Make your way to your local airport, where you will board your overnight flight(s). Your meals will be served on board.

Upon arrival you will meet your tour escort who will accompany you to visit attractions including the Cathedral, the Liotru Statue, University Square, Via dei Crociferi, and Saint Benedict Monastery. Lunch is on your own. In the afternoon, enjoy a free visit of a Sicilian street market. It is a cacophony of sights and sounds, from a colorful assortment of fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats to vendors barking about bargains. There will be free time to linger and shop. Dinner and overnight at your hotel.

After breakfast, depart for the city of Taormina. Taormina is perched on a cliff overlooking the Ionian Sea. It started as a Greek settlement, then became a Roman colony, was destroyed, and rebuilt by Arabs and next conquered by Normans. The town center remains well preserved, as built in the 9th century Byzantine style. Our morning walking tour along Corso Umberto from Porta Messina to Porta Catania will show its harmonious beauty. We will visit a fantastic Greek theater here which was rebuilt by the Romans and still serves as a concert venue. In the late afternoon, join Chef Massimo for a Sicilian Cooking Class.

Today there will be an excursion day of Mt. Etna. Mt. Etna is Europe’s highest and among the most active volcanoes. It is a third Sicilian World Heritage Site. Eruptions and lava flows have created a very fertile agricultural region suited for viticulture and fruit plantations. Afternoon is free to explore, rest or do some shopping. Dinner and overnight in Taormina.

We’ll depart Taormina and travel to Siracusa. Visiting Siracusa will help us understand Sicily’s ancient Mediterranean history. Its vast archeological site, on the edge of the modern city, is a rare treasure of temples, amphitheaters, and an ancient castle. Siracusa is built on an ancient Greek settlement founded by Corinthians in 734. We’ll continue to Agrigento for dinner and overnight. (Our tour of Agrigento may occur this afternoon or tomorrow morning.)

This morning we’ll enjoy the ruins of Agrigento, one of the richest of the Greek colonies and a thriving democracy 2,500 years ago. We’ll focus on Agrigento’s “Valley of the Temples” – the largest, best preserved collection of ancient Greek buildings outside of Greece itself. We’ll depart Agrigento and travel to Palermo. Stop in Menfi, located slightly back from the Sicilian coast. The landscape in this area is particularly breathtaking. Visit the ancient town and continue to Palermo for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast, spend a day exploring the best of Palermo. We’ll tour through Palermo’s colorful and bustling Ballaró street market – all spiced with an evocative whiff of  Africa. See the top attractions in the old town of the Sicilian capital of Palermo, including the Teatro Massimo, Cathedral, and Politeama Theater.

Following breakfast transfer to Palermo airport for your quick flight to Malta. Upon arrival, collect your luggage from baggage claims and proceed to the Arrivals Hall, where you’ll be met by a tour guide and/or driver and transferred to your hotel. Later, your guide will tell you about St. Paul and Christianity in the Maltese Islands. You will attend Mass at a local church before dinner at your hotel.

After breakfast at your hotel, depart for a full-day guided excursion to the Three Cities of Vittoriosa, Cospicua and Senglea, where in 1530 the Knights of St. John settled on  the east coast in the creeks of Grand Harbor. Next, see the Miraculous Statue of Jesus Christ the Redeemer in the Oratory of the Basilica, dedicated to the birth of the Virgin Mary in Senglea. Later, take a typical harbor boat tour from Vittoriosa across the Grand Harbor to Valletta and see its waterfront. You will also see St. Johns Co-Cathedral and Museum in Valletta, and visit the oratory, which houses the famous Caravaggio paintings. Dinner and a restful overnight.

After breakfast at your hotel, another full day’s guided touring awaits. See St. Paul’s Bay by boat, the  Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Museum in Mdina, the medieval walled city, the Bastions, St. Paul’s Catacombs, and St. Paul’s Grotto. St. Paul’s Grotto is said to be the place where St. Paul took refuge and prayed for three months while trying to convert the Maltese to Christianity following his shipwreck around 60 AD. Pope John Paul II prayed in the grotto during his visit in 1990. Return to Malta for dinner and your last overnight.

After an early breakfast and heartfelt farewells, transfer to the airport for your return flights home.

*206 Tours Disclaimer:
Occasionally local religious and national holidays, weather, traffic conditions and other events may necessitate changes in the sequence of events or the missing of certain events/places. Though every effort will be made to follow the itinerary, it should be considered as an indication, rather than a contract of events and places to be visited.