WESTERN SICILY TOUR PALERMO, SEGESTA, ERICE, MARSALA and AGRIGENTO
1st day: PALERMO
Arrival at Palermo airport and meeting with the guide. Your city tour starts.
Palermo is considered the cultural and economic midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Europe, and for this reason, it was a land of conquest in the history of past centuries.
The visit begins from the Cathedral standing with its towers-spiers, mullioned windows and its intertwined and ogival arches: among the 3/4-floor residential buildings in the old Cassaro street, his majesty is really exciting. Inside of it, between Antonio Gagini’s most notable sculptures, the tombs of Henry VI, Frederick II and Constance of Aragon, you will also admire Koranic inscriptions on a column and the silver urn containing the relics of Santa Rosalia, patron of the city.
Continue walking towards the Norman Palace and visit the Palatine Chapel, certainly the most famous place in Palermo for its prominent role. Covered by beautiful Byzantine mosaics (the same ones of the Monreale Cathedral’s interior) represents the cultural and political synthesis due to the Norman period.
Typical lunch at restaurant in the surroundings.
The daily tour follows with a stop in the small village of Monreale.
To the sumptuous Norman Cathedral, which attracts a million visitors each year, is due the great reputation of this place. Impressive with its 100 meters long, magnificent with stunning apses decorated with blind arches, the Cathedral reveals its sumptuousness especially in its inside, where we remain astonished in front of the walls covered with beautiful mosaics, defined as "a miracle of goldsmith art" extended for six thousand and three hundred square meters. Polychrome mosaics in pure gold, depicting the Bible, Creation, the Prophets and the coming of Jesus, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection complete the interior design.
Hotel accommodation in private rooms. Dinner and overnight stay.
2nd day: Segesta, Erice and Marsala
Departure for Segesta famous for its two main monuments, the Doric Temple and the Theater. It is now living a new era of discoveries, due to scientific excavations aimed to get an overall image of the city.
In a quiet panoramic position on Trapani is located the city of Erice, an ancient medieval village, standing on the Monte San Giuliano. It was populated by the Elymians people (Elimi) who erected the temple dedicated to the cult of the goddess fertility and love. On the ruins of the Temple is still the Castle of Venus, fortified during the Norman rule.
Lunch at restaurant.
In the afternoon, passing through the "Road of the Sun and of the Mills" you can reach Marsala. Stop in a typical wine cellar.
Hotel accomodation. Dinner and overnight stay.
3rd day: Selinunte and Agrigento
Departure for Selinunte, the largest archaeological park in Europe.
You could get lost here among sky and stones: the exceptionality of Selinunte is given by the vast amount of its ruins, by their size and their value… all items difficult to find together anywhere else in the Western world.
The daily tour follows to Agrigento.
Hotel accomodation and lunch.
In the afternoon, visit to the Valley of the Temples, which is still today the most sublime testimony of Greek civilization in Sicily. Crossing scented countryside of almond blossoms, the gaze rests on the magnificent ruins of the temples that regardless of the passage of time have managed to keep intact their architectural grandeur.
After dinner, visit to the illuminated Valley of the Temples.
Overnight stay.
4rd day:
Departure for Palermo.
Free time. Lunch at restaurant.
Transfer to other cities or airport.
Airports recommanded for arrival: Palermo, Catania, Naples or Rome.
