5 Best Sights in Sicily, Italy

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the twin hill towns of Cammerata and San Giovanni Gemini were famous throughout Sicily for their traveling ice cream and granita makers. The key to this ice-cream industry was the collection and preservation of snow, and a local family of ice-cream makers has restored several of the neviere, circular buildings resembling stone igloos, strewn over the forested slopes above the towns. Snow was shoveled into the neviere, trodden down until it turned to a thick layer of ice, then covered with a mat of rushes and straw before another layer of snow was added on top. Stored like this, the snow would keep frozen for months, and with the giant blocks of ice fetching the equivalent of €3,000, it had to be carefully guarded. The best way to see the neviere, learn how to make Sicilian granita, and visit a small private ice museum, is on a guided tour, which can include a lunch of cold cuts, local cheeses, and grilled meat and vegetables in a pretty family-run café.

Each February 3–5, the Festa di Sant'Agata honors Catania's patron saint with one of Italy's biggest religious festivals. The saint herself was first tortured, had her breasts cut off, and then killed, when she spurned a Roman suitor in favor of keeping her religious purity. Since then, the Catanesi have honored her memory by parading her relics through the streets of Catania on an enormous silver-encrusted carriage. Throughout town, you'll see the minne di Sant'Agata in pastry shops. These supersugary confections (sponge cake with sweetened ricotta, candied orange, and chocolate chips, covered in fondant, and topped with a candied cherry) are meant to symbolize Agata's breasts. The entire festival is highly affecting, even for nonbelievers, and is not to be missed by February visitors.

Taormina Mare and the Bay of Mazzarò are accessible by a funivia, or suspended cable car, that glides past incredible views on its way down to the beach at Mazzarò. It departs every 15 minutes, until 8 pm. In June, July, and August, the normal hours are extended until 1 am.

This adventure park is located inside the Parco delle Madonie and offers several activities and obstacle courses through the forest and above the trees on rope ladders. There are different levels at varying difficulties, designed for children and adults alike. You can also rent a treehouse or glamping accommodations to spend the night as well as unique tents suspended 20 feet above the ground.

One of a pair of pylons (the other is across the strait in Villa San Giovanni, Calabria) that carried electricity across the strait from 1955 to 1994, this steel tower stands 761 feet over the most northeastern point of Sicily. Though the pylons are no longer officially in use, they do have protected historic monument status and are used to gather meteorological data. Access to the 1,000-odd steps to the top is closed to the public, but there's always some daredevil who decides to try.