Rent a Car in Catania

Catania is the most practical base for exploring eastern Sicily, and unlike Palermo, public transport to the main sights here is even more limited. Mount Etna, Europe's tallest active volcano, is about 40 minutes from the city — a hire car lets you reach the mid-altitude refuges without depending on seasonal tourist buses. Taormina, perched above the sea with its Greco-Roman theatre, is about an hour north, while Syracuse and the island of Ortigia are about an hour south.

South-eastern Sicily hides one of the island's least crowded treasures: the Val di Noto, with the baroque towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa, rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake in a single UNESCO-recognised architectural style. They're all an hour and a half to two hours from Catania and linked by scenic but slow back roads — a multi-day itinerary does the area far more justice than a single day trip.