8 Days Private Sicily Nature Food Wine History Best of Etna

Day 1 Arrival Day: Check in in the countryside hotel on Etna's slope

1. 1

   Mount Etna

   24 hours Admission ticket included

   Upon arrival at Catania airport be greeted by your driver, who will bring you to your countryside hotel on Mount Etna's Slope. Your hotel is located near UNESCO Etna's park with 10 hectares including an organic vineyard, olive garden, swimming pool, and ancient cave. Your DBL room is a separated house constructed according to the bio rules. This day will be dedicated to the Nature. You can walk around of this amazing territory enjoying silence, birds songs, aromas, Etna's top amazing view, tasting local wines and food, relaxing by the pool, and reading books under the olive tree. You will have lunch and dinner in a very authentic and romantic restaurant at your hotel.

Day 2 Mount Etna Craters plus 2 wineries visit with food & wine tasting

1. 1

   Craters Silvestri of Mount Etna

   6 hours Admission ticket included

   After breakfast is served in your room, you will meet your guide at the reception to start a journey to the highest active volcano in Europe - mount Etna. You will reach the point of 2000 meters above sea level and walk in this unique landscape. After you will visit 2 different wineries to taste the famous Etna's wine & learn about its wine production. These types of wines will be accompanied with the local food.

Day 3 Randazzo, Bronte town & pistachio production

1. 1

   Bronte

   1 hour 30 min

   You will have a homemade breakfast with fresh local food in your hotel, served in your room. After, your private guide will meet you at your hotel and accompany you to Bronte. Sicily is a land privileged by nature and Bronte on the western slopes of Etna, is the world's largest center of pistachio production. Bronte is known above all for the expanses of trees, which grow on rocks and volcanic soils and which give a fruit of exceptional quality pistachio. You will learn about its cultivation and production, try famous Sicilian cannoli with pistachio.

2. 2

   Randazzo

   2 hours

   Then you will reach other very important Etna's medievel town Randazzo - At the northern slopes of the volcano and on the border with the Nebrodi, on the last lava escarpment of a prehistoric flow, between terraces of vineyards at an altitude (up to 1000 meters). Randazzo is a town that, having suffered in a very limited way the terrifying earthquake of 1693, preserves in its historic center numerous medieval views, as unfortunately can not be found in many other urban centers, small and large, of Eastern Sicily. It rises along the right bank of the Alcantara, a river that separates Etna, located to the south, from the Nebrodi Mountains, to the North. You will have a walking guided tour enjoying incredible views, architecture and history. You will have a stop in one local typical restaurant for your lunch.

3. 3

   Ponte dei Saraceni

   30 min Admission ticket included

   A few kilometers from your hotel, where the Simeto river flows (the longest in Sicily), discover with your private guide the impressive Roman – Arab – Norman remains of the Saracen Bridge.
   An elegant lava stone building with pointed arches tucked into the silence of the delicious oranges of this part of Sicily. The bridge, probably of original Roman construction, has a clear Arab-Norman style. Charming.

Day 4 Alcantara

1. 1

   Parco Fluviale dell'Alcantara

   5 hours Admission ticket included

   After a breakfast served in your room you will meet your guide who will bring you to one of the most important and beautiful Sicilian nature point - Le Gole dell'Alcantara. The Alcantara Gorges are a beautiful natural park of Sicily, formed by lava walls. The path of the Park starts from the "Museum Of Land" and then continues along the classic nature trail of the Botanical and Geological Park. On the sides of the river, there are small beaches where during the summer you can relax and sunbathe. Then you will have a stop in one local restaurant to try typical Sicilain food and wine at lunch time.

Day 5 Where The Mount Etna begins: Aci Trezza & Aci Castello

1. 1

   Aci Trezza

   2 hours

   After a breakfast in your hotel, your private guide will accompany you to the places where the Queen Etna has started its history. So characteristic to inspire the odes of Homer for his Odyssey, Aci Trezza is a hamlet of Aci Castello and a small fishing village very bewitching.

2. 2

   Aci Castello

   3 hours

   The second place is Aci Castello, an ancient fishing village located at 15 meters above sea level. The name Aci Castello derives from the homonymous castle built in 1076 by the Normans on a nearby lava stone hill. A first castle was built in the XVII century by the Byzantines on a pre-existing Roman fortification. In Norman times the first village was founded around the castle. Around 1170 the village was completely destroyed by a terrible earthquake and only in 1530 it was rebuilt and repopulated. The most characteristic element of Aci Castello is undoubtedly the Norman Castle that dominates the main square of the village, bordered by a long balcony from which it is possible to admire the sea below and the suggestive Riviera dei Ciclopi. The castle, built with lava stone from Mount Etna, stands on a promontory of lava rock overlooking the sea. You will have a stop in one typical fish restaurant for your lunch time.

Day 6 Cooking class

1. 1

   Mount Etna

   3 hours Admission ticket included

   After relaxing time by the pool you will join an authentic cooking class with lunch in your hotel. Learn more about Sicilian typical cuisine and cook as locals do it. After you will have free time Your hotel is located near UNESCO Etna's park with 10 hectares including an organic vineyard, olive garden, swimming pool, and ancient cave. You can walk around of this amazing territory enjoying silence, birds songs, aromas, Etna's top amazing view, tasting local wines and food, relaxing by the pool, and reading books under the olive tree.

Day 7 Biancavilla and Winery with wine and food tasting

1. 1

   Biancavilla

   5 hours

   After your breakfast served in your room, meet your ptivate guide and start the jorney to Biancavilla, the town of Etna of Greek-Albanian origin, rich in history and art. Its territory is bordered to the south by the river Simeto, while to the north-east, it reaches the summit of the volcano; moreover, the town borders to the west with the inhabited center of Adrano and to the east with that of s. Maria di Licodia. Together with the latter, it shares the large basalt plank on which it stands. After this guided tour you will visit Etna's winery for food and wine tasting at the lunch time.

Day 8 Departure day from Catania Airport

1. 1

   Catania

   2 hours

   After your breakfast, the driver will wait for you at your hotel reception to bring you to Ctania's Airport according to your flight time.