• Daily Mass
• Professional Guide
• Audio systems for group guided tour
• Continental breakfast daily, 2 Lunches, dinners
• VAT (Value Added Tax)
• All lunches and dinners include beverages: water/coffee & wine
• Estate Wine Tasting
• 3 nights at 4-star hotel & 1 night at 5-star hotel
• Catamaran tickets Malta/Sicily/Malta
• Luxury air conditioned coach

3 nights at 4-star hotel & 1 night at 5-star hotel

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVEL: Moderate

Typical days on your trip:

DAY 1

Chiaramonte Gulfi

We will celebrate Mass at the Order Church of San Giovanni Battista.

History: The city was founded by Greek colonists from Syracuse in the 7th century BC and destroyed a first time by the Carthaginians in 406 BC, it was rebuilt during the Timoleonic era. In 213 BC it was the location of battle in which the Syracusan army, led by Hippokrates, was defeated by the Roman army led by the Consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Thenceforth, the city was part of the Roman province of Sicily.

Olive Oil Tasting and light brunch

Modica

Next we visit Modica. The city possesses a large Baroque Cathedral dedicated to San Giorgio. While the cathedral was rebuilt following the earthquake of 1693, like many other parts of the city, its roots are in the Middle Ages. Modica is custodian of a 400 year tradition of Sicilian chocolate-making a wonderful granules chocolate.

We will visit Chiesa di San Giorgio and venerate the relic of St. George and have time to visit a chocolate-making shop and sample their wonderful chocolates.

Check-in our hotel and dinner on site.

DAY 2

Depart for Taormina

Taormina

We will break for lunch in Taormina, then visit the Greek Theater, Santa Catarina church and spend time exploring.

Idyllically perched on a rocky promontory high above the sea, Taormina has been the most popular tourist destination in Sicily for a couple of hundred of years. Beautifully restored medieval buildings and breathtaking views around every corner. Taormina’s past is Sicily’s history in a microcosm: Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Swabians, the French and the Spanish all came, saw, conquered and left.

Catania

We will visit the Duomo of St. Agatha where we will celebrate Mass. We will then visit Castello Ursino.

Catania is Sicily’s second largest city, and lies on the Ionian Sea, under the shadow of Mount Etna.

The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Agatha, the city’s patron saint, and stands on the site of an 11th Century church that was almost entirely destroyed in the 1693 eruption. Buried in the cathedral are three Aragonese kings: Frederick II, Louis and Frederick III.

Return to our hotel, dinner on site.

DAY 3

Depart for Syracuse

We will visit the archaeological site, Syracuse and the island of Ortygia. This includes: the Greek Theatre, Ear of Dionysios, Catacombs of St. John, Paolo Orsi Regional Archaeological Museum.

Syracuse (or Siracusa) was the most important city of Magna Graecia. It defeated the mighty Athens in 413 and was home to many a great Greek, including the inimitable Archimedes. At the height of its economic, political and military powers, the city had a population of 300,000 and, according to Cicero, was “the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all”.

We will celebrate Mass at Santuario Madonna della Lacrima.

Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime, or translated “The Shrine of Our Lady of Tears”, was built to commemorate the miraculous tearing of a plaster effigy of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1959. This now famous miracle that occurred at the bedside of a couple named Lannuso, was later repeated in front of a throng of hundreds. Later analysis of the “tear like” fluid which the effigy emitted revealed the substance to be actual tears. To this day thousands from around the world come to visit this spiritual place.

Try lunch at any of the vast restaurants in the piazza or streets.

Afternoon: Ortygia Island where we will visit the Duomo, Castello Maniace, Fonte Artusa.

Return to hotel, dinner at hotel.

MedSeas has full itineraries available as part of the materials supplied for those who join the tour.

Catamaran between Malta and Sicily

Tours with luxury, a/c coach in Sicily

Continental breakfast daily, 2 lunches, dinners
All lunches and dinners include beverages: water/coffee & wine at dinner