WIRED2THEWORLD.COM

Message Boards

These are a great resource for travellers. You can get just about any question answered and find up to date info not always available in guidebooks

Fodor's -Western Europe message board. Very active.

Slowtalk-Message board primarily for Italy.

Lonely Planet Thorntree-Western Europe- Message board for young and budget travelers.

Concierge.com- Basic Italy forum. Doesn't get a lot of traffic.

Agriturismo & Cooking Classes

Gangivecchio -We'll be staying here the first 2 nights. See the link to their cookbooks below.

Anna Tasca Lanza - This is part of the Regaleali Wine Estate. We'll overnight here with cooking classes. See links to cookbooks below.

Agritourism in Sicily- Good, general site of many Agritourismo locations in Sicily.

Cucina del Sole- Eleonora Consoli- This is one of many links to Cucina Del Sole near Mt. Etna. We might have gone here was well if we had gone to the East Coast of Sicily.

Car Rentals

autoeurope.com This is the comapny I ended up choosing for our 7 day rental. I did so because their price was all inclusive with insurance and $0 deductable. Also, they were highly recommened on many different message boards and they dropped their price by over $200 to match a competative bid I sent them.

Hertz.com

italybycar

Travel Resources

Michelin- Excellent resource site for all of Europe. Give driving maps, distances, lists restaurants & hotels with reviews where ever you want to go. Even lets you save routes and itineraries.

CNN Weather-Palermo

Slowtrav.com-This is the parent site to the slow talk message board. This is a fabulous site with tons of information about traveling in Italy. I particularly like the comprehensive sections about driving.

Luxurylink.com

Random House page about Gangivecchio...

Frommers.com-Destinations-Sicily    

www.initaly.com

Sicilian.net- Trapani Sightseeing

Best of Sicily.com
http://www.travel-library.com/italy- links to other Italy Travelogues and resources.

Accomodations and Restaurants

Palermo
These places looked interesting to me, though we haven't booked any.

Ai cartari- B&B in an old paper factory.

Venere.it- Hotel Del Centro

Ciao Ciao Italy.com Hotel del Centro

Venere.com- Grand Hotel Et Des Palmes

Venere.it- Hotel Letizia

Hotel Joli

Eurovacanza.com-Hotel Joli


West Coast

Karen Brown.com- Pension Tranchina in Scopello

Caffelletto.it- Pension Tranchina in Scopello

Baglio Spano

Sicilian.net Baglio Santa Croce

Hotel Moderno Erice

Books and Things...

Below are some books and other materials used in the planning of this trip. The book covers are direct links to their pages at Amazon.com, which offers free shipping on most purchases over $25. 
If you choose to buy them through Amazon, please do so direct from this page (i.e. no surfing once you get there). We get a small commission and it helps keep this site up and running. Thanks!

	GUIDEBOOKS & MAPS
	Lonely Planet Sicily (Sicily, 2nd Ed)by Sally O'Brien, Fionn Davenport   In general, I like the Lonely Planet series, especially for third world locations. I was a little hesitant to buy this one, but I'm glad I did. It's very complete and gives lots of listings for budget restaurants, accomodations, and practical transportation.
	Eyewitness Travel Guide to Sicily This is a beautiful book. It's probably most useful during the planning process as it has hundreds of color photographs and drawings of every place of interest in Sicily. I particularly like the sections called "street-by-street" that give a bird's eye veiw of a neighborhood. It's not particularly good for accomdations and restaurants; it's much better for sightseeing details.
Michelin Map No. 432 Sicily	This is a HUGE, detailed, fold-out, paper map. It will probably be too big to use comfortably in the car, but it seems to show every tiney road and town in Sicily.
	Sicilia by Berndtson This is a nice looking, laminated road map. it's smaller and less detailed than the Michilin map, but I may buy this one for ease of use.
	COOKBOOKS
Gangivecchio
	La Cucina Siciliana di Gangivecchio: Gangivecchio's Sicilian Kitchen by Wanda Tornabene, et al This is the first book written by Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene. It won the James Beard award for Best Italian Cookbook in 1997.
	Sicilian Home Cooking: Family Recipes from Gangivecchio by Wanda Tornabene, et al; Hardcover This is the book I just bought from them. The recipes look fantastic and the pictures of Gangivecchio just highten my excitement about going there.
Regaleali
	The Heart of Sicily: Recipes and Reminiscences of Regaleali, a Country Estate by Anna Tasca Lanza
	The Flavors of Sicily by Anna Tasca Lanza
	Fiction & Travel Essays I haven't read any of these yet, but they all look facinating to me. I hope to read some before or during the trip.
	The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily by Theresa Maggio
	Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb
	The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Giuseppe T. Di Lampedusa