ITINERARY

NOTE: Our Agents Team will be glad to suggest you the most authentic restaurant in accordance with your tastes and expectations.

TOUR ITINERARY

DAY 1 - ARRIVAL AND CHECK IN

 Arrival in Catania. Pick up at the Airport and private transfer to your

Accommodation in Taormina.

Check in at the hotel in Taormina and free time to roam around the lodge and the village centre

 Lunch and dinner at leisure

In Catania land, water, light and air seem to miraculously mingle together in a unique, unforgettable spectacle: the strength of Etna and its snowed peaks matches with a crystal clear blue sea. History, archaeology, baroque architecture, gourmet food and great wines will embrace you while visiting the city, together with the innate warmth and hospitality culture of the inhabitants a genetic sort of “filoxenia”. Catania has a strong magnetic fascination: it is gritty, picturesque and chaotic. It is Sicily at its most youthful. One minute you’re scanning the skyline from a dizzying dome, the next your staring at contemporary art in an 18th-century convent. Beneath it all are the ancient ruins of a town with over 2700 candles on its birthday cake. Indeed, food is another local forte.

Which are the most typical dishes? Here is the home of Sicily´s iconic pasta alla Norma and the extraordinary La Pescheria market!!!! Find there the excellence of the street food: arancini and the mythic cannolo.

 DAY 2- CATANIA

Breakfast at the hotel and full day excursion in Catania and Etna Volcano area. If you will lucky you can admire a real eruption (it is a unique and safe experience  the Guides will keep you at safety distance).

A  travel direct contact to Etna Volcano(at an altitude of 1,800- 1,900 meters) and be astonished by the lava flows, by panorama which is, both geologically and  botanically, one of the most peculiar touristic attraction of the entire island.

Today you will have the chance to visit, with a local guide, that marvelous city, where black-and-white palazzi towers overlook baroque piazzas. You will experience local authentic street food adventure: a visit at the very typical Pescheria

It is Catania noisy fish market, which takes over the streets behind Piazza del Duomo every workday morning. Here you will admire the open shops tables overwhelmed by decapitated swordfish, ruby-pink prawns and trays full of clams, mussels, sea urchins and all manner of mysterious sea life.

In a very colorful and picturesque Tavola Calda of the nearby you will have the tasty chance to enjoy a typical lunch, whose dishes are exactly those of the local Catanese culinary tradition: Arancini, Cannoli and Granita Siciliana.

Or alternative option:

Visit a unique cellar of the Volcano slopes, producing excellent wines thank to the singular soil due to the Volcano ashes action. Taste the local Etna DOC wines: it is a very particular wine made by local grape cultivars as Nerello and the white Carricante.

Dinner at leisure

DAY 3 - TAORMINA & THE FAMOUS ALCANTARA GORGES ON THE RIVER´S VALLEY

Breakfast at the hotel and full day excursion to Taormina and the picturesque nearby area.

You will visit at the famous Alcantara Gorges and at the river´s valley.

Have a walk with a skilled Naturalist native guide in that enchanting, almost extraterrestrial, environment… You can have a bath in that unique site…

On your way backwards you will admire the very characteristic villages, positioned on the foothill: Francavilla di Sicilia, Castiglione di Sicilia and Linguaglossa, well known due to its ancient history and for the local cake-pastry traditional production.

Today you will visit Taormina, famous thanks to its Greek-Roman theater. you will stroll around  the perfectly preserved Medieval streets and admire its dramatic views of Mount Etna, deeply perceiving the archetypal Mediterranean atmosphere.

In Taormina the main attraction is the Teatro Greco, which is now home to all kinds of events, including plays, fashion shows, concerts, and cinema festivals. Built in the 3rd Century BC, hosted performances of works by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes.

Originally quite small, it was enlarged by the Romans to accommodate their own particular brand of theatrical extravaganza. The views from the theater are spectacular, taking in a usually smoking Mount Etna and the Bay of Naxos down below.

Lunch at leisure

Or alternative:

A nice Mediterranean show cooking in a local “Ristorante stellato” (classy and refined restaurant) in Taormina.

You will purchase in local market and shops the raw material with the assistance of your private chef. He will be glad to teach all the basic secrets to recognize the right and authentic ingredients.

 DAY 4 - AGRIGENTO AND THE VALLEY OF THE TEMPLES

Breakfast at the hotel and transfer to Agrigento. Check in in your hotel

Full day excursion to Agrigento and the temples valley.

Today you will visit Temple Valley with a local tourist guide and later you will sight see Agrigento

The archaeological site at Agrigento, inserted onto the UNESCO World Heritage 1997, is an exceptional historic testimony to Magna Graecia’s presence in this area, as well as to subsequent epochs.

The remains from the Hellenic city, and additionally from the successive Punic-Roman era, the imposing Doric temples – to this day almost completely intact – the angora, the pagan and Christian necropolises, and the crawling network of subterranean aqueducts, constitute the richness of this site.  Extending over approximately 1,300 hectares, it recounts an epic history that began in the 6th Century B.C.

Hotel check in and afternoon at leisure in Agrigento

Or alternative: relax in the famous beach Scala dei Turchi

Do not forget your swimsuit !

Afternoon at leisure in Agrigento

Dinner at leisure

DAY 5- PIAZZA ARMERINA: THE VILLA ROMANA

Breakfast at the hotel. Transfer and full day excursion to Piazza Armerina (Villa Romana) and Ragusa Ibla

Piazza Armerina is a splendid art city nestled into the heart of this gorgeous Island.

Villa Romana del Casale, originally owned by a powerful Roman family, probably by a member of Rome’s senatorial class, who was a governor of the Eternal City itself (Praefectus Urbi), dating back to the 4th Century A.D., the Villa is a magnificent rural abode.

It will fascinate you, above all, for its captivating mosaics, considered the most beautiful and best-preserved of their kind, UNESCO World Heritage Site in1997.

The Villa Romana del Casale is considered to be one of the most important exemplars of an official governmental residence, attributed to the elaboration and exceptional beauty of its architectonic and decorative elements.

Later in the day you will drive further to Ragusa Ibla.

Check in your hotel in Ragusa Ibla

Dinner and lunch at leisure

Or alternative: native show cooking in a local famous restaurant-locanda

 DAY 6- NOTO AND MODICA: THE TOP OF THE SICILIAN BAROQUE

Breakfast at the hotel and full day excursion to Noto and Modica 

Noto will surprise you: it is, so to say, the perfect Baroque town. It was fully rebuilt from scratch on a new site, about 10 kilometers far from the old center, after having been wholly destroyed by the ruining earthquake in 1693.

The idea of the three architects was to build a perfectly proportioned urban center, whose parallel lines would provide lots of different astonishing panoramas.

It was built using mainly local compacted limestone, which naturally absorbs the sun´s rays and transforms them into a soft golden honeyed glow: the result is a breathtaking seductive spectacle for visitors admiring the towns  at the sunset

Three main roads, running from east to west, segment the village in three part and ensure a constant attention of the sun. On the upper quarter lived nobility, in the middle the clergy and on the bottom the lower class.

Walking tour in Noto with our native guide.

In the afternoon you will visit Modica and in the evening you will assist to a cooking show in a Restaurant, awarded with a Michelin Star

Also Modica, like the other towns in Val di Noto, was badly damaged in the 1693 by the earthquake and largely rebuilt in Sicilian baroque style.  Numerous picturesque flights of steps connect the two parts that divide Modica village.

The fame of Modica is connected to Chocolate: a 400 year tradition of Sicilian Chocolate making is nestled here sine Cacao arrived in Modica firstly and directly from America very soon since the village was a part of the Spanish domain. Thus Modica became specialized in making granulates chocolate, based on Aztec methods and recipes, often flavored with chili pepper, cinnamon and vanilla.

Lunch and dinner at leisure

DAY 7- SIRACUSA

Breakfast at the hotel and full day excursion to Syracuse

Today you will pay a visit to Syracuse, the marvelous historic site rich in Archaeological evidences. You will visit the archaeological area, the cathedral and Fonte Arteusa, a small little charming lake inside the little Ortigia Island, in the oldest part of Syracuse.

You will lunch in Ortigia and have some free time at your disposal in the afternoon.

Syracuse was the most important city of Magna Grecia, able to defeat Athens in 413 D C and home of many great Greek personality, Archimedes among all.

The archaeological site, on the northwest part of the town, saves many well preserved Greek and Romans remains: the main attraction is undoubtedly the Greek Theater with a cave that is among the largest ever built, able to accommodate in 59 dC 15.000 spectators, which dates back in 5th Century BC

Final dinner in an incredible restaurant in Ragusa Ibla.

DAY 8 – SEE YOU SOON ITALY

Breakfast at the hotel, check out, transfer at the Catania Airport