Tag: sicily tour planning
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Stunning Sicily October 2021, Day 9
Ciao from Stunning Sicily, Day 9! After bidding farewell to our wonderful hosts in the Sicani mountains, we made our way to Bagheria to the fantastic Villa Palagonia. There our guide Giulia Scalia explained the curious Villa of the Monsters and its historic owner’s motivations for the mysterious statues that decorate it. The hall of…
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Stunning Sicily October 2021, Days 7 and 8
Ciao from Stunning Sicily, Days 7 and 8! It’s hard to explain how essential our engagement with Sicilians is to our experience. Our time in the Sicani Mountains north of Agrigento leaves us with warmed hearts and a deeper understanding of what life is like in the center of Sicily. We’ll remember the feelings we experienced…
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Stunning Sicily October 2021, Days 5 and 6
Our group had many laughs during a market tour and cooking experience with Smile and Food. Alessia is always entertaining with excellent tips, like how to peel and cut a prickly pear without getting the thorns in your fingers. That afternoon we descended three stories below the street level to the ritual Jewish baths in…
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Stunning Sicily October 2021, Day 4
Ciao from Stunning Sicily, Day 4! Siracusa has one of the largest and most extensive Christian catacombs outside of Rome, and we explored the dark, damp, and mysterious underground pathways of San Giovanni’s Catacombs and San Marciano’s Crypt with our local, expert guide Lucia. After a visit to the Orsi archeological museum to see the breathtaking statue of…
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Stunning Sicily October 2021, Day 3
Ciao from Stunning Sicily, Day 3! We had the clearest weather I’ve seen in a long time on Mount Etna for our volcano excursion. It was truly exceptional! My groups often ask why they have to wake up so early for their Etna excursion. Well, today proved why–the night air clears out the smog from…
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Stunning Sicily October 2021, Day 2
Ciao from Stunning Sicily, Day 2! Today we made our way to the south slope of Etna, where we met Benjamin North Spencer of Etna Wine School for a comprehensive lesson about wine making in this extraordinary terroir. Inhabitants of Sicily have been making vino here since before ancient Greek times, so to spend our…
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Stunning Sicily October 2021, Day 1
Ciao from Stunning Sicily, Day 1! We met up today in Taormina, where we are staying at a hip hotel with balconies perched over the Ionian Sea. The clouds parted to show us Etna’s silhouette as the sun set behind her. Then, dinner in the home of Taormina locals from Siculishh, Donatella and Gabriele, who…
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The Basilica Of The Black Madonna del Tindari, Sicily
Ciao from Sicily! I’ve always had mixed feelings about the design of this basilica for the Black Madonna of Tindari, a most sacred place for those of us who are devotees of the dark mother/goddess archetype. Today, though, was different. Maybe because of this moment in my life when I’ve been strongly devoted to my…
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San Pio A Modern-day Saint
Small homegrown shrines are very common in Sicily. This one near my cousins’ home in Bagheria is dedicated to the recently canonized (2002) San Pio (1887-1968).