Driving in Sicily: 10 essential tips you need to know
Thinking about doing a roadtrip somewhere in Europe? Then look no further than Sicily! We recently drove more than 1000KM around the east of Sicily and it surpassed all expectations. I usually organise every detail of a trip, but I did next to no research about driving around the island and you could say we learnt a lot along the way! In this blog post, I’ll list out some handy tips I wish we’d known beforehand and some practical advice for your next driving trip to Sicily…
Car hire 🚗
First up, car hire is insanely cheap. Hiring a car for the whole week cost us £120 and we booked directly through booking.com. Just to compare prices, we’ve also hired a car for an upcoming trip to Switzerland which has cost us £250 for just a weekend! When booking our little Sicilian car, we sprang for the extra insurance cover bringing this to a total of £160 which we thought was a bargain.
Insurance drama 📜
We landed in Catania airport and picked up the car directly from there. When we arrived at the pick-up desk, we were told that the cover we had purchased was insufficient, and they gave us the hard sell for their own insurance. They said that their own insurance would include everything, and we wouldn’t have to pay a cent for anything should something happen to the car during the week. We were super tired from our flight (6am takeoff!) and just wanted to get to our villa at this point which was already more than an hour’s drive away. When we asked how much their own insurance would be, we balked when they said €550! We couldn’t believe this and were clearly shocked. They quickly negotiated this and brought it down to €250. My husband wanted to leave it, but I felt a bit pressured and agreed to the €250 insurance which I definitely hadn’t budgeted for as part of our trip money! We were assured that should something happen to our car, that that’s all we had to do was contact them and everything would be taken care of.
Also because we sprang for their own insurance, this meant that we didn’t have to check over the car and report any dents and bumps, and it also didn’t matter if something happened to it while dropping it back off either. In hindsight, this saved us a lot of time at the airport and during the week I’m pretty sure someone hit one of the wing mirrors which would have set us back €300. As much as I felt a bit foolish being pressured into it, I’m glad in hindsight that we did because if there was ever a country to opt for the extra insurance, it’s Italy! The driving is absolutely bonkers and it was good to know we had the coverage. We were also told that we could ask booking.com to reimburse the original insurance we bought and after emailing them they agreed to refund us the £40 so at least that was something.
What car? 🚘
We went for a small compact car hoping we’d be given a Fiat500 so I could really live out my Italian fantasy. We got given a 4 door Volkswagen Up! Which was small and compact and made driving in tiny rural towns a breeze. You may feel the need to upgrade to a bigger car, but smaller cars are the best option in Sicily as some of the roads are very narrow, and it’s easier to navigate around cities. Also don’t be surprised if the car you pick up is covered in dents and scratches, and you quickly realise why when you see the driving etiquette!
Sicilian driving etiquette ✅
Overtaking, speed limits and navigation 🧭
There’s no other way to put it, driving in Sicily can be seriously intimidating and Sicilians love to overtake multiple cars at a time and will do this on narrow roads and even on blind corners! We saw someone overtake eight cars in one go! It can be shocking, but just remember to focus on your own driving, and on a speed that’s comfortable for you. We noticed that cars do try to help others to overtake as they’ll often pull into the side to give you a better eyeline of cars coming and more space. Cars will also drive exceptionally close behind you, so just relax and take your time and try not to be intimidated. Also speed limits mean nothing and we found that nobody followed them. We did, however, spot some speed cameras around the south of the island and this is the only time we saw people doing the speed limit!
In terms of navigating, we took a risk and used Google maps (rather than paying £80 for a sat nav at the car rental company!) and it paid off. We made sure we downloaded an offline map of the island before setting off on our first trip, and we only lost signal twice during the whole week and it wasn’t for very long. On the whole, we got really good 5G and navigating was a breeze. Just remember that Google maps can sometimes take you down narrow lanes and alleyways, so just be sensible if you’ve gone for a bigger car.
Roundabouts ⭕️
So this is something we learnt pretty fast – there are loads of roundabouts in Sicily and nobody seems to care about the standard rules of them at all. Be warned, people will just pull out right in front of you and try your best to get into the right lane beforehand, as otherwise it can be super stressful trying to get off at the right exit! We also found lots of dogs sleeping on roundabouts (like the photo above) which we thought was random but cute!
Italian road rage 🤌
Italian road rage is a very real thing and it’s no surprise given how hot it is when driving (we had our air conditioning on every time we hopped in the car). It was actually quite comical, and on two separate occasions, we saw two people get into an altercation about their driving, greet each other with a kiss, swore at each other with all of the hand gestures, then shake hands and go on their way. It was really funny and don’t be surprised if you get beeped at times, especially in cities.
Roads 🛣️
We thought that the country roads around the islam would be in poor condition and we couldn’t be more wrong. The roads were in superb condition, even those mountain roads which the Brits would consider B or C roads. We were super impressed and they’re clearly maintained a lot more than in the UK. This can be a different story in cities though such as Catania, where you can expect narrow cobblestone streets.
Petrol stations ⛽️
Some petrol stations have a handy self-service machine where you just choose the amount you want to fill up (these are preconfigured, 10/20/30 euro which is super handy) and the fuel type. You then insert your card and can start filling up your car. If you’ve chosen a preconfigured amount, the fuel will automatically shut off once you reach this amount.
In most cases we found that when stopping at a petrol station, we were often approached by an employee offering to help and fill our car. We thought they were just trying to help out tourists but actually this is a service that they charge for! You can actually decline and fill up your car yourself and it’s so much cheaper! Considering fuel in Sicily is super expensive, when we go back next time, we’ll definitely be filling up our own car!
Parking 🅿️
We did a little research before parking in major cities, just to see if there were any places in particular people recommended, but on the whole, you could park and pay using an app. The most widely used one was ‘EasyPark’ which was straightforward to use; you simple picked your location, said how long you wanted to park for, and made a one-off payment.
Tolls 💶
We didn’t expect there to be tolls on some Italian highways, but the good thing is that these only exist on one major highway on the east coast, most notably from Catania to Messina and then onto Palermo.
The way they work is that when you drive up to them, make sure you get into a lane called ‘Ticket’ as these will allow you to pay for a one-off ticket rather than a subscription-like pass for daily commuters. You simply take a ticket from the machine, keep hold of it, and then when you reach the next toll station you give them that toll ticket. Payment is in cash or credit card. I call out credit card specifically because we tried paying using a pre-paid debit card which we always use when travelling and it didn’t work so just make sure you have cash or a credit card with you. They are also super cheap, we paid around £1.50 for a toll between Catania and Taormina so it’s super affordable to get around.
In conclusion
Driving in Sicily can at times seem daunting but I promise that after you get past the first day, you get used to it and will start driving like a Sicilian yourself! Learning the tips listed in this blog post really helped and we had an absolutely great time! We can’t wait to plan our next trip back to discover more of the island.
