as umbrellas and there is a café/bar in case you get hungry. The sandwiches are really good. You won’t find sandy beaches on Salina as it is all volcanic earth, instead it’s large boulder and pebbles so always wear rubber shoes to protect your feet.

Another beach is spiaggia di Pollara. I wouldn’t really call this a beach as it is more of a small harbour and locals as well as holiday makers come here more to swim and paddle or kayak than to sunbathe.

Then there’s spiaggia di Rinella, which is next to the port. It has small volcanic rocks rather than sand like a lot of reviews mention and there is an area in the sea that is cordoned off for people to swim.

And finally, Punta Lingua lighthouse and beach. Nice views and very calm but very uncomfortable both on land and in the sea. If you come here, I would stick to the left hand side of the lighthouse which is more pebbly than the right side of the lighthouse.

I’ll write a separate post with more details about what to do and see in Salina as I know this post is already quite long. I’ll just leave you with a few restaurant recommendations here.

A few restaurants to try:

Hotel Signum, a four star hotel in Malfa with a luxurious spa and the only Salina restaurant with a Michelin star.

Il Gambero in Lingua was our favourite restaurant whilst staying in Salina and we ate here two nights in a row! That’s how much we loved it.