Sicilia

Tour

1 Day. Arrival at Catania. Transfer to the hotel. Dinner and overnight.


2 Day: Etna and Taormina
Departure to the Vulcan Etna. The bus takes us through vineyards, lemon groves and lava stones, until 2000 m altitude. Here we have the opportunity to ride height with an off-road vehicle up to 3000 m. Enjoy the fantastic view of the crater, it is unique.
Then proceed to Taormina. Visit the picturesque town with its Greco-Roman Theatre. Then walk through the beautiful old town streets in a romantic atmosphere: Corso Umberto to the Duomo and Palazzo S.Stefano. Return to the hotel and dinner.


3 Day: Siracusa with boat trip
Visit the Ciane-Salinea reserve. This river environment is an ideal habitat for the survival of many species of resident and migratory birds, including stilt-plovers, water hens, and various large waders. The source of the River Ciane is highly evocative, a scenario of myths and legends, with its circular pool of green-blue water (the name Ciane comes from the Greek Cyanos). The source, surrounded by the green of papyrus plants similar to those in the Nile, can be reached in a rowing-boat - an experience that has enchanted countless travellers from the 17th century until the present day.  Return to Siracusa, the greatest city of Magna Graecia. On arrival stroll through the streets of Ortygia Island, the heart of the city center. Time at leisure to explore the Aretusa Fountain and listen to the famous legend. Return to the hotel and dinner.


4 Day: Change of hotel - with visit of Cefalù
This tiny town with a white sandy beach, his Arab "Kasbah" (Arab houses) and a huge rock scenery, is considered one of the most charming seaside resorts in Sicily. Discover this picturesque fishing village in Greek times, a small walk through the romantic lanes and reach the Cathedral at the end. Finally, you see the huge Norman Cathedral with its magnificent mosaics from the time of Prince Roger 2. Hotel accommodation. Dinner and overnight.


5 Day: Palermo and Monreale
Palermo, the golden city, is located in the "Conca d'Oro" (Golden shell) and it is the capital of the island. Day trip to discover a number of different eras. Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines and Arabs, Normans, Bourbons, and others left their testimonies through walls, gardens, noble palaces, theatres and churches with amazing mosaics. Then visit the Norman Cathedral with its famous mosaics from the Byzantine period, as well as the cloister of the Benedictine Abbey of San Giovanni degli Eremiti with his botanical paradise. Monreale means "Hill of the King", where it was built the new Cathedral in 1174-1185. The immense grandeur of 6000 square meters of mosaics and inlays show to the world the status power of the Norman Empire and convey still today an overwhelming impression of Byzantine treasure.
Return to the hotel. Dinner and overnight.


6 Day: Erice, Segesta and island Motzia
In the morning visit of the medieval town of Erice, situated nearly 3,000 feet above sea level and surrounded by ancient Elimi and Phoenician walls. In antiquity, Erice was famous for its temple where the Phoenicians worshipped Astarte, the Greeks venerated Aphrodite and the Romans celebrated Venus, respectively. Mount Eryx served as a point of reference for sailors, who adopted Venus as their protector. Erice’s hilltop twin castles of Pepoli, with foundations dating from both the Saracen and Norman eras, give the town a spectacular skyline. Both castles have been modified over the centuries, yet they retain their distinctively medieval character. You will enjoy a breathtaking view from the castle towers. Later we reach the magnificent Temple of Segesta, the first Doric-style Greek Temple, set among gently sloping hills of yellow-ochre and brown. The temple was built by the Elimians, one of the most important Greek colonies in Western Sicily. The temple’s 36 columns are still intact despite several major earthquakes. You will also visit a typical Greek semi-circular-style theatre, set on the rocky slope. Its seats face west towards the hills, beyond which you can catch a glimpse of the Bay of Castellamare. Later we get with a fishing boat at Motzia, the island fortress of Carthage in Sicily. Visit to the small but suggestive museum, to the archaeological remains from different ages, in part saved. Return to the hotel and dinner.


7 Day: Agrigento and Selinunte
The ancient Greeks: Agrigento and Selinunte. Both cities had their bloom time 2500 years ago among evenly those Greeks, who got themselves in the course of the centuries in addition, again and again into disharmony and fights. The old Acropolis Agrigento is misleadingly called „valley of the temples" („Valle dei Templi"). Actually the temple district is on one, elongated ridges between the more highly lain city of Agrigento and that, strategically and landscape specified fantastically located, about 2 kilometres distanced coast of the African sea. As one of the most important city-buildings of large Greece counted Agrigento, the old distal Akragas, which the Sarazenen Grigent called, more than twice as much inhabitants than today. Six temples line up on the ridge. Above all the Concordia temple is a bright example of the Greek art to insert such enormous buildings harmoniously into the landscape. Selinunte, further in the west, between Agrigento and Trapani, is an enormous rubble field and the largest archaeological building site in Europe, which brings out their secrets only gradually. However the area on an offshore plateau, marked out for excavations and soundings, measures four square kilometres. The city, which had been created by the Greeks 628 years before Christ, was destroyed twice by the Cartagans (409 and 250 before Christ). The enormous temple plant - it was the largest in the antique Large Greece - would to some extent have withstood also largest destruction rage. It was an earthquake, which finally put „the parsley city completely "in rubble. Return to the hotel and dinner.


8 Day: Transfer to the airport of Catania, with visit to Piazza Armerina
On the way to the airport, stop at Piazza Armerina, with its fantastic mosaics. Visit of the "Villa del Casale" with its more than 3500 square meters of mosaics on the villa's floors, and some surviving wall paintings. Then transfer to Catania airport.

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