Page 79 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

able to get a free town plan and a local listings booklet in Italian, and some offices

will reserve you a room and sell places on guided tours.

Likely summer (April–Oct) tourist office opening hours are Monday to Friday 9am
to 1pm and 4pm to 7pm, Saturday 9am to 1pm, though some offices in tourist areas
open for longer. From November to March hours may be reduced. If the tourist office
isn’t open and all else fails, the local Sicilian telephone office and most bars with
phones carry a copy of the local Tuttocittà ( tuttocitta.it), a listings and information

magazine which details addresses and numbers of most of the organizations you’re
likely to want to know about. It also has indexed street maps for local towns and
adverts for restaurants and shops. The Palermo version (with an interactive map) is
available online.

TOURISM WEBSITES

bestofsicily.com Informative site detailing history, the arts, books, food and wine,
sights and travel.

siciliaonline.it Some information in English, with details on everything from
folklore and the weather to transport and festivals.

press.sicilia.it Mostly Italian, with extracts from all sorts of articles about Sicily,
plus news and reviews.

ITALIAN STATE TOURIST OFFICES

Australia & New Zealand 02 9262 1666, italiantourism.com.au

Canada 416 925 4882, italiantourism.com

UK 020 7408 1254, italiantouristboard.co.uk

USA 212 245 5095, italiantourism.com

Travellers with disabilities

Although most Sicilians are helpful enough if presented with a specific problem, the
island is hardly geared towards accommodating travellers with disabilities. In the
medieval city centres and old villages, few budget hotels have elevators, let alone

ones capable of taking a wheelchair, and rooms have rarely been adapted for use by
disabled visitors. Narrow, cobbled streets, steep inclines, chaotic driving and parking
are hardly conducive to a stress-free holiday either. Crossing the street in Palermo is a
major undertaking even if you’re fully mobile, while Taormina, the most popular
resort, poses great accessibility challenges for anyone in a wheelchair.