Don't try to do everything in 9 days...

...the East side is lovely: we stayed at Taormina which is gorgeous. Worth a day trip but a schlep from the other side and if you only go East once make it to Etna. You drive quite a long way up and then get a guided tour which is very much worth doing.

Carthage is also lovely if you like Old Crumblies (being one myself I rather do) though again a bit of a hike from Palermo.

Fraid we didn't get to the West Side.

But, generally in the med as I'm sure you know, take it easy, eat dinner at 9 or 10 and then get your kit on for a midnight swim, loads of locals will be doing just the same and the bars are open molto late-o; the vibe is very much more chilled than in Northern Europe, there's no undercurrent of aggression, everyone's more or less friendly and you'll see kids and grannies out at 1am and no-one thinks anything of it.

And take some sun cream.

Enjoy!

Posted By: Old Man, Aug 26, 21:15:07