In summary, the people who ran the race were very friendly, and the runners were very friendly as well. Here's my pro/con breakdown:

Pros:
-Neat scenery - ran through historic downtown Ortigia, ran along the Med, Sea, ran through some citrus groves, and it was basically a flat course.
-They gave you a bottle of Sicilian wine in your goody bag

Cons:
-They do not have any signs in the city regarding where the starting line is. There's also no indication on the website where to do packet pick-up or where the race starts.
-If you don't speak Italian, you will not find the packet pick up area. To find it, I stood around the area I thought was the starting line for an hour. When I saw someone in an Asics jacket hovering in the same area I though the might be part of the race. So, ran up to him and started making running motions, hoping he was at least involved with the marathon. After some odd grunting and hand motions, he pointed to his chest and said, "Numero?" and then he walked me to the packet pick up. It shouldn't have been that difficult.
-They started 1/2 hour late.
-They closed the race 1 hour early because apparently the last 3 runners weren't worth waiting for.
-Granted I was the last person in the race (it was my first and I planned around using between 5-6 hours), but when you get 22.5 miles into it, they should really let you finish.
- I got chased by guard dogs on the race course. At this point they had closed up all the aid stations and picked up the mile markers and cones, so to keep me safe they had a cop following me on a 4-wheeler. That turned out to be handy because he gave me a ride past the scary dogs.
- You have to basically run on a busy highway with no sidewalks. Granted they put cones out to give you a running lane, but that doesn't change the fact that cars come screaming by at 60 mph around blind curves. This also completely negated my ability to finish the course after they shut it down. I would've just finished the last couple miles for my own satisfaction regardless of whether it would've counted, but without those cones blocking off the course, that was impossible.

Like I said, the people were very friendly. I got lots of smiles, and positive energy (or so I'm guessing - I couldn't understand anyone). When I was the last one running some guy drove up on a 4 wheeler and handed me a blood orange and a bottle of water. Having my own personal motorcade was a nice touch too, but considering I planned an entire vacation around this marathon, only to be forced into quitting less than 4 miles from the finish (when I was on pace to complete it in the 6 hours I should've had), I find it a little frustrating. On the flip side, if you can get by in Italian, and you can garuantee finishing in 4 hours or less, this marathon could be for you.

What a course. You start off on a beautiful circuit of the city center, run out into the country along the sea and back into town. Inclines, but no tough, long ones. The only problem was that part of the course is only a lane of the road fenced off, but it's not a major headache.

The organization was good. Feeding stations every 5K and because the circuit doubles, back they're even more frequent than that in parts.

It was my first marathon and I was slow, but everything stayed in place until the end. When you double back you see the people behind you and so could keep an eye on who was sticking it out and so I think a lot of people dropped out because of the lack of support.

The public at the start was good but once you get out into the country you're totally on your own and it's tough, even though the guys on the feeding stations do their best.

The public seemed bemused and curious and as usual a lot of people were fuming at the police because of the road closures. I got shouted at towards the end too!