Savour a farm-to-table dinner in Ragusa at a local restaurant, with dishes highlighting fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Share the meal with fellow travellers while experiencing the produce and flavours of southeastern Sicily.

The region’s cooking is closely tied to its agricultural landscape and the people who work it. Focusing on local ingredients gives this dinner a distinctive connection to place, rather than making it simply another evening meal.

Experience Palermo’s local dining scene on a Dine-Around evening designed to introduce the foods residents enjoy and the way they eat them. It is an opportunity to encounter the city’s flavours beyond a standard hotel dinner.

Palermitan food draws on Sicily’s long history of cultural exchange, from Arab-influenced ingredients to lively street-food traditions. The experience places that heritage in its everyday setting, where conversation and local food are part of the city’s character.

Walk through Ragusa Ibla with a Local Expert, following its winding lanes past Baroque churches and elegant stone facades. Explore the old town’s compact streets and discover the architectural details that distinguish this corner of southeastern Sicily.

Ragusa was extensively rebuilt following the devastating earthquake of 1693, and its historic centre forms part of the UNESCO-listed Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto. The walk reveals how the town’s older street pattern and ornate rebuilding sit together.

• 5 Dinner (D)
• 8 Breakfast (B)

• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

• “A type of food I really love introducing my guests to is the street food because it tells a lot about the habits of the locals, it can be a slice of pizza folded up or a sfogliatella in Naples, an arancini, a gelato in Sicily, or a cannolo. “
• “One fun fact people don’t usually know before they come to Italy is that the Italian alphabet only has 22 letters.”
• “One thing I really love about showing guests about Italy is how art and beauty can be found around every corner of some of Italy’s cities, which are real open air museums.”

Insight Vacations

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over dinner at a local restaurant in Palermo. Share a table as your group gathers in Sicily’s capital and begins to discover the island through its food and conversation.

Palermo’s cooking reflects centuries of Arab, Norman and Mediterranean influence, giving even a relaxed evening meal a strong sense of place. This hosted dinner offers a welcoming introduction to the people travelling with you.

Explore Palermo with a Local Expert on a walking tour featuring a visit to the 12th-century Palatine Chapel. Inside the Norman Palace, look up at gold-ground mosaics that illuminate biblical scenes across the chapel’s walls and ceiling.

The chapel brings together Byzantine artistry, Islamic decorative traditions and Norman patronage in one richly detailed space. Its restrained exterior makes the glittering mosaic interior all the more striking, revealing Palermo’s layered cultural history.

Visit Trapani’s salt pans and an ancient stone windmill to discover how Mediterranean seawater becomes salt crystals. See the shallow pools and traditional structures that have shaped this stretch of Sicily’s western coast for generations.

The coastal wetlands also provide habitat for flamingos and other aquatic birds, adding wildlife to a landscape of water, sea and sky. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience supports the preservation of a living local tradition.

Taste Sicilian wines at a local Marsala winery in the town that gives the renowned wine its name. Enjoy the tasting in winery surroundings while getting to know a distinctive part of western Sicily’s food and wine culture.

Marsala is particularly associated with fortified wine, a tradition that grew through its historic trading links. Sampling wine close to its place of production offers a more grounded appreciation of the region’s grapes, climate and longstanding winemaking heritage.

Explore the Valley of the Temples with a Local Expert near Agrigento. Walk among the remains of ancient Greek sanctuaries, including the remarkably preserved Temple of Concordia and the elevated Temple of Juno.

This UNESCO-listed archaeological landscape recalls Akragas, one of the most influential Greek cities in Sicily. Monumental columns and open views across the surrounding countryside make the scale of its ancient ambitions tangible.

Visit Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina to see the elaborate floor mosaics of a luxurious Roman villa. Detailed scenes spread through room after room, depicting subjects ranging from hunting to daily life.

Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997, the villa preserves an exceptional record of late Roman craftsmanship and wealth. Looking across its extensive mosaic floors offers a vivid sense of the artistic skill behind an elite country residence.

Discover how Modica’s handmade chocolate is made and sample pieces produced using the town’s traditional cold-working technique. Notice its characteristically grainy texture and concentrated cocoa flavour as you learn about the craft.

Modica’s chocolate tradition reflects techniques with roots in Spanish-era Sicily. Exploring it in this Baroque town connects a distinctive local taste with the artisans who continue to make it.

Choose to explore ancient Syracuse with a Local Expert, wandering through the Paradise Quarry and testing the acoustics of the Ear of Dionysius. Visit the Greek theatre, carved into rock and among the largest surviving theatres of the ancient world.

These sites reveal the ambition of a city that was once a major power in the Greek Mediterranean. Limestone walls, a resonant grotto and tiered stone seating bring its ancient landscape into focus. This is one of two included Syracuse Insight Choice experiences.

Choose to explore Ortigia, Syracuse’s historic island centre, on a walk through narrow lanes lined with old palaces. Make your way towards the Fonte Aretusa, a freshwater spring beside the waterfront.

Ortigia holds layers of Greek history and later Sicilian architecture within a compact island setting. The spring is bound to the ancient legend of the nymph Arethusa, adding mythology to the streets and shoreline. This is one of two included Syracuse Insight Choice experiences.

Visit Taormina’s ancient theatre with a Local Expert, taking in the view towards the Ionian Sea and Mount Etna through its stone remains. Walk the old town’s limestone streets and along Corso Umberto, its lively central thoroughfare.

The theatre’s dramatic setting has drawn visitors for centuries, while Taormina’s historic centre combines old facades with shops and cafés. At Piazza IX Aprile, pause for a broad outlook across the coast and the town’s hillside setting.

Enjoy a celebration dinner at a local restaurant during your time based in Catania. Gather with fellow travellers over Sicilian cuisine accompanied by Italian wines.

Food is one of Sicily’s clearest expressions of its varied landscape and cultural influences. This shared restaurant experience gives you a chance to savour those traditions together, with the warmth of a group table rather than the formality of a standard hotel meal.

Choose an optional visit to Noto, a southeastern Sicilian town celebrated for its harmonious Baroque streetscape. It offers an opportunity to spend time among the honey-coloured facades and grand public spaces of the historic centre.

Rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693, Noto is part of the UNESCO-listed Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; further activity details are not specified.

Experience rural Sicilian flavours at Tenuta del Gelso on an optional evening that pairs local food with Etna wines. The setting offers a chance to explore another side of the island’s culinary traditions beyond its cities and coastal towns.

Wines from the slopes of Mount Etna are shaped by volcanic soils and the mountain’s distinctive growing conditions. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Journey through vineyards towards Mount Etna on an optional excursion to Sicily’s active volcano. See how the mountain dominates the eastern landscape and shapes the countryside around it.

Etna’s volcanic slopes are closely connected to local agriculture, including vineyards planted in its distinctive soils. The excursion offers a closer perspective on the natural force visible from towns such as Taormina. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the itinerary does not specify a summit visit.