 Itinerary
Day 1: Palermo
Arrival on your own to the hotel in Palermo. Enjoy a welcome cocktail. Dinner and overnight in your hotel.
Day 2: Palermo/Cefalu/Capo d’Orlando/Taormina/Catania
Buffet breakfast, depart to cefalù, a charming coastal town, a former fishing village, which is also home to a breathtaking Norman cathedral with dazzling mosaics. Take a stroll to the city center and down Main Street to reach the cathedral and the medieval washhouse built in the rock. Proceed to capo d’orlando along the Tyrrhenian coast and stop for lunch. Continue to Taormina, founded in 400 BC and beautifully located overlooking the sea and the peak of mount Etna. Enjoy time at leisure to shop for handmade lace, coral jewels, ceramics, homemade sweets and preserves down “corso Umberto” or simply walk through the tiny streets. Possibility to visit the fascinating roman Greek theatre. Proceed to Catania. Dinner and overnight at hotel katane palace.
Day 3: Catania/Monte Etna with lunch in a farmhouse/Catania
buffet breakfast, weather conditions permitting, excursion to mount Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe. Across fascinating landscape, reach a height of 2000 meters, and enjoy a fantastic panorama of the ionic sea. Lunch in a farmhouse on the slopes of Etna and wine tasting of local production. Back to Catania, the town known for its original baroque style and for its streets built with black lava stone from mount Etna. Walking tour through via etnea, the baroque street “via crociferi”, the piazza duomo with the cathedral and the “liotru” statue, symbol of the city, the roman amphitheater, the opera house (external visit), the university, and the noble palace of biscari (external visit). Dinner and overnight in your hotel.
Day 4: Catania/Siracusa/Noto/Ragusa
Buffet breakfast; depart to Syracuse to visit the most beautiful Greek colony of Sicily. Visit the archaeological area including the famous latomie of the paradise, the Greek theatre, the roman amphitheater and Dionysius “ear”. Visit the island of ortigia, the small baroque city centre of siracusa, built by the aragonians: see the cathedral and the “Fontana aretusa”. Lunch in a local restaurant. In the afternoon, depart to noto, one of the most beautiful cities in Sicily renowned for the harmony and unity of its baroque style and declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. Proceed to ragusa, a city that is divided into two parts: the upper part built after the earthquake in 1693 and the lower part that is called ragusa ibla, one of the most important for baroque architecture. Enjoy a tasting of typical Sicilian products in a nice bar in the main square by the dome, “basilica di san Giorgio”. Dinner and overnight at hotel mediterraneo palace.
Day 5: Ragusa/Caltagirone /P. Armerina/Agrigento
Buffet breakfast. Depart to caltagirone, famous for ceramics and pottery production: visit a ceramics studio and chance to shop. (Caltagirone not included in winter schedule). Depart to piazza armerina and visit villa romana del casale: it has the richest, largest and most complex collection of late roman mosaics in the world. Continue to Agrigento. Lunch in a local restaurant. Visit the valley of the temples, with the most beautiful example of Greek civilization in Sicily. Dinner at hotel. After dinner an unforgettable panoramic tour of the illuminated valley of the temples. Overnight.
Day 6: Agrigento/Selinunte/Segesta/Palermo
Buffet breakfast; depart to the archaeological park of selinunte, the largest in the Mediterranean area with the impressive temples and acropolis. Proceed to castelvetrano and stop in a local farmhouse (famous for olive oil production) for olive oil and wine tasting before lunch. Proceed to Segesta to visit the Doric temple surrounded by a unique landscape. On to Palermo. Dinner and overnight.
Day 7: Palermo/Monreale/Palermo
Buffet breakfast. Morning visit of the capital of Sicily, one of the richest towns on the island for history and art: the cathedral, the “palatina” chapel, and panoramic tour of the town (“Quattro canti”, opera house, Pretoria square). Continue to monreale to admire the cathedral with its splendid 12th century mosaics and the cloister of the Benedictines monastery with Moorish architecture. Lunch in hotel. Afternoon at leisure or optional summer excursion to erice, a medieval town full of myth, history and art, which sits on top of mt. Erice, overlooking the city of Trapani and the Egadi Islands. Panoramic tour of the salt-works of Trapani. Optional winter excursion to mt. Pellegrino, the most famous mountain in Palermo, arrive to the shrine of Santa rosalia, patron saint of the city, enjoy the panoramic view over conca d’oro. Visit the catacombs of cappuccini with a haunting maze of corridors holding 8,000 mummified bodies. Walking visit of the “capo market”, one of the most colorful historical fruit and vegetable markets of Palermo. Dinner and overnight in your hotel.
Day 8: Palermo
Buffet breakfast, end of tour. Note: itinerary may be reversed or modified without notice. New year’s departure schedule same as winter, but in different order. Ask for details. |
