HIGHLIGHTS OF SICILY

Day 1_Arrive Catania – Ragusa
Arrival at Catania Airport. Private transfer from Catania airport to Eremo della Giubiliana.
Accommodation in deluxe room and overnight stay.

Day 2_Ragusa Wilderness and Baroque tour
Breakfast at the Eremo. Today we will spend a beautiful day with a “Wilderness and Baroque Tour” by Land Rover Defender 110. With a guide we will visit Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Scicli (World Heritage sites of the UNESCO) and we will taste the Cioccolato Modicano (chocolate of Modica), the Gelato Biscotto (ice-cream biscuits) and the Granita Siciliana. Our guide will bring you through the canyons, the Baroque cities and the coastal dunes, in a extraordinarily biodeverse land and cultural landscapes where the canyons are the wild prelude to cities of art like Scicli, Modica and Ragusa Ibla. Finally we will have a typical lunch on the Santa Rosalia lakeshores. Return to the hotel in the late afternoon. Time for relax. Overnight stay.

Day 3_Syracuse
Breakfast at Eremo. Leaving for Siracusa where you will meet your local guide. Of all the Greek cities of antiquity that flourished on the coast of Sicily, Siracusa was the most important, a formidable seafaring power nearly equal to Athens. In the heyday of its power, it dared to take on both Carthage and Rome. You’ll see remarkable Greek and Roman ruins, including the cave called “The Ear of Dionysius,”. Lunch at leisure and relax in Ortigia. If you prefer , the driver will be at your disposal to visit also Noto in the afternoon, before to return at your hotel in Ragusa. Overnight stay.

Day 4_Ragusa – Agrigento – Mazara del Vallo
Breakfast at Eremo and check out. Leaving for the Valley of Temples where you will meet your guide. You will visit the magnificent Valley of the Temples, a scenery of extraordinary beauty, amongst the imposing Greek ruins, the Garden of the Kolymbetra and the Necropolis. then leaving for Mazara del Vallo and accommodation in a Deluxe room at Kempinski Hotel Giardino di Costanza. Overnight stay.

Day 5_Segesta, Erice and salt pans
Breakfast in hotel. Leaving for Segesta, where you will meet your local guide to visit the Greek Theatre and the Temple. Transfer to Erice, a wonderful and mysterious medieval town made famous in ancient times as the birthplace of Venus. Walking through the cobble – stoned streets of the town, smelling a variety of aromas emanating from the numerous pastry shop for which Erice is famous. You will visit the Norman Castle and the Duomo. Stopping at the world famous pastry shop by Maria Grammatico, here you will taste almond sweets, genovesi and nougat to match with Marsala wine. Lunch at leisure. In the afternoon you will visit Donnafugata Winery in Marsala and taste their best wines. Then you will drive through the Salt Road looking at the Salt Pans on the coastline between the cities of Trapani and Marsala. Overnight stay in hotel.

Day 6_Palermo
Breakfast in hotel. leaving for Palermo where you will meet your guide. You’ll be enchanted by Palermo’s wide boulevards, traditional Sicilian Old Quarter, and baroque palaces. You’ll see the city’s main sights, including Quattro Canti (the Four Corners), an extravagant baroque square ringed by four buildings with baroque sculptures that depict the Four Seasons, Spanish kings, and the patron saints of Palermo’s four old quarters. You’ll see the twelfth-century Cathedral, which houses a pantheon of royal tombs. After you will be taken to Palermo’s food market Il Capo, typical “par excellence”, full of colour and folkloric. Here you will taste typical street food such as pani ca meusa, panelle, arancini....Free time during the afternoon. Overnight stay at grand Hotel Villa Igiea.

Day 7_Arrivederci!!! (Palermo)
Breakfast in hotel. Transfer to Palermo airport with private driver.