Spanish and naturalistic: an unknown Sicily

Description

Sicily interpreted in its two more unknown sides: the spanish heritage, still well present in its culture and attitudes and the enchanting nature. You will go from the top of the volcano Etna and its park and down to the sea of the Vendicari reserve, where herons and flamingos lead dozens of different migrant birds in any season. Culture and nature with the local welcoming people will go with us along the whole trip in an unusual Sicily, discovering its most secret soul.

Charatteristics

·       Category:  Local culture, life, heritage

·       Duration :  5 days, 5 nights

·       Period:  to be customized according to the needs of the tourists

·       Accommodation: Hotels 3 stars/private houses

·       Type of trip: Travelling tour transported (included a visit to Etna volcano, transported or hiking)

Notes : The currency is the € = Euro. All the selected hotels offer the wifi service free of charge.

1^st day

Arrival to Catania Airport in the morning. Meeting with our courier, accommodation in private bus and start from Catania of the travel. Today the city’s central core is baroque, totally re-built after the disastrous earthquake of 1693 and the eruption of volcano Etna of 1669, who left up only the apse of the Norman Cathedral, the castle Ursino and few houses, later joined, in the list of the antiquities, by the Greek theatre rebuilt in the Roman period and the Roman amphitheatre, re-brought to light and restored.  

Catania. Re-built from the end of ‘600 according to rational planning schemes, became along the times one of the main development poles of the isle. You live there the liveliness of the big commercial cities even in the animated roads of the Baroque centre, in the Dome square, with the Cathedral dedicated to Saint Agatha with the prospect by Borromini, the Palace of the Chierici, the Town Hall. In the centre of the square dominates the “Liotru”, an elephant of lava stone dating back to the Roman period, become symbol of the city, with an Egyptian obelisk on top and which according to the legend protects the city from the dangers of Etna.

Not to lose the feast of Saint Agatha (3-5 February), for the spectacular stage and the mixture of spirituality, folklore and magic concentrated in the procession. A silver little temple (“vara” in Catanese dialect) keeping the relics of the Saint, goes on pushed by porters, followed by hundreds of “devotes”, dressed in the traditional “sack” (a white tunic closed by a girdle, black cap, handkerchief and white gloves). The “vara” is followed by eleven “cannalori”, tall wooden columns representatives of as many corporations of arts and crafts, brought on shoulders by 12 men, the porters, who go on with a characteristic rolling gait called “a ‘ncannata”.

Above all the shout: “Citizens, citizens, are we all devotes?

Also the civil authorities, major as a first, follow on board of two eighteenth-century cabs belonging to the ancient Senate of the city, to bring the keys of the city to the religious authorities.

Dinner in a typical trattoria.

Night stay in Catania.

2^nd day

Breakfast at the hotel and departure for Taormina, founded in the IV century a.c. by the Greeks. It shows many beautiful monuments: the Greek-Roman theatre, the medieval palace Corvaja (XI century), the Renaissance cathedral (XV century). But it’s fame is due to the discovery by Goethe and the young scions of the European aristocracy of nineteen century who came for the Grand Tour of Italy. They invite us to follow their traces walking along Avenue Umberto I and overlooking ancient churches and palaces of an incredible mix of styles, from the Romanic to the Gothic, the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Rococo, according to different interpretations (Italian, English, Spanish).  But, when you are admiring the details of these superb architectures, from the interstices between them, you have sudden perspectives of the sparkling view of the coast that will fill up your eyes in the squares of IX Aprile, of the Cathedral. And finally you will rest on the stands of the amphitheatre, suspended between sea and sky, from which you can see down below the whole coast and up to the Etna giant.  Free shopping in Taormina.

In the afternoon, after the free dinner, before returning to the hotel, you will go to Savoca, on the coast, and have a look to the places where were filmed many scenes of the “Godfather” by Francis Ford Coppola. You can also go down into the crypt of the Monastery of Capuchins where the corpses of abbots and noble men of Savoca lay mummified. There, like in many places in Sicily, get evident the contrasts between form and spirit of the religion, between different behaviours of rich and poor men in front of the death, between religious rites and spirituality.

The return to Ragalna CLC for a typical dinner brings the surprise of an evening cheered up by  the performance of the “pupi”, the famous Sicilian puppets. Their histories of the day-by-day life and of the ancient duels between Christian and Arabic knights open a window into the popular legends and how are lived, even nowadays, the events in form of a fight between Good and Evil.

Overnight at the hotel in Ragalna CLC.

3^th  day

Breakfast at the hotel and departure to visit Mount Etna, the bigger volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world.

Will be possible a full tour by bus or also an easy hiking of 4 hours along the slopes of the volcano and the park of Etna called by the Arabs “jebel utlamat” the mountain par excellence.  

During the guided hike you’ll discover the beautiful Natural Park, temple of the biodiversity, characterized by urban landscapes, dense forests that maintain different unique plant species and wasteland covered with volcanic rock.

After the visit, you will reach Linguaglossa to visit a beautiful winery followed by a wine tasting and a dinner with delicious local products.

At the end, back to Ragalna CLC and overnight at the hotel.

4^th  day

Breakfast at the hotel and check out.

Departure to Syracuse and guided visit of the Archaeological Park, one of the most important ancient Greek site of Europe, of the Latomia (stone quarry) and its grottos (Ear of Dionisos), of the Greek theatre.

Early in the afternoon, visit of Ortigia, the island which is the oldest part of Syracuse, with its Apollo temple, the Cathedral, the Maniace castle, the Medieval district. Here you have in front of you all the history of Sicily and can understand the overlapping of the many cultures (by Sicanis, to the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, the Spanish, the French, the ... Italians) whose interactions created the unique Sicilian spirit.

Departure to Ispica and accommodation in the hotel. Later you will be welcomed by the local community and  invited to a participative kitchen lesson of a local recipe, where the hosts will take the opportunity of framing the dish into the Sicilian traditions. Will be the moment of exchanging opinions, compare different cultures and going deeper into the soul of the Sicilian people.

A night tour of the town, like a museum on open air, among the soften tones of the streets, will add a new chapter to the case history of the cultural riding of Sicily. 

Night stay in hotel.

5^th  day

Early breakfast at the hotel to leave for the animal reserve of Vendicari where in 1512 hectares on the sea, a whole ecosystem lives near important ancient vestiges from the Greek to the Byzantine ages.  Stunning landscapes, a thick vegetation which opens out of the blue on a crystal-clear sea, long golden beaches which in few meters change into overhanging rock-faces. From observation shacks you can observe migrant flamingos, herons, storks, resting before reaching their destinations. And then you will have a look at the “tonnara” of Vendicari, where the tuna fishes were slaughtered in a bloody rite.   

In the afternoon, departure to Noto and guided tour of the treasures of the baroque city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the highlights in southern Sicily. The town is built on terraces, which are connected by monumental flights of steps. Here you have  full immersion in the Baroque, walking along the avenue Vittorio Emanuele, crossing the Public Garden, entering the Franciscan Church and the Order of Santa Chiara Church, reaching the Piazza del Municipio with the City Hall in the Palazzo Ducezio and peeping into the Cathedral.

You will see many monuments but will have the real feeling of how much of the Spanish domination has moulded in 560 years (except short interruptions) and, blending with other influences, has created the Sicilian culture not easy to understand even by the Italian “continentals”.

More, you will figure out the birth of a self-made justice, initially in replacement of a void created by the progressive draw-back of the state Spanish Bourbon organization, but later (after the 1815) structured more and more, as mafia, into a criminal counterpart of the State.

Return to Ispica CLC, where, after a traditional Sicilian dinner in a restaurant you will take part to a lesson of a traditional dance and an introduction, by our hosts, to the special world which gave birth to that dance and to the songs that go along with it. Overnight in the hotel.

6^th  day              

Breakfast in hotel. Departure to visit Ragusa, a curious example of a town with double identity, where the original  Ibla, destroyed by the earthquake of the 1693, started to be re-built only forty years later in the same place and according the same structure as before the destruction. In parallel the New Ragusa was rebuilt following the “modern” criteria of the Baroque town planning and developed over the times. Whereas Ibla stayed blocked, suffered a continuous depopulation but maintained a fascinating medieval structure rich of baroque palaces and churches. 

The guided visit of Ragusa starts with its Cathedral and continues with “Archi” district, which homes four of the eighteen UNESCO monuments of the city. 

In the afternoon, return to Catania and end of the tour.

RATE PER PERSON (min 12 participants) € 680

Single room supplement € 200

Rate includes:

• private High Class bus with driver for all the duration of the journey
• private courier (Italian born, English speaking),
• accommodation in hotel 3 stars hotels,
• half board basis (meals will be in the hotel or restaurant as planned),
• entry fee for all the monuments according to the program, official guides
• 1 wine tasting  + light lunch,
• the JustSicily 24h assistance.

Rate does not includes: Anything that is not present in "Rate includes".

Limitations in accessibility: wheelchair-bound people must inform the Tour Operator during the registration, to take care of. 

Documents and information

·       Passport:  for European travellers: passport or identity card. For not European travellers: visa according to the reciprocation laws with the Italian Government

·       Sanitary precautions: none

·       Climate: according to the period

·       Things to buy: original handicrafts, food specialties, mainly in the CLCs Centres of Local Culture,

You can combine this cultural trail with… a full visit of one day to the Natural Reserve Faunal Oasis of Vendicari.

How to register   

                                   

ASK QUESTIONS: info@lapilliviaggi.com     

REGISTRATION: www.lapilliviaggi.com/Spanish_and_naturalistic_Sicily

TOUR OPERATOR

via G. Milana 13

95030 Nicolosi (Catania)

Italia

Tel. +39 095911402

Mob. +39 3496185664

Fax +39 1782714645

Website  www.ioviaggi.com   

Skype lapilli viaggi