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ISCRA Tour operator / Genova-Italy / info@iscra.com
| T780 Tourcode :SGT_3 | | Small Group Tour: Eno-Gastronomic and Baroque Sicily | Catania – Taormina – Etna Countryside – Syracuse – Noto –
Modica – Scicli – Ragusa – Catania
8 days / 7 nights
Special Deluxe Tour for Small Groups on private basis | | Day 1 | Catania – Taormina
Arrive at Catania airport and proceed to your charming hotel in Taormina. Check-in. Discover the main attractions of the town by your own, its soul and lifestyle, the best places for traditional pastries, ice cream, coffee, food, handicraft and shopping. Stroll through monuments and highlights of Taormina. Enjoy a welcome dinner in a typical Sicilian restaurant. Overnight in Taormina.
| | Day 2 | Taormina – Food market and Сooking Class
After breakfast start your foodie experience with a local chef. First visit Taormina’s Food Market, where local farmers, fishermen and butchers sell their fresh goods. Select products for your class with your chef and learn culinary secrets of cooking homemade pasta, fish and vegetables dishes in a traditional Sicilian style. Evening relax on picturesque beaches or hang out on your own. Overnight in Taormina.
| | Day 3 | Castiglione di Sicilia - Etna wine tasting – Lunch at a farmhouse
Today we proceed on a half-day trip with the guide to discover the Northern side of Mount Etna – it will be your chance to learn about the typical and unique flora of the hills and the many facts related to the volcano. En route admire authentic lava stone houses, orange, lemon, olive and almond tree plantations, while listening to charming stories about Sicilian culture, traditions and food. Visit to the medieval village of Castiglione di Sicilia, framed in the beautiful Alcantara valley, one of “Italy’s most beautiful borghi”. After a short walk, we suggest you to taste the typical sweet pancakes made with fresh ricotta accompanied by an excellent glass of wine Etna Doc produced in the area and thanks to which Castiglione takes the name of City of Wine. Then, you will get to a family run winery. Visit the vineyards, walk around the barrels and learn about the tradition of wine production on the slopes of the Volcano. Here you will be able to taste some Etna wines. Proceed up until 1000 meters above sea level and discover the breathtaking views of volcanic land. Continue your gastronomic experience to an authentic picturesque farmhouse and enjoy the lunch with lots of seasonal antipasti, homemade pasta and typical pastries. After lunch return to Taormina. Free time. Overnight in Taormina.
| | Day 4 | Syracuse
After breakfast, check-out and transfer to Syracuse. Proceed for an excursion to Ortigia. Enjoy a walking guided tour of Ortigia, Syracuse old town, and taste typical Sicilian appetizers, homemade Sicilian pastries, fragrant wines and liquors. During the tour your local guide will share with you a lot about the history, culture, lifestyle and gastronomy of the area while passing the most important monuments and little hidden gems of the town. Lunch on your own. Afterwards free time to explore the town by yourself. Enjoy this romantic town - we suggest you to try an Italian aperitif at the sunset. On request it is possible to organize a boat tour with aperitif on board (by extra charge). Overnight in Syracuse.
| | Day 5 | Winery in Syracuse – Noto
Breakfast at the hotel. This morning you will visit an ancient winery located in the Syracuse countryside and wonderfully structured as a castle. Guided tour of the cellars and the old millstone. Enjoy a light lunch with local organic products and wine tasting in the magnificent courtyard. Appreciate the taste of wines produced in this Syracuse area and discover their difference with Etna wines. After lunch, proceed to sumptuous Noto. Enjoy an easy walk with a local guide in this town of Unesco Heritage – the capital of Baroque in Sicily. While walking and admiring the magnificence of churches and palaces, take a chance to taste some Sicilian ice-cream with extraordinary flavors. Transfer back to Syracuse. Overnight in Syracuse. | | Day 6 | Pearls of the Baroque: Modica, Scicli and Ragusa – Chocolate tasting
Breakfast at the hotel, check-out. Proceed to Modica, the “City of Hundred Bells and Hundred Churches”, where you will meet the local guide and visit some wonderful churches in baroque style, including the Cathedral of San Giorgio in Modica Alta, with its 18th century facade, an elaborate belfry and a very rich interior with gildings and stuccoes. Modica was destroyed by an earthquake in 1693 and was then rebuilt with elegant buildings in baroque style – it is inserted in the Unesco World Heritage List. The town is also famous for its traditional chocolate, inspired by an ancient recipe brought by the Spanish, during their domination of Sicily, directly from the Aztechs in America. During your excursion, you will stop at one of the best and oldest chocolate shops for a chocolate tasting. Free time in Modica, lunch by your own. After lunch move to the small town of Scicli, only 10 km far from Modica. Destroyed by the disastrous earthquake and rebuilt in Sicilian baroque, it is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. The town features several beautiful churches and baroque palaces with particular balconies, decorated with very peculiar figures. Proceed then to Ragusa, check-in. Free time to explore Ragusa by your own. Enjoy Ragusa Ibla by night - the older town district of Ragusa, full of medieval remains and buildings rebuilt in the Baroque style. Overnight in Ragusa. | | Day 7 | Donnafugata Castle – Cheese tasting at a farm – Visit to a Winery – Ragusa
Breakfast at the hotel. Meet the local guide at the lobby and start you trip to visit the Donnafugata Castle, at only 15 km from Ragusa, a sumptuous building in neo-Gothic style, surrounded by a large green park that enhances the architectural beauty of the building even more. During the nineteenth century Baron Corrado Arezzo de Spucches, altered it to how it looks today. The Castle is structured on 3 floors with a total of 120 rooms, of which only 20 are open to the public. Several rooms have specific functions, the music room, the picture gallery, the billiard room, the hall of mirrors, the drawing room, the hall of the bishop and that of the Sicilian heraldic shields. The furnishings are still original, so the visitor can truly immerse themselves in the life of the Sicilian nobility from the nineteenth century. After the visit, you'll have a light lunch and proceed then to a farm in the countryside where you will have a tasting of different types of cheese, including the local hot ricotta cheese. Proceed then to a winery and taste the local wines of the Ragusa area. Return back to Ragusa. Free time. Overnight in Ragusa. (In case of early flight the next day, today the group will leave Ragusa after the wine tasting and move to Catania for the night). | | Day 8 | Catania
Breakfast at the hotel. Check-out. Proceed to Catania airport to board the flight back home. |
| Price will be soon updated | ID: T780, Tourcode :SGT_3 | |
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