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

Upon arrival in Catania airport, you will meet your tour escort who will accompany you throughout your tour including the most interesting attractions, like the Cathedral, the Liotru Statue, University Square, Via dei Crociferi, Saint Benedict Monastery. This afternoon, enjoy a free visit of a Sicilian street market. It is a particular experience since it is a cacophony of sights and sounds, from a colorful assortment of fruits, vegetables, fish and meats to vendors barking about bargains for anybody who will listen. After lunch there will be free time to linger and shop. Dinner and overnight at your hotel.

After breakfast, enjoy a city walking tour including the gorgeous cathedral of St. Agata of Catania a young Christian virgin from Catania who was martyred around the year 251 for refusing to renounce her faith and marry the Roman proconsul Quintianus. She is remembered for her courage and devotion and her relics are kept in a silver sarcophagus within the Cathedral of Sant’Agata. Explore the via Etnea and the via Crociferi, the very heart of baroque Catania. Dinner and overnight.

After breakfast, we’ll spend a day in beautiful Taormina with its remarkably situated ancient Greek theater, still used today for open-air performances. Later you’ll be free to enjoy the sights, sounds, and aromas of this beautiful cliffside old-world town. Dinner and overnight in Catania.

After breakfast depart for Savoca, unchanged since the arrival of Paramount Pictures in the early 70’s and only a few kilometers away from eternally fashionable Taormina. The road leading to this lovely village passes through some beautiful seaside towns along the rugged coastline of Sicily overlooking the Italian peninsula. It’s a breathtaking scenic drive with some exciting twists and turns. Once we arrive in town, we’ll stop at the picturesque Bar Vitelli that looks exactly the way it did when Michael Corleone managed to inform Apollonia’s father that he was ‘an American in hiding’. Unfortunately Signora Maria, who owned the establishment during the shootings, is no longer around to entertain you with little anecdotes, but no worries: our expert driver will make sure you get to know all the tales about director F.F. Coppola and the film crew. After checking out some pictures and memorabilia, you can sit at a table and enjoy a cup of coffee or a refreshing lemon granita while recalling the most memorable dialogues from the movie scenes. Later, we will stroll around the town and reach the church of Santa Lucia, where the scene of the wedding was shot. After visiting this lovely little church, we will proceed to Tindari, delightful locality on the Gulf of Patti along the Tirrenian cost on the north of Sicily. Founded by Syracusan merchants during the war against Carthage in 396 B.C., the ancient town of Tindari owes its name to Tyndareus, King of Sparta. Its history is a succession of tales, myths and legends that left indelible marks in the popular imagination. Nowadays the town is famous for the old acropolis and the presence of a Black Madonna, still worshipped in a Sanctuary, from the terrace in front of the church enjoy magnificent views of the Aeolian Islands and the beautiful formations of sand and gravel produced by the shallows at the foot of the cliffs. 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 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:
Though every effort will be made to follow the itinerary, it should be considered as an indication, rather than a contract of places to be visited. Occasionally local religious holidays, national days, weather, traffic conditions and other events may necessitate changes in the sequence of visits or the missing of certain visits.