Day 1
Arrival in Palermo Palermo Airport > Town
Welcome to the warm, beautiful and pleasant island of Sicily!
Upon arrival at Palermo Falcone-Borsellino Airport, please proceed through Passport Control and collect your luggage inside the customs area.
Our italian-speaking driver will be waiting for you at the arrival department.
Then transfer to your hotel.
Day 2
Palermo Open Air Markets Walking Tour with Sicilian Friends, half day
Breakfast at hotel.
Let’s dive together into the most authentic street food scene of Palermo!
Our Palermo street food tour and local market tour is an easy stroll with your laidback Sicilian friend around the open air markets. We will take our time among the food benches to spot the seasonal products and uncover the secrets of Sicilian cuisine.
The experience starts from the Palermo Opera House --Meeting Point Details will be shared at time of booking-- but the rest of the time will be spent around the backstreets of the city center where not all tourists dare to wonder on their own. We will stop at our favorite street food vendors and offer you the specialties of the day. This is going to be your morning into the daily life of Palermo, which includes a mandatory stop at the old tavern of Vucciria to drink and snack with the old men of the district. You will meet interesting Sicilian characters and raise your glass together!
During the morning street food and local market tour of Palermo you will get various information. Food is the main focus, but we also give insights on local culture, traditions and daily habits. We offer unfiltered walking tours, which means that we are happy to discuss both the cool and the uncool aspects of living in Palermo. As many travelers write in their reviews, it will feel like having a walk around Palermo with an old friend!
The balance of the day is at leisure to explore Palermo on your own.
Optional Tour Add-Ons
#1 - Cooking Class with dine with locals, from h 5PM
#2 - Monreale Dome with English speaking guide, half day from h 2:30PM
#3 - Palermo Guided Walking Tour, half day from h 2:30PM
Day 3
Madonie Delights: Cheese Show Cooking, Castelbuono and Biblical Manna with locals
Breakfast at hotel.
Today meet the driver and departure for the Madonie Mountains to immerse yourself into Sicilian countryside and local traditions.
Upon arrival on the slopes of Madonie Park transfer in a local Dairy Farm where will take place the cheese production starting from cooking the milk to transforming it into different types of cheeses characterized by differences in maturation. At the end enjoy eating the fresh Ricotta Cheese in combo with other local cheeses, bread and more
Then a short drive takes us to Castelbuono, a charming small medieval village with a delightful, still well preserved old town that captivates you from the very first moment.
The town develops around the castle of Ventimiglia, near a Byzantine hamlet called Ypsigro. Walking through its narrow streets, is like entering another dimension, it’s like seeing a parade of knights and beautiful ladies wearing rustling brocade clothes and complicated hairstyles. Castelbuono is, therefore, a little enchanted jewel and, as in any respectable fairy tale, there must be a castle and here’s an impressive one! We will stop approximately one hour for an independent visit.
Upon arrival explore the village and stop in a local small pastry shop in the heart of the village. This special shop has become an Italian-sicilian excellence known all over the world with its enormous offer of Panettone cooked using the best local ingredients, from pistachio to oranges, passing from Modica chocolate to almonds and nuts.
In the Madonie Park, Manna falls from Ash Trees: from Exodus to Easter – The Manna, the bread of life.
This afternoon meet our Manna Expert Team at his own land and you will see how traditions are not only a part of the past but are still a lifestyle. You will discover with him the traditional cultures, medical herbals, edible plants and a demonstration of the production of ash’s Manna.
Manna is the solidified sugary sap that flows from incisions made on the trunk and main branches of several species of the genus Fraxinus in the summertime. Manna is a sugary exudate consisting mainly of mannite, organic acids, water, glucose, fructose, mucilage, resins and nitrogen compounds.
The Manna, considered "The nectar of the Gods", is the white gold of the Madonie. It is a crystallized and sugary sap that is extracted from the spring season from the Ash tree, today Slow Food Presidium. This ash sap, with many properties, is collected exclusively in the countrysides of Castelbuono.
Later we drive back to Palermo.
Day 4
Palermo > Erice, Marzipan, Marsala with wine and salt > Agrigento Country Estate
Breakfast at hotel.
Today departure for Erice uptown.
The Elymians settled in the medieval town of Erice, which was an important religious site associated with the goddess Venus. Wander through its ancient streets and visit some of the famous homemade pastry shops—world-famous for marzipan candies and other delicacies like almond and pistachio pastries. At arrival, independent walk along the city centre with stop at local pastry shop to taste some Sicilian local sweet.
Lunch today is in a local farmhouse.
This afternoon we then ontinue onto Marsala, the Arab “Marsa Allah” –Harbor of God–, is known in the whole world for one thing: Wine!
The Marsala Wine comes from the western lands of Sicily and its name derives from the homonymous town. The Marsala is the oldest Italian DOC wine, with an average alcohol content of about 18 degrees.
Later have a short walk in the city center of this lovely town before driving along the scenic Salt Way Road to admire the beautiful Saltpans where the sea-salt is still produced following the old Phoenician tradition preserved during the century.
We then continue onto Agrigento district and accommodation in a local Estate.
Day 5
Olive oIl Grove Tour with lunch and Valley of the Temples
Relax in the morning and enjoy your delicious breakfast in a local Estate.
Later indulge your senses in a very special, genuine and organic olive oil experience: a stroll through the olive grove, tour of the olive mill and a taste of olive oils will take you on a journey through the ins and outs of extra virgin olive oil production. The olive oil, a powerful ally for our health, delicious to taste with it's incredible aroma feelings on the nose and mouth.
Lunch today is at the local Estate with olive oil tastings.
This afternoon meet the driver and a short drive takes us to Agrigento for a guided walking tour on the Valley of the Temples, a Unesco World Heritage site who covers the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Concordia, the Temple of Hercules and the Temple of Zeus.
Agrigento, according to legend, was founded by Daedalus and his son Icarus after they had fled from Crete “by air”. Historically, however, its origins date back to 582 B.C. when it was founded by Rhodian-cretan colonist from the neighbouring Gela who named their city Akragas after the nearby river of that name. It rapidly increased in size, importance and military strength under Phalarides, the first tyrant, and later under Theron, who extended his way over northern Sicily as far as Himera. Agrigento was a city of artists and illustrious personages, amongst whom the philosopher Empedocles. Pindar defines it as “the most beautiful of mortal cities” and, in fact, in the Vth century B.C., those famous temples, whose beauty we still admire today, were built.
Later back in the local Estate.
Day 6
Country Estate > Piazza Armerina and Winery > Siracusa
Breakfast at hotel.
Today departure for Piazza Armerina to enjoy the visit of the amazing Mosaics Floor at the Roman Villa of Casale, that belongs to the Unesco Heritage.
Built on the 4th century AD, the Villa was later forgotten and only in the 20th century excavations revealed the whole building. It is the supreme example of a luxury Roman villa (about 3500 square meters of floor mosaics) and was probably the residence of a member of the upper class of the Roman Empire. The mosaics discovered here are celebrated among scholars of antiquity. The visit inside the Roman Villa will be done independently. Every room has information boards.
Later transfer in a local Winery-Farmhouse located in the countryside to enjoy lunch and wine tastings.
This afternoon we drive to Siracusa.
Day 7
Siracusa Market Food Tour, Cooking Class and lunch
Breakfast at hotel.
Today independent transfer to the meeting point in the heart of Ortigia --Meeting Point Details: will be shared at time of booking--.
Meet a local House-Chef to learn how to make Sicilian delicacies and specialties.
Walk to the local market to buy fresh seasonal ingredients and then return to the private cooking school to learn how to make traditional starter, such as Sicilian Caponata, and then homemade pasta or arancine for the first course. We will then make a local dessert, like cannoli siciliani, biancomangiare, granita or almond cookies, to enjoy with Moscato di Siracusa sweet wine or our homemade limoncello.
The menù will be decided by the House-Chef on the day based on the fresh ingredients she will find at the market.
The balance of the day is at leisure.
Day 8
Siracusa at leisure or Optional Add-Ons
Breakfast at hotel.
Today is at Leisure to explore the town on your own.
Mediterraneo’s gem and cultural capital of Magna Grecia, the city offers a great variety of choices and attractions. It stands on the shores of south-eastern Sicily and shows different types of coasts: from jagged cliffs to beautiful beaches. The urban territory develops itself on the island of Ortigia and on the mainland; because of its geographic conformation, Siracusa presents a natural spectacle made of river valleys, coloured latomie and beaches that – together with archeological elements of undoubtable historical relevance – give birth to the unique beauty of the place.
Optional Tour Add-Ons
#1 - A half day citysightseeing
#2 - A full day Noto and Marzamemi --baroque and tune fishing village experience--
#3 - A half day Sailing Experience
Day 9
Siracusa > Ragusa Ibla, Modica Aztec’s Chocolate and Scacce > Taormina
Breakfast at hotel.
Today departure for Ragusa. Our Team will offer you time at disposal to keep the feeling with this section of the town giving you direction to explore independently the old part of the city and an undisputed reality of Baroque art. Here you can admire numerous eighteenth-century churches and buildings and the Gardens.
Light lunch in a typical trattoria to enjoy the food specialties of this side of Sicily where a strong Spanish influence is still alive. Today we experience the Scacce.
Scacce are a typical food of the region of Ragusa. They are rustic in shape and have a variety of fillings. They resemble lasagna with their layers of thin pastry in between delicious savoury ingredients. They look like a kind of stuffed focaccia, with very thin dough, which is stuffed and folded on itself. They can be stuffed in a variety of ways, the most well-known being tomato with an aged local cheese “caciocavallo” or another typical filling is tomato with fried aubergine and basil, or tomato and onions.
Soon after, you will discover another jewel of the Sicilian Gastronomy: the local Chocolate in Modica. This particular chocolate is made with a very old recipe, the one coming from the Aztecs.
If you are wondering what the Aztecs have to do with Sicily, think about the Spanish conquistadors in South America and you will see that the same Spanish have dominated this island for a couple of centuries.
Later this afternoon we drive to Taormina, the world famous resort town of Sicily.
Day 10
Etna WD4X4 Jeep with lunch in a winery
Breakfast at hotel.
Today meet the off-road’s driver and transfer to Etna Volcano.
During our first stop we will discover a unique canyon comprised of basaltic lava (the “Alcantara Gorges”) and shaped by the waters of the Alcantara river. The Alcantara’s vertical cliffs reach 30 meters in height and its structures have been forged by high intensity geological and geothermal events. In prehistoric times, a river flowed here over clay sediments until a massive volcanic eruption channeled magma into the riverbed forming the current canyons. After this stop, we will traveling through one of the wine roads of Sicily and crossing large expanses of vineyards (Etna D.O.C.), we will arrive at a local winery. This is the ideal place to enjoy relaxing moments surrounded by nature while sampling a lunch and excellent wines.
We will then make a brief stop at the 2002 lava flow reachable by jeep through a winding dirty road surrounded by chestnut and oak forests. The 2002 eruption lasted from October 27th to January 29th 2003 and it is considered one of the most explosive eruptions of the past one hundred years.
Later, driving up along the Mareneve road we will reach Piano Provenzana (1800 meters above sea level), a ski resort, theater of the great eruption of 2002. After a short walk to visit the ruins of the hotel Le Betulle destroyed by a molten lava flow.
Inclusions Today:
>Breakfast and overnight at hotel
>Full Day Private Vehicle WD4X4 and English speaking driver
>One lunch in a local winery with wine tastings
Not Included:
>Tips and Gratuities
Day 11
Taormina at leisure or Optional Add-On
Breakfast at hotel.
Today is at Leisure to explore the town on your own.
Taormina has long since been Sicily’s most favourite resort town, perched on a coastal bluff that looks out to the Tyrrhenian Sea between Messina and Catania in the north east of the island. Its ancient narrow streets are full of little specialist shops, cafes and restaurants, which are an invitation to step into the spell cast by this intriguing town. The town’s history is vibrant and complicated and dates back to the Ancient Greek period. Taormina was settled in 395 BC by residents from the nearby city of Giardini- Naxos, Sicily’s oldest Greek established city dating back to 735 BC. Giardini Naxos was where the Greeks established their colony during their domination of Sicily.
Optional Tour Add-Ons
#1 - Cooking Class with lunch, half day AM
#2 - Boat Tour Experience, half day
#3 - Godfather village (independent visit: Savoca and Forza d'Agrò), half day
#4 - Godfather tour (visit: Castello degli Schiavi), half day
#5 - Taormina Walking Tour (guided visit: Greek Roman Theatre), half day
Day 12
Arrivederci!
Breakfast at hotel.
Time to say goodbye to Sicily. Then, our italian-speaking driver will bring you from your hotel in Taormina to Catania airport.
We simply can’t imagine a better way to immerse yourself in the life of Sicily without a company like us, to explore hidden corners and appreciate nuances while enjoying the benefits and enormous satisfaction of traveling under your own power.
