An unforgettable Sicily itinerary

Greco-Roman temple, Selinunte

Two years ago, Don and I made a planning trip to Sicily, spending 2 weeks driving ourselves around this fascinating island to determine the best places to stay, visit and eat for a group trip.  We are just about to end a wonderful 2 week trip here with 10 of our friends, so I'll write today about some of what we think is the best of Sicily.  More specifics in upcoming blogs.

Norman castle in Erice

We  lead small group trips all over the world (you can read about them at www.eglobaleducation.com.) and always try to provide a mix of experiences from seeing the most important sites to business visits to excursions to some of the most significant natural areas.  We almost always spend 2 nights in one place, both to have time to let everyone wander on their own through the area or city and to avoid constant packing and unpacking, which gets very tiresome.

Byzantine mosaic at Martorana Church, Palermo

On this trip, we started in Palermo, Sicily's capital and home to some of the world's most beautiful Byzantine mosaics (just did a blog about these a couple of days ago).  Sicily has been invaded endlessly over the last several millennia, so the remains of the many conquerors provide a grand historical perspective on the current culture of the island.  Of particular importance are the Greek and Roman ruins, but the Moorish and Norman castles and churches are also impressive.
So, we included the all-too-little-visited Greek and Roman ruins of Segesta and Selinunte on the west and southwest coasts of Sicily.  Both are lovely locations with the temples resting in (this is April) gorgeous green fields of grass and bright yellow and purple wildflowers.  A perfect time of year to visit.  Just above Segesta, high on a rocky mountain, is the charming medieval town of Erice, originally established during Roman times and now a bit of a tourist mecca with its winding stone alleys, gift shops, restaurants and Norman palace overlooking the Mediterranean.

Greek temple, Segesta

Agrigento's modern city sits on the hilltop above the beautiful ruins in the Valley of the Temples, where the Temple of Juno, Concordia Temple and Temple of Hercules remain from the Greek and Roman eras.  The Concordia Temple is the only one still standing from its original days, primarily because the Byzantines decided to convert it into a Christian church, so filled in the spaces between the gorgeous Greek columns with stone walls.  This would be a travesty if they hadn't been what held up the temple during the 1693 earthquake that destroyed most of Sicily and knocked over most of its ancient buildings along with its more modern ones.   This date, 1693, is a defining moment for Sicilians even today because it marks the change from "old" to "new".

church doorway in Ragusa Ibla

We stayed 2 nights on the coast before continuing on to a charming monastery turned into a luxury hotel in the hills above Regusa.  From there, we visited Regusa Ibla, an old town filled with Baroque churches and villas.  In nearby Modica, where houses are literally stacked on top of one another up the sides of a steep gorge, chocolate is the staple industry, a must stop for anyone who loves chocolate as much as I do.  We visited a chocolate factory where we made our own chocolate bars, but we definitely preferred their chocolate to our crude attempts at chocolate manufacturing.

Modica's stacked homes

Syracuse (Siracusa) has a very interesting archaeological park with an enormous quarry that is a monument to the most horrific human misery.  Slaves worked in the most terrible conditions to cut the stones for Greeks and Romans and later, conquerors stuffed prisoners-of-war into the caves cut out of the limestone to live brief lives in total brutality.  Those who didn't starve quickly often went crazy and killed themselves by banging their heads against the rock walls.

Ear of Dionysius, a huge cavern in
Syracuse's quarry 

Ortigia is the ancient center of Syracuse, an island with a history going back to the Phoenicians.  This is the place to stay since walking around the island is very enjoyable.  The island is filled with restaurants and boutiques and small hotels.  Out in the clear blue water, you can see the remains of a wall the  Romans built using stones from the Greek amphitheater about 3 miles away.

artisan in Taormina

Finally, we are at our final stop, the wonderful town of Taormina, high above the Mediterranean on a rocky saddle with views in all directions.  This was a Roman resort with a major Roman highway winding its way up the steep mountainside where merchants could be taxed for the goods they were transporting.  The town is beautiful and charming with steep walks down to the Sea (or you can take a gondola) or up to the tiny village of Castelmola, above Taormina on a rocky point.  The Greeks built a theater here to entertain and educate their populace (who had to watch 2 tragedies and 1 comedy each day--8 hours a day--for 15 days each year), with views out across the Mediterranean and the Sicilian coastline.  Spectacular.  Unfortunately, the Romans turned it into a coliseum for gladiatorial combat and built the walls up high, blocking the view.  With an earthquake or two, there are now large openings in the walls that provide visitors with magnificent views of Sicily and the Sea.

Greek theater, Taormina

Taormina also looks across the hills to Mt. Etna.  We visted Mt. Etna yesterday, taking the gondola to the top of the ski runs, then buses to about 9500 feet where we could walk around 2 of the volcano's 300 craters.  The clouds moved off, revealing the 2 huge craters at the top of the mountain against a gorgeous blue sky.  Two years ago, Don and I climbed to the top of Etna, to the south crater, on a sunny, absolutely freezing, day to peer quickly inside the crater before scrambling down to warmer climes.  The trip to the lower craters crosses a huge lava field from 2 years ago and passes      many smaller craters, some steaming from the heat beneath their surfaces.

Mt. Etna's south crater steaming