Sicily: Eastern or Western, the Island Delivers

Sicily is not merely the largest island in the Mediterranean. It is a civilisation of its own — Greek, Arab, Norman, Spanish — whose layered history produced architecture, art and food of extraordinary originality. Eastern and western Sicily offer different experiences. We design both.

Sicily defeats the standard itinerary. It is too large, too various, too historically dense for a single approach, and its greatest pleasures — the Valley of the Temples at dawn, Palermo's Arab-Norman chapels, the Etna wine zone at harvest, the Baroque cities of the Val di Noto — are separated from each other by distances that require either a short programme focused on one part of the island or a longer programme that accepts the travel between them as part of the experience. We design both, and we have strong views about which combination of elements produces the most complete and the most satisfying encounter with Sicily's genuine character.

The eastern option is defined by three experiences of different kinds. The Valley of the Temples at Agrigento — seven Doric temples of the fifth and sixth centuries BC on a ridge above the sea — at dawn, when the first light catches the golden tufa stone and the olive trees below the temples cast long shadows across the archaeological park, is one of the great ancient landscape experiences in Italy. Mount Etna — the highest and most active volcano in Europe, erupting in some degree in almost every year of recorded history, its upper slopes accessible by private 4x4 on the southern tourist road and by more demanding foot approach on the wilder northern flanks — offers a combination of geological drama and extraordinary wine production that is unlike anything else in Italian travel. And the Val di Noto — Noto, Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Scicli — rebuilt identically after the catastrophic earthquake of 1693 in a uniform late Baroque style of great architectural sophistication, constitute one of the finest examples of planned urban design in any period of Italian history.

Palermo: The Capital of Cultural Overlap

Palermo was, in the twelfth century, the most cosmopolitan city in the Mediterranean — a capital whose Norman kings ruled over Arab, Greek, Latin and Jewish populations, commissioning monuments that drew on all four traditions simultaneously and produced a visual synthesis that has no parallel in Western architecture. The Cappella Palatina, completed around 1143 by Roger II, presents in a single small room Byzantine gold mosaic, Arab muqarnas honeycomb vaulting and Norman pointed arches in a combination that is simultaneously Islamic, Orthodox and Latin in its visual vocabulary and that produces an effect of overwhelming, multi-civilisational beauty. The Cathedral of Monreale, twelve kilometres above the city, covers its interior with 6,340 square metres of Byzantine mosaic — the largest surviving programme outside the Hagia Sophia — in a Norman structure of harmonious grandeur. We arrange private visits to both, and to the Zisa palace and the church of the Martorana, in a Palermo programme designed around the specificity of the Norman-Arab-Byzantine moment rather than around the general historical survey.

Etna: The Volcano and Its Wine

The wine zone of Mount Etna is one of the most exciting viticultural territories in Italy — a cluster of villages on the mountain's north slope, between 600 and 1000 metres altitude, where the combination of volcanic basalt soils, diurnal temperature variation and ancient Nerello Mascalese vines (some over a century old, cultivated as alberelli in the traditional manner) produces red wines of extraordinary finesse and mineral complexity. The comparison to Burgundy Pinot Noir has been made so frequently and with such regularity by critics of opposing aesthetic inclinations that it must be taken seriously: Etna Rosso, at its finest, shares the transparency, the aromatic delicacy and the site-specific mineral character that define the greatest Burgundies, while adding a volcanic depth that is entirely its own. We arrange private visits to the most quality-conscious estates on the north slope for cellar visits and tastings, combined with a private guided ascent to the summit craters with an official volcanologist.

Sicilian Food: The Most Layered Cuisine in Italy

Sicilian cuisine is the most historically layered and the most geographically varied in Italy — a tradition shaped by Greek, Arab, Norman, Spanish and mainland Italian influences over three thousand years and by the island's extraordinary agricultural diversity. Arancini, pasta alla norma, couscous with fish at Trapani, bottarga from Mazara del Vallo, pane e panelle from the Palermo street food tradition, granita and brioche for breakfast in Catania: these are not approximations of a Mediterranean ideal but specific, irreplaceable local preparations whose quality is directly dependent on their place of origin. We integrate private market tours with local chefs, cooking lessons in the kitchens of masserie and private houses, and meals at the finest restaurants — both traditional and contemporary — into every Sicilian programme.

The Valley of the Temples at Agrigento in the first hour of the morning, with the torchlight of the previous evening's tour groups gone and the sea visible below the Temple of Concordia in the first light — this is one of the great ancient landscape experiences available in Italy.

The Essentials

Best season: April–June for wildflowers and manageable heat; September–October for Etna harvest and clear skies

Signature experience: Private Etna volcano ascent with a volcanologist; Cappella Palatina in Palermo before opening

Stay: Baroque palazzi in Noto or Ragusa; vineyard hotels on Etna's north slope; private villas on the Palermo coast

Combine with: The Aeolian Islands (by private boat from Milazzo), Pantelleria for Passito wine

Every journey we design is entirely bespoke — crafted around your preferences,your pace, and your desire for the exceptional.

Begin Your Journey