Ten days in Sicily, Palermo to Catania, by the clock

Ten nights across Sicily, Palermo 3, Agrigento 3, Piazza Armerina 1 and Catania 3, flying into Palermo and out of Catania, with each archaeological site placed on the day and at the hour it's open.

Two airports, one in each direction

Fly into Palermo and out of Catania: Palermo Punta Raisi handled 9,220,905¹ passengers in 2025 and Catania Fontanarossa 12,369,485², the busiest airport in Sicily.

Flying in and out of different airports saves you the drive back across the island on the last day. Amounts below are in euros.

Palermo airport has a railway station on the lower level of the terminal with a daily service, and buses stop outside arrivals. Prestia e Comandè reaches Palermo Central station in around 50 minutes, and other lines run to Trapani in 1 hour 10 and to Agrigento in 2 hours 40.

Days 1 to 3: Palermo and Monreale, where the clock is early

The Palazzo Reale with the Cappella Palatina takes its last visitors at 4:30 pm Monday to Saturday and 12:30 pm on Sundays and holidays, so it belongs on a weekday morning.

Tickets in September 2026 are €19 full, €17 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25 and €11 for ages 14 to 17. The building houses the Sicilian regional assembly and can close without notice, so keep a second morning free.

It's one of nine monuments in the UNESCO listing of Arab-Norman Palermo and the cathedrals of Cefalù and Monreale, inscribed on July 3, 2015: seven in Palermo, plus the two cathedrals.

Monreale sells separate tickets, €6 for the cathedral, €6 for the cloister and €12 for both. The cloister opens 9:00 am to 7:00 pm Monday to Saturday and 9:00 am to 1:30 pm on Sundays, last entry 30 minutes before closing; the abbey was founded in 1174⁶ by the Norman king William II. See Palermo and UNESCO in Sicily.

Day 4: Segesta and Selinunte on the way south

Segesta costs €14 full and €7 reduced, €16 when a temporary exhibition is on, and five more areas of the same regional park are free to visit, from Rocca di Entella to the Grotte di Scurati.

Selinunte is the site with the moving clock: it opens at 8:00 or 9:00 am depending on the season and closes at sunset, with the ticket office shutting between 4:30 pm and 7:00 pm. In 2026 it costs €17 full, which is €14 plus a compulsory €3 exhibition supplement.

Take Segesta in the morning and reach Selinunte before its ticket office closes, which can be as early as 4:30 pm, then drive on to Agrigento. See Segesta and Selinunte.

Days 4 to 6: Agrigento, and the temples after dark

The Valley of the Temples opens every day 8:30 am to 8:00 pm, last entry 7:00 pm, and from June 20 to September 20, 2026 it stays open until 11:00 pm on weekdays and midnight on holidays.

That evening opening is the reason to be here in summer, with last entry at 10:00 pm on weekdays and 11:00 pm on holidays. On the first Sunday of the month entry is free until 7:00 pm and paid again from 8:00 pm.

The park covers around 1,300¹⁰ hectares of the ancient Akragas, founded around 582¹⁰ BC by Greek settlers from Gela and Rhodes, and it has been on the UNESCO list since 1997. Three nights here give you one daytime visit and one after dark. See the Valley of the Temples.

Day 7: Piazza Armerina and the Villa Romana del Casale

The Villa Romana del Casale opens every day 9:00 am to 7:00 pm, with the ticket office closing at 6:00 pm, and costs €17 full and €10 reduced, including a €3 exhibition supplement.

From May 10 to September 21, 2026 it also opens from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm for €10, which lets a summer drive from Agrigento arrive late and still get in. A combined ticket adds Morgantina, the archaeological museum of Aidone and two museums in Piazza Armerina.

The villa is run by the Sicilian Region, not by the culture ministry, so it doesn't appear in the national museum statistics. See the Villa Romana del Casale.

Days 8 to 10: Catania, Etna and Taormina

From Catania, the Etna cable car climbs from the Rifugio Sapienza at 1,920 m to 2,500¹² m, and above that the Tour 3000¹² goes on by 4x4 bus to around 2,800¹² m, then on foot with a volcanology guide to 3,000¹² m.

Prices and departure times sit behind the operator's booking engine rather than on a page you can read in advance. See Etna.

The Teatro Antico in Taormina is open every day from 9:00 am, closing at 7:45 pm (19:45 on the gate) with the last visitors let in at 7:00 pm. Tickets are €14, €7 reduced, and under 18s go in free.

Summer evening openings run to midnight, with last entry at 11:00 pm, and their dates are posted season by season. See the Teatro Antico, and seven days in eastern Sicily for Syracuse.

The order, in one line

Every day on this route is set by a clock: Palazzo Reale before 4:30 pm, Selinunte before its ticket office shuts, the Valley of the Temples after dark in summer, the Villa Romana in its evening slot, and Taormina before 7:00 pm.

Swap two days and at least one of those clocks runs out on you. That's the whole logic of the order.

What isn't verified

Nobody on this route's source list publishes driving times between the sites, or a bus timetable from Agrigento to Piazza Armerina and on to Catania.

Treat days 4 and 7 as car days and check the road times the evening before. For the region as a whole, see Sicily.

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