Live the enchanting Sicily

Live the enchanting Sicily

Charatteristics

·       Category:  Local culture, life, heritage

·       Duration :  10 days, 9 nights

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

·       Accommodation: Hotels 3 stars/private houses

·       Type of trip: Travelling tour transported

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

The trip

1^th  day

Arrival to Catania Airport and meeting with your courier. Accommodation in private bus and transfer to the hotel. Dinner in a small trattoria of the historical centre of the town. First impact with a ride of tastes that will last for the whole tour and will seduce with a swirl of unique aromas mounted up by the many cultures overlapped during the millenniums. Overnight at hotel in Catania.

2^th  day

Breakfast at the hotel and guided tour of the city where the Etna eruption of 1696 and the disastrous earthquake of 1693 almost cancelled the whole city, rebuilt according to a rational town planning scheme which designed wide streets and large squares easily attainable in case of new earthquakes. The Duomo square is the Baroque symbol of the reconstruction and reminds how the building style of churches and palaces customized, lightening,  the heavier leading architecture of the Spanish rulers. But the Baroque central quarter and Crociferi street, with the Ursino Castle and the Roman Amphitheatre, don’t hide the living atmosphere of the most modern and industrial city in Sicily.  

In the afternoon,  transfer to Ragalna CLC,  the first Centre of Local Culture that you meet, where you will be warmly welcomed by the local community and take part to a kitchen lesson, cook with them a dish of the dinner but mainly will be introduced by them to the culture which generated it. A dinner with the hosts and a trained participation to a local dance, illustrated as an example of popular expression in the ceremonies, will end an unforgettable evening.

Overnight at hotel in Ragalna.

3th  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 you to follow their traces walking along Avenue Umberto I where overlook 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.  Free shopping in Taormina.

In the afternoon, after the free dinner, before returning to the hotel, you will stay for a fast visit 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 the 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.

4th  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.

5th  day

Breakfast at the hotel and check out.

Departure to Syracuse and accommodation in hotel. 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 Phenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, the Spanish, the French, the ... Italians) whose interactions created the unique Sicilian spirit.

Dinner in a small restaurant and overnight at the hotel.

6th 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 understand 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.

The tour continues to Ispica CLC, dinner and participation with the local hosts to a musical entertainment expression of the popular culture. Overnight at the hotel.

7th day

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. 

Return to Ispica CLC for a visit of the town like an open air museum, followed by a participative kitchen lesson of a local recipe.

The framing of the dish into the Sicilian traditions will complete the case history of the cultural riding started with the city tour and which will finish with a dinner with the local hosts. 

Overnight in Ispica CLC.

8th  day

Breakfast at the hotel and check out.

Departure for Agrigento. Along the road, the bus crosses Licata near the four points of landing of the Allies in the second world war and the start of the invasion of Italy. It will be able to let understand most of the evolution of the Italian political life after the 2nd world war.

Agrigento offers a double scenario: the magic “Valley of the Temples” of the last Greek colony in Sicily, an UNESCO World Heritage site, where is possible to understand the separation and also the links between political and religious power in the Greeks culture, transposed into the Roman political assets and which permeated the principles of the Occidental Democracies. 

Going up the hill, another chapter of this novel is the visit of the medieval city: Saint Spirit and the cloister, Rupe Atenea and the Norman Cathedral, where the people live and looking down enjoy the sight of the temples in the stage of the sea.

In the afternoon, departure to Palermo, accommodation in the hotel and dinner in a typical restaurant where will be tasted the specialties of the northern Sicilian food.

Overnight at the hotel in Palermo

9th  day

Breakfast at the hotel and start of the Palermo walking tour. You will enter the heart of the historic market, U Capu, where history, tradition and street food mix with the  voices and faces of the people of Palermo. Through alleys, palaces and ancient legends you reach the Norman Cathedral and among the gardens of Villa Bonanno and the ancient ruins of the Paleopolis you will enjoy the  Royal Palace and the splendid mosaics of the Palatine Chapel in which Arabs, Byzantines and Normans shared their knowledge, esoteric secrets, habits and life with great tolerance. Discovering medieval quarters, Spanish facades and courtyards of the historic mansions, a surprise visit will introduce you to the city into the city: the Hebrew ghetto of Palermo. Finally here you are at The Four Corners for a new cultural experience, the visit of St. Joseph of the Theatines, potent antagonists of the Jesuits. 

After a free lunch when it is possible to taste the best Sicilian street food, in the afternoon, the tour goes on through the famous Pretorian Fountain, also called the “fountain of shame” for its naked statues and San Cataldo of the Order of the Knights of Malta (XII century). Then you will cross the tiny streets of the Corporations of artisans to reach St. Francis of Assisi. From there, you will discover the richest and darkest centuries of Sicilian history stressed out by the social criticism of the Serpotta’s stuccos in the Oratory of San Lorenzo and by the scenes of the famous movie  “The Gattopardo” shot among the noble furnishings, collections and stables of Palazzo Mirto. 

Both these visit point out the definitive loss of power by the old aristocracy, set aside both by the new political and economic order introduced by the Piedmontese government with the Italy Kingdom and by the increasing underground criminal power of the mafia.

In the shade of the ancient Ficus Magnolioides of Marina Square in another surprise visit you will follow the footsteps of the Holy Inquisition.

Our walk ends in the  old port district of La Cala where you will eat the traditional Sicilian cannoli and gelati.

Overnight at the hotel in Palermo.

10th  day

Breakfast at the hotel and check out. Transfer to Monreale, the last and one of most beautiful jewels of Sicily. Here you can see and detect the influences of fully different cultural universes: Islamic, Norman, Byzantine and Romanic in a surprising artistic melting pot expressed in the Cathedral and its mosaics, in the cloister and in the Collegiata. 

The last images of the complex history witnessed by Monreale will stay for a long time in your minds to remind you that we must be proud of the past which moulded our soul and contributed to our being, who and what we are now. 

Transfer to the Palermo Airport and end of the Sicily Tour.

RATE PER PERSON (min 12 participants) € 1350

Single room supplement € 375

Rate includes:

• private 20 seats High Class bus with driver for all the duration of the journey
• private courier (Italian born, English speaking),
• accommodation in 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 (in Etna Mount, Taormina, Noto and Ragusa, Syracuse, Agrigento, Palermo and Monreale and in all CLCs met: Ragalna, Ispica, Menfi)
• 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.

TOUR OPERATOR

piazza Verdi, 53
90138 Palermo, Italia

Tel. +39 331 192 57 58

website www.justsicily.net    

skype justsicilytravel

·       ASK QUESTIONS: info@justsicily.net    

·       REGISTRATION: www.justsicily.net/live_the_exchanting_sicily/

how ONMEST2 was born

Così è nato ONMEST2, progetto mediterraneo dietro l’impulso del comune di Ispica Camminiamo lungo le strade animate da una folla allegra di turisti, tra artigiani e venditori di tappeti, nel centro di Mostar.	So was born ONMEST2 a Mediterranean project led by the Ispica Municipality We are walking along the streets enlivened by a cheerful crowd of tourists, among artisans and carpet sellers, in the center of Mostar.
E’ una delle città martiri della Bosnia, dove dall’aprile 1992 al febbraio 1994 i musulmani bosniaci difesero la loro indipendenza in una guerra civile prima contro i serbi bosniaci ortodossi, poi contro i cattolici croati.    Abbiamo letto molto, prima del viaggio con l’organizzazione Trekking Italia, su quella guerra civile, che ha frantumato la pacifica convivenza delle diverse etnie che durava da secoli cementata da matrimoni misti, business comuni, partecipazione alla gestione della città. Oggi, le tre comunità vivono invece accuratamente separate. Quel che era naturale allora è innaturale ora. Rimaniamo perplessi dalla risposta quasi offesa della guida: la sua formazione e il suo incarico si limita alla illustrazione dei monumenti, della loro storia, dell’arte del passato, anche recente, ma non si estende alla interpretazione della vita presente.	This is one of the martyr towns of Bosnia, where from April 1992 to February 1994 the Bosnian Muslims defended their independency in a civil war earlier against the Bosnian Orthodox Serbs and later against the Catholic Croats.  We read a lot, before coming here with Trekking Italia organization, about that civil wars which shattered the pacific cohabitation of the different ethnics that lasted for centuries, sealed by mixed marriages, common business, participation to the town management. On the contrary, still today, the three communities live strictly apart. What was so natural then, is unnatural now. We get perplexed by the almost offended answer of the guide: “Me? Sorry but I must only show you the monuments, the interesting places, the shopping streets, I don’t want to bore you with these peanuts.
E una compagna di viaggio rincara, tutta compunta e quasi piccata: “Non esser indiscreto, sono problemi loro”!  Impiccione? Indiscreto? Cultore di notizie choc con cui risollevare gli amici dalla noia dello sciorinio delle foto di viaggio? Oppure, ad ammutolirmi è il senso di colpa retroattivo per lo scarso coinvolgimento con cui ho seguito a suo tempo l’andamento della guerra, mentre mia figlia, con i ragazzi delle organizzazioni cattoliche e non, combinavano viaggi a Sarajevo assediata e bombardata, per portare la loro velleitaria graditissima testimonianza di vicinanza e di pace? Magari ci saranno anche stimoli del genere, ma il nostro interesse nasce piuttosto dall’abitudine a considerare sempre più gli altri non più come esseri differenti, come vicini ancora sconosciuti in una società globalizzata. Il mondo di Erasmus, dei progetti comuni, dei viaggi interrail, del mercato senza confini; l’etica dei principi di Barcellona fondanti della Unione Europea (1998), degli obiettivi di sviluppo definiti dai Millennium Development Goals (2000), della dichiarazione di Madrid sul turismo (2010) ha ormai toccato pure i “fuori età” come noi. Vediamo sulle facciate delle case le tracce dei bombardamenti e  attorno a ogni moschea piccola o grande una selva di tombe bianche con l’invocazione rituale a Allah e le date della morte ripetute ossessivamente, 1992, 1993.	And a travelling companion adds, almost resentful: “Don’t be indelicate, these are their own problems ”! Nosy? Tactless? Maniac of chocking news to use to revitalize the friends bored by the infinite list of the pictures of the travel? Or else, to shut me up is the sense of backdated guilt for the poor involvement with the Bosnian war, whereas others, like my daughter, took part to missions to Mostar or Sarajevo besieged and bombed, to bring their unrealistic but hyper-welcomed witness of nearness and peace? Perhaps there will be also urges of the kind, but our interest was rather born by the habit to stop considering other people as alien foreigners  but as neighbors still unknown in a globalized society. The world of Erasmus, of the transnational projects, of the inter-rail travels, of the market without boundaries, of the Barcelona principles recalling the founding ethics of the European Union (1998), of the Millennium Development Goals (MGD 2000), of the declaration of Madrid on Tourism, should be part of the common culture.       We see on the houses the traces of the bombings and around each small or big mosque a forest of white tombs with the ritual invocation to Allah and with the deaths dates obsessively repeated, 1992, 1993.
Tra esse vagano straniti anziani abitanti che tolgono un ciuffo d’erba qui, puliscono una lapide là, e quando scorgiamo le scritte ripetute “don’t forget”, riecheggia nella mente il canto alpino “Sul ponte di Perati”: “…la mejo zoventu che va soto tera” e non possiamo non sentirci coinvolti. No, giovane figlio della generazione digitale, il nostro interesse non è ozioso: perché deriva dalla voglia di capire di persona, senza accontentarci di una informazione sempre partigiana; perché Dante insegna “nati non foste a viver come bruti ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza” (canto 26, Inferno); perché democrazia significa partecipazione, ma partecipazione significa conoscenza; perché essere cristiani impegna nello sforzo inumano di amare anche i nemici e, a maggior ragione, i nostri amici.	Among them bewildered elderly people walk and eradicate a tuft of grass here, clean a tombstone there. When we perceive the repeated inscriptions “don’t forget”, echoes in our mind  the mountain song of war: “the best young people which goes under the earth” and we cannot feel uninvolved.        No, young son of the digital generation. Our interest is not vain, because it comes from the will to understand in person without being pleased of an information always partisan, because Dante teaches “you were not born to live like animals but to follow virtue and knowledge”, because “democracy” means “participation” and “participation” involves “knowledge”, because to be Christians commits to the inhuman effort of loving also our enemies and, you bet, our friends.
Ma … magari ha ragione il nostro amico, perché per lui siamo “business” e la gestione del turistico è stata orientata fino ad ora dai postulati del turismo di massa: economia di scala, rapidità delle visite per “vedere di più”, efficienza, economicità, ritorno degli investimenti. Per carità! La redditività è essenziale ma molte sono le strategie per raggiungerla. E se vediamo i turisti solo come fonte di business e non come persone che apprendono e condividono con gli ospitanti i valori immateriali dei territori e delle loro comunità, temo che cloniamo nuovi eco-mostri comportamentali. E … forse ha pure ragione il nostro amico perché la grande maggioranza dei turisti questo si aspetta: veder tanto in poco tempo, visitare e non partecipare, giudicare senza essere coinvolti, guardare e ascoltare senza correre il rischio di conoscere. E allora, perché non cerchiamo, per quella sottile fetta di visitatori per cui turismo è anche ma non solo evasione, di creare viaggi della conoscenza delle persone e non solo dei monumenti e delle cose? Perché non creiamo guide che facciano loro sentire l’emozione di conoscere e vivere quel territorio; dove incontrano persone del luogo curiose come loro che manifestano una altrettanto impellente voglia di capire, attraverso il visitatore, quel mondo esterno che li può far uscire dagli spazi angusti del quotidiano; dove non visitano solo i grandi monumenti delle città d’arte, ma gustano in comunità di minor dimensioni anche la vita locale e possono spiegarsi molte differenze ma anche molte similarità con essi; dove possono capire non solo la storia, l’arte e la cultura ormai codificata e classificata in testi, immagini, studi e commenti, ma anche una cultura differente radicata nella vita e nella coscienza delle persone? Così è nato ONMEST2, un acronimo impronunciabile che rimanda a un “open network for mediterranean sustainable tourism”, cui si intitola un progetto cofinanziato dalla Unione Europea, che dietro la leadership del Comune di Ispica coinvolge alcuni paesi del Mediterraneo (Italia, Spagna, Grecia, Libano, Giordania, Territorio sotto l’Autorità Palestinese, Tunisia) ma che già sta brigando per coinvolgerne altri. ONMEST2 sta muovendo ora i primi passi verso un turismo diverso, che sarà anche business sia per il visitato e soprattutto per il visitatore, ma sarà soprattutto un turismo di relazione, di conoscenza, di condivisione, di rispetto e esaltazione delle risorse dei territori visitati, di consapevolezza, di gusto dei cibi creati sotto la guida di donne locali e gustati insieme con loro, di apprezzamento delle danze e dei canti imparati e realizzati con i giovani ospitanti, di produzione attenta di oggetti sotto l’ammaestramento di artigiani locali, dove il visitatore vive tutte queste esperienze mai fine a se stesse ma inquadrate nella storia, nella cultura, nella vita locale.        Domenico Bearzatto	But … perhaps our friend is right, because for him we are “business” and the management of tourism is so far oriented by the principles of the mass tourism: scale economy, fast visits to see “more”, efficiency, profitability, return of investments. For Heavens’ sake! The profitability is essential but many are the ways to get it. And if we see the tourists only as source of business and not as persons which learn and share with the hosts the immaterial values of the territories and of their communities, I am afraid that we clone new behavioral eco-monsters. The contact with the tourists is a precious opportunity also for the hosts to become more “citizen of the world”, overcome own provincialism, refuse the stereotypes, widen the knowledge of foreign languages. And … perhaps is right also our friend guide, because most of the tourists expect just to see much in few time, visit without taking part, assess without being involved, look and listen without running the risk of knowing. And then, why don’t we try, for that thin slice of visitors who see tourism not only a way of evasion, to create travels of knowledge of persons and not only of monuments and of things? Why don’t we create guides who let them feel the emotion of knowing and living that territory? Where they meet local people curious like them and which show a similar urging will of understanding, through the visitor, that foreign world which can make them get out from the narrow space of the day-to-day life? Where they visit not only the great monuments of the cities of art, but experience, in communities of minor dimensions also the local life and can get aware of many differences but also many similarities with them? Where they can understand not only the history, the art, the culture already codified and classified in texts, images, studies and comments, but also a different culture rooted inside the life and the conscience of people. So ONMEST2 was born, an unpronounceable acronym of “Open Network for Mediterranean Sustainable Tourism”. It is the title of a project co-financed by the European Union, who behind the leadership of the municipality of Ispica, involves some countries of the Mediterranean sea (Italy, Spain, Greece, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestinian Authority Territory, Tunisia) but already working to involve others. ONMEST2 is moving towards a different tourism, who will even be business, but will be primarily a tourism of relationship, of knowledge, of sharing, of respect and activation of the resources of the visited territories. It will join the taste of the dishes realized under the lead of local women and dined together, the appreciation of the dances and songs learned and performed with the young hosts and the careful production of  handicrafts under the teaching by local artisans. The visitor will never live these experiences as an end in themselves but framed into the local history, culture, life.        Domenico Bearzatto