Six of Us in Sicily: Palermo, Marsala and a Very Sociable Few Days

From time to time, we travel with other couples rather than just the two of us. It changes our usual approach a little – how we choose where to stay, how we eat and the pace we move at – but the real draw is simple: the company of friends, on much the same kind of trip we’d plan for ourselves anyway.

Most of our Sicily trips have been just the two of us, (see East Sicily and Mount Etna, exploring Puglia in winter and Puglia to Palermo) working around a kitchen and a budget. This one was different on both counts: three couples travelling together, later joined by a fourth – an Italian couple we met in Marsala – and a decision, made before we’d even landed, that nobody was cooking. We’d eat out for every meal instead.

It was only a few days, and not the cheapest way to see Sicily, but it turned out to be one of the most relaxed trips we’ve had there.

Landing in late September 2026

We’d heard about an extreme heatwave gripping Sicily earlier in September, but by the time we touched down, the temperatures had settled to a comfortable 26°C, with warm, easy evenings – shorts-and-T-shirt weather for the whole stay. Showers were forecast on and off throughout our visit, but we never saw a drop of rain.

We all landed on the same evening flight into Trapani-Birgi Airport, on the island’s western tip, collected our hire cars and drove straight to Palermo for two nights.

Where we stayed in Palermo: Casa Zolì

For six of us, we needed space, so we booked a 210 sq m apartment in the Viale Praga area – Casa Zolì Luxury House, with three separate bedrooms, two bathrooms, a huge living room and a large kitchen-diner we had no intention of actually cooking in. It was bright, modern and genuinely comfortable.

T42 Vibe – Casa Zolì Luxury House, Palermo

Category	Rating	Verdict
Couple Factor	▰▰▰▰▰	Excellent
Comfort	▰▰▰▰▰	Excellent
Value for Money	▰▰▰▰▰	Excellent
Location	▰▰▰▰▱	Very Good
Facilities	▰▰▰▰▰	Excellent
Atmosphere	▰▰▰▰▰	Excellent

T42 Vibe – Overall: ▰▰▰▰▰ 5/5

We’d deliberately chosen somewhere outside the historic centre, mainly to make parking easier, and it paid off. Spaces nearby ran to one or two euros an hour, with some even free overnight. Two we used regularly were Parking Belgium Car Wash on Via Belgio, open 24 hours at €2 an hour with space almost always available if you paid on-site, and Parcheggio “Belgio” at Largo Cavalieri del Lavoro, cheaper at €1 an hour and free between 8pm and 8am, but paid via the EasyPark app and much harder to find a space in during the day.

EasyPark turned out to be worth having on our phones well beyond Palermo – we used it again later in Marsala, so it’s likely useful across much of the island.

First night: pizza, not romance

Our first evening, still finding our feet, we found Procopio Strasburgo – Pizzeria & Aperitivo on Viale Strasburgo through a quick search after we’d dropped our bags. It turned out to be a genuinely good find: a large pizza menu, a slightly quieter side street away from the main drag, and friendly, unhurried service.

Most of the table went for pizza; one of us had a smoked-salmon salad that arrived main-course-sized and was just as impressive.

T42 Vibe – Procopio Strasburgo, Palermo

Category	Rating	Verdict
Couple Factor	▰▰▰▰▱	Very Good
Food Experience	▰▰▰▰▰	Excellent
Location	▰▰▰▰▱	Very Good
Service	▰▰▰▰▰	Excellent
Atmosphere	▰▰▰▰▰	Excellent

T42 Vibe – Overall: ▰▰▰▰▰ 5/5

It’s worth saying this isn’t the spot for a quiet, candlelit dinner for two – with six of us at the table, that was never the plan anyway, and nobody around us seemed to mind either way. We stayed well past the midnight closing time, and so did several other tables, with no sense of being hurried out the door.

A day in central Palermo

The next day was given over entirely to the old town.

Central parking is tighter and pricier than out in Viale Praga – expect around €3 an hour for a mid-size car underground, and don’t count on finding anything at street level. We went straight for the underground Parcheggio Stazione Centrale Giulio Cesare, near Piazza Giulio Cesare, which was close to full but still had room, and left the cars there for the day.

Food came first, as it usually does with us. Breakfast was a cappuccino and pastry at Panificio Quartararo on Via Ausonia, where two of us got away with spending under €20 between us – excellent value by Palermo standards.

Lunch, later on, was seafood street food from one of the stalls around Palermo’s historic markets – mostly fried fish and shellfish, generous in portion and genuinely tasty, though noticeably pricier than we’d expected from a market stall, especially after a fine-dining-standard dinner the night before.

As a rough guide from our visit, we’d budget at least €20–30 a head for a simple lunch or dinner with a glass of decent Sicilian wine, and €45 or more per person for a proper multi-course dinner.

From there we walked the classic central-Palermo route: Quattro Canti, the Fontana Pretoria and the Church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio – better known as La Martorana.

It’s a striking Byzantine-Norman church and part of the “Arab-Norman Palermo, Cefalù and Monreale” UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its famous mosaics dating from the 12th century. The only entry fee we paid all day was for the Palermo Cathedral rooftop, a very worthwhile €7 per person for views stretching across the city and out to the hills beyond.

On to Marsala, via a villa with a very narrow driveway

With an early flight home from Trapani ahead of us, we swapped Palermo for the west coast and based ourselves near Marsala for our last night and a half, with wine tasting and the Marsala salt pans (from Erice we’d already seen these flats from above) top of the list.

We stayed at Terrazza dal Picciotto, a villa with a pool in the Contrada Dammusello countryside outside Marsala. It’s worth knowing in advance that the address alone won’t get you there; the approach is down a very narrow lane, and we only found the place because our host sent precise coordinates ahead of time.

The pool, shared with a couple of neighbouring properties, was spotlessly clean and became the main event for our downtime. The three bedrooms and living space were comfortable enough, if the kitchen was on the small and dated side for a three-bedroom house, and the terrace – not glamorous, but a decent size – was where we ended up both evenings.

At just under €70 per couple per night, it felt like good value for what it offered.

T42 Vibe – Terrazza dal Picciotto, Marsala

Category	Rating	Verdict
Couple Factor	▰▰▰▰▱	Very Good
Comfort	▰▰▰▰▱	Very Good
Value for Money	▰▰▰▰▰	Excellent
Location	▰▰▰▰▱	Very Good
Facilities	▰▰▰▱▱	Good
Atmosphere	▰▰▰▰▱	Very Good

T42 Vibe – Overall: ▰▰▰▰▱ 4/5

Wine tasting at Baglio Curatolo Arini 1875

Our main outing from the villa was a tasting at Baglio Curatolo Arini, a family-run winery that has been producing wine since 1875. Three tasting flights were on offer, priced at €25, €35 and €45 depending on the wines chosen, with everyone free to pick their own set rather than agreeing on one for the table.

The tour itself focused on how Marsala’s famous fortified wine is made and was genuinely interesting rather than feeling like a sales pitch. Alongside the classic fortified Marsala, the winery also produces table wines, adding another dimension to what started as a business closely associated with Marsala wine.

Dinner and a late walk through Marsala’s old town

For dinner, we took our host’s recommendation and went into Marsala town centre to Osteria Siciliando, on Via Giuseppe Garraffa – reportedly one of the best in the area, and it didn’t disappoint, with good food, attentive service and fair prices for the standard.

Afterwards, with a couple of hours still to go before midnight, we wandered through central Marsala and were struck by how calm it felt – locals and visitors alike strolling unhurriedly past restaurants still open, some with live music drifting out onto the street.

We gave it the best part of an hour before heading back to the villa.

Salt pans and windmills on the last morning

Our last day was split between the villa pool and a short drive along the coast to see the salt pans that have been worked here for centuries.

We visited the Saline dello Stagnone area, where we had access to one of the old mills for €6 per person. The visit included a short video on the history and methods of salt production, a small exhibition and a climb up a steep staircase to the mill’s rooftop terrace for a proper view over the flats and the windmills dotted across them.

Would we do a group trip like this again?

In a word: yes – in fact, our next one is already in the diary, this time to Málaga in Spain.

Going out for every meal rather than cooking meant we spent more than we usually would on a Sicily trip, but it also meant more time actually enjoying each other’s company rather than managing a kitchen for six. We also discovered, almost by accident, that a pizzeria in Palermo and a villa with a tricky driveway near Marsala could end up among the most memorable parts of the whole trip.

This wasn’t our first trip as a group of couples, and it won’t be our last, though trips like this do take a bit more planning than going it alone as a pair. Everyone has their own preferences, and the trick is finding the compromises – on pace, on budget, on how much is planned versus left open – that work for the whole group.

It doesn’t have to be the same couples every time, either. Changing up who you travel with is, if anything, part of what keeps it interesting.

And perhaps that’s what stayed with us most from this little Sicily trip. We hadn’t set out to create some perfectly balanced itinerary. We simply wanted to spend a few days together, eat well, see a little of Palermo and Marsala, and let the trip unfold around the group.

Sometimes that’s enough. And sometimes, with good friends, a decent pizza and a Sicilian evening stretching towards midnight, it’s exactly what a short holiday needs to be – more Italy ideas in our Italy travel guide.

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Travel42 UK is a couples travel journal dedicated to immersive road trips, slow travel, and destination storytelling.

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