I was happy to see your question as we are going to Sicily in October for 2 weeks as well and I will watch for answers to your post.

I have the flights to and from Rome already but have done little other planning. I don't know if you had seen a post a while back for a website called http://www.whichbudget.com. It finds low cost local flights in Europe as well as other places. I looked at flying from Rome to Palermo and back and it took me to a site for an airline called WindJet. The prices were very reasonable. I also looked at train and ferry prices,times, etc. Since we have only 2 weeks I think the plane would be best so we don't waste a lot of time getting to and from the island.

We will also be renting a car. We will probably fly into Palermo and stay there a few days before renting a car and driving the rest of the time. Your idea of using bases to tour from is exactly what we plan to do.

Did you read the trip report posted by another Ziner here? The site is http://www.microbes.plus.com/october4.htm I really found it interesting. They rented 2 apartments for one week each and toured by car from these two bases.

Hope some of this helps. Nancy in VA