Marina di Ragusa is great, has restaurants,
fuel, even trendy
clothing shops. Its a cool place.
Marinas in Catania not so much. Marzamemi is a cool little
family run place and there is a local yacht club. Restaurants near the marina are good and the walk into town is fantastic.
I nearly bought a
boat in Italy but ended up
buying in
Malta. While looking at
boats in Italy I learned that multiple brokers will represent the same
boat. This led in one case to a bidding war that I simply walked away from. The regional boat
registration in Italy seemed a little cumbersome. This may have just been a result of being a foreigner.
So why am i replying to your
posting. Just that nothing in Sicily seemed to be problematic with regards to cruising. Syracuse harbor is great and even the tax guys came out to meet me. And I did hear of problems with dingy theft there but never experienced it.
I think that you are going to have a bunch of fun. and
Malta is an easy day sail away.