THE GRAND TOUR OF SICILY

Our Sicily, shared with you.

10 Days · Eastern Sicily · Small Group · Hosted by Alessandro & Polina

This is the journey we would create for our own friends.

Ten days through the Sicily we know and love — Baroque towns and ancient cities, markets and vineyards, the coast, family-run farms and some very memorable tables.

Along the way, you’ll meet some of the people who make this island what it is: cooks, winemakers, producers, guides and families whose stories have become part of our own life in Sicily.

And rather than changing hotels every few nights, we do things differently.

UNPACK. SETTLE IN. STAY A WHILE.

A beautiful private villa becomes our home for the journey.

It is somewhere to return to after a day exploring — to swim, rest, pour a glass of wine and gather around the table for dinner.

For ten days, we want you to feel less like you are passing through Sicily and a little more like you live here.

COME WITH US.

The Grand Tour is one of our Signature Journeys — a hosted small-group journey offered on selected dates throughout the year.

You do not need to organise your own group.

Come on your own, as a couple or with friends and join a small group of travellers around our table.

We keep each departure intimate, with a maximum of 12 guests.

THE JOURNEY

There will be Etna and its vineyards.

Catania's markets and street food.

Ortigia from the water.

The Baroque towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa Ibla.

Vendicari and the southeastern coast.

A seasonal visit to one of the producers we love.

Cooking with Chef Alessandro.

Long lunches, aperitivo, wine, conversations and dinners around our table.

And enough time in between to actually enjoy where you are.

Some days are full of discovery.

Others leave room for the pool, the sea, a walk through town or another glass of wine.

That rhythm is intentional.

HOSTED BY US

The Grand Tour isn't a journey we simply design and hand over to someone else.

We are there with you.

Chef Alessandro brings Sicily to life through its food, history and the stories behind the dishes and places we encounter.

Polina looks after the journey itself — the details, the rhythm and all those little things you shouldn't have to think about while you're here.

Together, we open the doors to the Sicily that has become our home.

Our Sicily, as we know it.

SELECTED DEPARTURES · SPRING & FALL 2027

Click on the calendar for availability and dates for 2027.

• 10 days / 9 nights in eastern Sicily

• Small group · Maximum 12 guests

• Travel throughout Sicily in our private vehicle

• Stay in a beautiful private Sicilian villa with pool for the entire journey

• Come solo, as a couple or with friends — each departure brings together a small group of travelers

• A minimum of 6 guests is required to confirm each departure. We will let you know well in advance once your journey is confirmed.

• Want to begin in Palermo? Add our optional 3-Day Palermo Pre-Tour, then travel with us across Sicily to join the Grand Tour.

Welcome to Sicily.

We’ll meet you at Catania Airport and bring you to our private villa — your home for the next nine nights.

There’s no packing and unpacking as we travel around the island. Settle into your room, explore the villa, take a swim or simply relax after your journey.

That evening, we gather around the table for the first time.

Chef Alessandro prepares our welcome dinner, accompanied by Sicilian wines — the beginning of ten days of food, places, people and stories shared together.

Ten days, one beautiful home and a table full of new faces.

Our Sicily begins here.

After breakfast at the villa, we make our way to Syracuse and the island of Ortigia.

We’ll spend the morning discovering its extraordinary layers of history and wandering the limestone streets, piazzas and waterfront of one of Sicily’s most beautiful old towns.

Lunch is by the water before we see Ortigia from an entirely different perspective — aboard a private boat, tracing its coastline from the sea.

We return to the villa in the late afternoon, leaving plenty of time for a swim or a little rest before dinner together at home.

Today brings together two forces that have shaped eastern Sicily: Catania and Etna.

We begin in the heart of the city at its wonderfully theatrical fish market, before tasting our way through Catania’s street-food traditions and exploring its historic centre.

After lunch, we leave the city behind and climb towards Etna.

The landscape changes dramatically as we ascend through old lava flows towards the Silvestri Craters, where we’ll walk through the stark volcanic terrain of Europe’s highest active volcano.

By evening, we’re back at the villa for some well-earned downtime followed by dinner at home.

Today we head into the Val di Noto and two of southeastern Sicily’s great Baroque towns.

Our morning begins in Modica, a town built dramatically into the hills, where churches, palazzi and winding streets unfold one above another.

After exploring, we stop for lunch at a traditional Sicilian trattoria.

Then we continue to Ragusa Ibla — elegant, theatrical and wonderfully atmospheric — with time to discover its Baroque streets, gardens and piazzas before heading home.

The evening is deliberately simple: time to relax, followed by dinner at the villa.

No early departure today.

The morning is yours to sleep a little longer, linger over breakfast and enjoy the pool. We’ll have lunch together at the villa before leaving for Taormina.

There is time to wander its streets, visit the ancient Greek Theatre or simply enjoy an aperitivo and watch the evening begin.

As the light changes, we take the gondola down towards the sea for dinner overlooking beautiful Isola Bella.

Then, back up to Taormina for an intimate evening of opera.

We return to the villa late — but this is one night worth staying up for.

Today we slow the rhythm right down.

Sleep a little later and enjoy a leisurely breakfast before we head to the coast for a few hours at one of our favourite beach clubs.

Swim, settle under an umbrella and enjoy lunch by the sea.

Back at the villa, there’s time to relax before we gather in the kitchen with Chef Alessandro.

Together, we’ll cook our evening meal — learning some of the ingredients, techniques and traditions that define Sicilian cooking.

Then we do what Sicilians do best: sit down and eat it.

Another beautifully unhurried morning at the villa.

There’s time for the pool before lunch at home, and in the afternoon we head into the countryside for a visit to Zisola, the Mazzei family’s Sicilian wine estate.

We’ll walk through the estate and taste the wines shaped by this corner of southeastern Sicily.

And for dinner?

Pizza.

But not quite where you might expect it.

Some things are better left as a surprise.

The morning is yours again — breakfast, the pool and a leisurely lunch at the villa.

Later, we make the short journey to Noto.

Built from honey-coloured limestone and glowing particularly beautifully in the late-afternoon light, Noto is the great Baroque stage set of southeastern Sicily. We’ll have time to explore its palazzi, churches and elegant streets before continuing towards the sea.

As evening falls, we arrive in Marzamemi, the little fishing village gathered around its old Tonnara. We’ll wander, eat our way through some Sicilian street food, stop for gelato and enjoy the village as it comes alive after dark.

Our final full day begins in Scicli.

Perhaps the most intimate of southeastern Sicily’s Baroque towns, Scicli is a place of beautiful palazzi, churches carved into the surrounding hills and streets that still feel wonderfully lived-in.

After exploring, we make our way towards Marina di Ragusa for one of the culinary highlights of the Grand Tour: a Michelin-starred lunch.

The afternoon is deliberately left free when we return home. Swim, pack, nap, read — or simply enjoy your last few hours at the villa.

That evening, we gather around our table one last time for our farewell dinner. One last Sicilian evening and, very possibly, one last bottle that turns into two.

One last breakfast together at the villa.

For guests finishing their journey here, we say our goodbyes and arrange transfers for departure.

But Sicily doesn’t necessarily have to end here.

Guests joining our Palermo Pre/Post-Tour Extension travel across the island with us for three more days in Sicily’s extraordinary capital and its surroundings.

Ten days, one villa and a Sicily that we hope now feels a little more like your own.

We keep our groups small for a reason.

With a maximum of 12 guests, there is no tour bus, no flag to follow and very little sense that you're on a conventional organised tour.

We travel together, eat together and introduce you to the places and people that have become part of our own life in Sicily.

Some days are full. Others deliberately aren't. There is time for another coffee, a swim before dinner, a conversation that runs long or an unexpected stop because we saw something worth stopping for.

And because we're with you throughout the journey, you don't have to think very much about the logistics.

That's our job.

Yours is to enjoy Sicily.