Sicily Travel Guide: What to Know Before You Go
“We’re neither Ionians nor Dorians, we are Sicilians,” said the Syracusan Hermocrates as early as 424 BC. Nowadays, many will say, “We’re not Italians, we’re Sicilians,” stressing the island’s fierce identity, which does indeed differs from mainland Italy. In their language, behavior, cuisine, religion, traditions, Sicilians carry pieces of the Roman, Greek, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Catalan, Angevin, and Aragon cultures, the many civilizations that, through the centuries, have inhabited the largest island in the Mediterranean, leaving many architectural and artistic wonders that make Sicily an open-air museum – and a delight for travelers.
Read on for a list of useful things to know when planning a trip to Sicily.
Tour Of “The Best of Sicily”
How to get there & how to move around
The best way to reach Sicily is by plane. There are three airports on the island, Falcone Borsellino in Palermo (32 km from the city), Fontanarossa in Catania (7 km from the city, good if traveling to eastern Sicily), and Vincenzo Florio in Trapani Birgi (15 km from Trapani and Marsala, the gateways to Western Sicily). There are several airlines flying into Sicily, including Alitalia and the low-cost carriers RyanAir and EasyJet.
If you’re driving to Sicily, then you’d need to catch a ferry at Villa San Giovanni in Calabria, traveling across the Strait of Messina; this way you can take your car on board. You’d disembark in Messina. If you don’t have a car, but you’d still rather travel via sea, you could also catch the hydrofoil from Naples or Livorno (Tuscany). Pleas bear in mind that prices go up June through September.
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The best way to move around the island is by car. Traveling by public transportation in Sicily is slow and complicated, although not impossible. Connections between major cities and tourist destinations are good, but if you intend to go off the beaten path then you may have some problems. Prefer buses to trains, which are extremely slow; some bus companies include AST, SAIS Autolinee, and SAIS Trasporti.
Hydrofoil and ferry connections to the islands off the Sicilian coast are good during the high season, but decrease considerably in the winter season. Some companies include Siremar, connecting Palermo to the Aeolian Islands and Trapani to the Aegadian Islands and Pantelleria, and Ustica Lines for travel by hydrofoil, which is faster.
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When to go
The best seasons to visit Sicily are the spring and the fall, when temperatures are pleasant; most likely you’ll still be able to bathe in the sea, and at the same time you won’t be oppressed by the summer heat when visiting the cities and sites. Summer is obviously the busiest season and you’ll find crowded beaches and higher prices.
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