Charming Sicily among art, cultures, flavours, wine and food

Description

A kaleidoscope of the different aspects of the Sicilian soul, art and culture, tasted in its most famous sites but also lived in contact with the local people in minor but enchanting destination like Menfi, and Castelnuovo. From Palermo to Monreale, Segesta, Erice, Mazara, Agrigento, Cefalu and return to Palermo. The trip will mix, in a masterly designed plan, culture and slow food, the art of the typical high level dishes with the artistic heritage. And all through the eyes, the words, the impressions of the local people, through the participation to their life, the exchange of  experiences and the share with them of some of their exciting moments. You will live not only the days but also and cheerful evenings.    

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Characteristics

·       Region: Sicily

·       Type of travel: Transported

·       Duration :  7 days, 7 nights

·       Period:  All year, customized to the tourists needs

·       Participation: Minimum 12 participants

·       Treatment: Half board. Good 3 stars hotels. All with free of charge wifi

Description of the trip

1^st day. Arrival to Palermo

The participants arrive to the Palermo airport. Night stay in Palermo. And tomorrow the tour will start.

2^nd  day. Start of the travel. Visit of Palermo.

Meeting with the guide and start of the visit of Palermo, capital of Sicily, which shows an artistic and architectonic travel 25 centuries long, where the Punic enclosing walls join the liberty style villas, the roman archaeological finds, the neo-classic theatres, the residences Arab-Norman style, the Byzantine mosaics, the baroque churches.

Take the breath away the harmonic crossing of styles of the very rich palace of Normans, the equilibrium of the square of Quattro Canti, the many stylistic influences present in the Cathedral and of the churches around.  A stop near the “L’Antica Focacceria S. Francesco” (a producer of the local excellent traditional “focaccia”) let you discover the most genuine tastes of the Sicilian “street food” which inherit centuries of Sicilian, Greek, Arabic, Spanish, French food traditions.  The “Focacceria” is also one of the founders of the anti-racket Association “Libero Futuro” and purchases many of the raw materials from the Cooperatives “Libera terra”, which work on the lands seized to the Mafia. The tasting will give also the opportunity to understand where and why Mafia was born and the war that the State and the Civil Society are making against it. In the afternoon, after a not to be missed experience in the famous market  “Vucciria” (in siciliano: fuss) there will be free time to catch up savours, perfumes and colours of the life in Palermo. Overnight stay in hotel.

3^rd day. Palermo – Monreale – CLC Buseto Palizzolo

Breakfast in hotel. Transfer to Monreale, one of the most beautiful jewels of Sicily. Here you will detect the influences of the many different cultural universes (Arabic, Norman, Byzantine, Romanic)  in the surprising artistic melting pot of the Cathedral with its mosaics, in the cloister, in the Collegiate church. The vault saves the very rich treasure of William the 2^nd: it includes a very precious thorn from the Christ crown, saved in a golden and silver reliquary.

The technique of the byzantine antique mosaic is practiced by the students and teachers of the professional school, who will explain their processes.

ON the way by private bus for to Buseto Palizzolo, a visit of Segesta will not limited to look at its temple and amphitheatre and to know the antique civilization created by the political refugees who founded the Magna Grecia, but also to understand the key principles of the democracy, developed through the centuries in spite of the invasions, the oppression by the ruling classes, the marginalization of the farming by the town culture.

In the CLC Buseto Palizzolo, the guests are welcomed by the local community and will be invited to have dinner together and during and after the meal will be trained and take part to a local dance.

Overnight stay in an agri-tourism of Buseto Palizzolo.   

4^th day: CLC Buseto Palizzolo – Mazara del Vallo – Menfi

Breakfast in hotel.

Departure to Mazara del Vallo, the city nearest to the Tunisian culture and representative of all the problems which are shaking the Arabic (and our!) world. In the Islamic city, the core of Mazara, you will find a quiet atmosphere which looks so far but as a matter of fact let us face all the problems of the migration from the southern Med countries and its evolution.

Early in the afternoon, departure to CLC Menfi, a small village in the province of Agrigento placed on the hill sloping down to the sea, just at vintage time. Accommodation at the 3 star hotel. Then visit of a biological factory and a beautiful Winery  and its vineyards followed by a tasting of 4 wines. Dinner with the products of that ground, cooked with “ Brigata Mandrarossa Women “ where you will learn how to make the hand made pasta…and, more, what the pasta means for the Sicilian people and the cultural and economic environment.  

Overnight in Menfi.

5^th day: Menfi – Agrigento - Castelbuono

Breakfast at the hotel and check out.

Guided hike in the beautiful Valley of the Temples archaeological site, in the UNESCO World Heritage list. It gather ten Doric temples, three sanctuaries, some necropolis and a museum of extreme interest. The visit of the hill is impressing.  The tour crossed so far times, cultures, peoples and met places of cult of periods very far from each other. They represent a religious sensibility transversal to different social classes, peoples, races, times, levels of power and wealth. In front of the Temples Valley and the sea behind, is the right time to understand also this side of the Sicilian soul.

In the afternoon, departure towards CLC Castelbuono, a lively little town with an interesting past developed mostly since the Middle Ages era and grown recently according to an ecological and cultural choice. The local community will welcome the guests with pleasure and will let them visit the town, like an “open air museum”, with the old crafts tour (blacksmith, shoemaker, barber, lacemaker, taylor, etc.). Will follow a tour of the surroundings with the astonishing woods of trees of the “manna” a white sap extracted (from the middle of July onwards) from the bark of the ash trees, sweet and perfumed. Dinner in a typical restaurant and night stay in the hotel.

6^th day: Castelbuono – Cefalù – Castelbuono

Breakfast at the hotel and departure to Cefalù.

Guided tour of the Cathedral etc..Free time for relax and shopping in Cefalù. Early in the afternoon proceed towards  Santo Stefano di Camastra to see a demostration of sicilian ceramics.  Back to Castelbuono.

Dinner at agriturismo with demostration of hand made ricotta cheese and not only... Overnight in Castelbuono.

7^th day: Castelbuono – Palermo airport

Breakfast at the hotel, check out and departure for the airport of Palermo.

End of the travel.

RATE PER PERSON (min 6 participants) €1.250

Single room supplement € 280

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 (all dinners included lunches which will take place in hotels or restaurants as explicitly pointed out),
• entry fee for all the monuments according to the program, official guides
• 1 wine tasting  + light lunch,
• the Just Sicily 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… in spring, summer, autumn, a relax period on the beaches of Menfi, on the south of Sicily or courses of transformation and preservation of agricultural products in Buseto Palizzolo

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/