Sicily
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Sicily - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Calascibetta and the Byzantine Village
Just a 20-minute drive from Enna, occupying a similarly dramatic crag-top, the town of Calascibetta is built atop a honeycomb of caves, most of them hidden from sight as they form the cellars of simple houses. Look closely, however, and you’ll spot some houses built straight into the rock, and keep an eye open if anyone opens a garage door as there may well be a cave inside. An entire network of these caves has been uncovered—and is evocatively floodlit at night—on Via Carcere. Head up to Piazza San Pietro, where there are the ruins of a Norman tower and panoramic views. Follow signs from Calascibetta to the “Villaggio Bizantino” and you’ll come to a stunning complex of caves overlooking a magnificent valley inhabited (and used as a cemetery) from ancient times until the Byzantine period, when some of the caves were turned into tiny churches. The caves continued to be used by shepherds as shelter for themselves and their flocks until relatively recently. Today, the villaggio is run by volunteers, who will organize guided tours and walks in English, and introduce you to some of the local shepherds and cheesemakers. It's always open Friday and Saturday, but reach out in advance if you want to visit another day. Not far from the villagio (and clearly signposted from Calascibetta), there is another series of caves (not guarded) at Realmese which you can scramble into and explore alone (but be careful as the rock is slippy). From here, a clearly marked track leads back to the village, a walk of just over 3 miles.
Casa del Maestro, Enna, Sicily, 94010, Italy328-3748553Sight Details
Rate Includes: €8 -
2. Sant'Angelo Muxara and the Val di Kam Experience
A beautifully kept hill village of neat stone houses and cobbled streets, Sant'Angelo Muxara is where locals have collaborated to give travelers a firsthand look at rural traditions. Programs can be adapted to meet individual needs and interests, but highlights include cheese-making and tasting with a local shepherd, making bread or pizza in the wood-fired oven of the village’s ancient bakery, and visiting a herbalist in his remote cabin and learning how to gather edible wild greens. Guided walks can also be organized, led by an archaeological and nature guide, that take in ancient cave dwellings and tombs and the town’s small but very well-presented archaeological museum. Mindful walks with yoga and meditation are also on offer and highly recommended.
Piazza Umberto I 31, Agrigento, Sicily, 92020, Italy338-6762491-WhatsAppSight Details
Rate Includes: €140 per person for 2 people -
3. Scauri
An appealing village in two parts, Scauri's upper part is set around a church with a clock tower high above the sea and has a couple of good places to eat, a fishmonger, and a small grocery store as well as gorgeous views down to the sea from the wiggly maze of tiny streets behind the church. You could drive straight down to Scauri Porto, but if you like walking, leave the car in the car park and follow the main road down hill past La Nicchia restaurant, until you reach a minor side road called Via Sopra La Scala. This becomes a track that leads downhill through meadows to the intriguing remains of a Roman or Byzantine settlement with the ruins of lava-stone buildings scattered among prickly pears, wild grains, and capers. The path continues along the coast, passing a tiny rocky bay with a natural hot pool, before arriving at a tiny quayside where you’ll find the La Vela restaurant-bar and usually some kayaks to rent. From here a small road crosses a low headland to the rest of Scauri, with a handful of picturesque places to eat or rent boats set around a well-protected harbor. The wind-lashed west coast is not alluring, and in places has been marred with shoddy beach villas and hideous hotels, though anyone interested in archeology may want to see the Sesi Grande, a huge dammuso-like structure, with 11 spooky tunnels leading to 12 oval cells, created as a burial mound by the island’s prehistoric inhabitants.
Scauri, Pantelleria, Sicily, Italy -
4. Aci Castello and Aci Trezza
These two gems on the Riviera dei Ciclopi (Cyclops Riviera), the coastline between Acireale and Catania, fill with city dwellers in summer. Heading south from Acireale on the litoranea (coastal) road, you'll first reach Aci Trezza, said to be the land of the one-eyed Cyclops in Homer's Odyssey. Aci Castello has its own fish houses plus the imposing Castello Normanno (Norman Castle), which sits right on the water. The castle was built in the 11th century with volcanic rock from Mt. Etna.
Acireale, Sicily, Italy -
5. Palma di Montechiaro
Donnafugata, the country seat of the Salina family in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel The Leopard, is a fictional place, but it's a fusion of Santa Margherita del Belice (where the Tomasi di Lampedusa palace was until destroyed by a 1968 earthquake) and the Chiesa Madre and Benedictine Convent in Palma di Montecchiaro. The town was founded in the 17th century by Tomasi di Lampedusa’s ancestors, at a time when Spain, who ruled Sicily, needed the island to be its main source of wheat. As rural Sicily was beset with banditry, and considered far too dangerous for individual families to live in isolated farmhouses, the Crown encouraged landowners to found new towns, where peasants could live in relative safety, heading out to the fields each day and returning at night, to live cheek-to-cheek with their animals in one story houses. These days it is a rather grim, dilapidated-looking place, but for fans of The Leopard, a visit to the convent to buy almond cookies from one of the four remaining nuns is an eerie experience, offering a brief glimpse of the hidden lives that have changed little in centuries.
Agrigento, Sicily, 92020, Italy338-7333323 -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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6. Piano Battaglia
Located in the geographical heart of the Parco delle Madonie about a half-hour north of Petralia Sottana, the hamlet of Piano Battaglia makes a good day trip for anyone hoping to have a true mountain experience. This is where locals, particularly from Palermo, come to enjoy the mountains, whether it's skiing in the winter or picnicking in the summer. At the town's Fun Park, you can choose from any number of summer and winter activities, including snow tubing, sleighing, skiing, mountain biking, and hiking excursions.
Piano Battaglia, Sicily, 90027, Italy -
7. San Vito Lo Capo
The cape that gives this town its name has a long sandy beach on a promontory overlooking a bay in the Gulf of Castellammare. San Vito Lo Capo is famous for its North African couscous, made with fish instead of meat. In late September it hosts the 10-day Cous Cous Fest ( www.couscousfest.it), a serious international couscous competition and festival with live music and plenty of free tastings. San Vito is also one of the bases for exploring the Riserva dello Zingaro; this nature reserve—one of the few stretches of coastline in Sicily that is not built-up—is at its best in late spring, when both wildflowers and birds are plentiful.
Capo San Vito, San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Italy -
8. Santa Maria La Scala
A half-hour walk (or a very twisty drive) from Acireale's center, this picturesque harbor, with lava stone steps leading to the water, is filled with fishermen unloading brightly colored boats. Inexpensive lunches are served in the many restaurants along the harbor; your fresh fish dish is priced by weight.
Santa Maria La Scala, Acireale, Sicily, Italy
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