Tour Route of Sicily

Helen Page — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:22:29 +0000

Suggested Tour Route to see the Best of Sicily Attractions:

Tucked away at the foot of Italy, Sicily is nevertheless the largest region in Italy and is the third most densely populated.

Whilst Sicily has made a lot of headlines in the past due to its fierce mafia connections and everyone has heard of the rumblings of Mount Etna, Sicily has a lot to offer as a travel destination. With over 2,000 years of history and the past domination by many different rulers from the Greeks to the Romans, Byzantines, the Arabs, Normans and the Spanish, all of whom have their mark on the island and contributed to the rich archeological heritage and interesting mix of customs and culture.

Sicily has the highest average hours of sunshine in the whole of Europe and it’s vast coastline provides many magnificent beaches. So whether you’re looking for history and culture or sun, sand and sea, Sicily has them all.

Tour Route of Sicily

Our tour route of Sicily starts at Taormina from where excursions are made to Mount Etna and Syracuse. Being fans of Inspector Montalbano, we made time to travel down to Ragusa to search out the sites where the series was filmed. We couldn’t believe our luck when we were invited into the town hall and the mayor’s office which serves as the police commissioner’s office in the series!

Having fulfilled our search for Montalbano, we travel from Taormina to Piazza Armerina in central Sicily to see the famous Villa Romana del Casale. From Piazza Armerina, we head west to Agrigento, then north to Selinunte, Erice and Palermo.

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Tour Routes in Italy

Tony Page — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:14:48 +0000

Suggested Tour Routes to make the best of your holiday in Italy

Map of Italy with major cities

A Suggested Route around Italy

A comprehensive tour of Italy would take a long time, and if limited to the usually visited sights would omit many interesting experiences. However, here is my offering, and I’d say this was a 24 day minimum (excluding Rome):

Note: links to the towns go to photo albums on the TravelSignposts website

Rome – Cerveteri/Tarquinia – Viterbo – Orvieto – Siena – San Gimignano – Florence – Pisa – Carrara – Portofino (Cinque Terre) – Genoa – Milan – Stresa (Lake Maggiore) – Como – Verona – Bolzano – Cortina d’Ampezzo – Brenta Canal – Venice (NOT Mestre) – Pomposa – Ravenna (St Apollinare in Classe) – Perugia – Assisi – Castel Gondolfo – Frascati – Pompeii – Sorrento – Capri – Positano (Amalfi Coast) – Bari – Matera – Castellana – Alberobello – Lecce – Taranto – Calabrian Mountains – Taormina – Syracuse – Ortygia Island – Piazza Armerina – Enna – Selinunte – Agrigento – Mondello – Palermo – Naples – Monte Cassino – Rome

Most of the standard Europe tours cover roughly the same major highlights, but miss out Sicily, the Genoa section, one or both of the Italian Lakes and Dolomite sectors, and the southeast sector round Alberobello. Distances are not huge and roads are good, so in many cases it would easily be possible to change the order I’ve given above without major difficulty.