The ultimate guide to Sicily
By Pete | Dec 2023
Sicily is the largest Mediterranean island and has a lot more going on than just being the home to the Mafia and the film the Godfather. It is also home to seven Unesco world heritage sites, it has some of the most beautiful coastlines in Europe, Some of the most amazing places to eat and sunshine year round. What more could you ask for? This is the ultimate guide to Sicily, we will show you how to spend a week here.
Post summary
With the island only being about 4 hrs drive from one side to the other there are a couple of options on how to travel around Sicily. You can either choose your favourite looking place and base your self there like we did, or hire a car and stay at each location. We wanted to have a mixture of explore what Palermo had to offer and get out and see a few locations listed below, so on arrival at Palermo airport we immediately hired a little fiat and off we went.
Here is a list of the locations that we visited on our week in Sicily
- Palermo – The capital of Sicily, a city that became famous for Mafia but offers a lot more.
- Cefalu – is a picturesque coastal village a couple of hours away from Palermo
- Cretto do burri – An artwork built in the hills in Gibellina in 1984 and has been left unfinished.
- Valley of the temples – One of the most outstanding examples of Greek architecture. dating back to the 5th century
- Modica – An amazing medieval city perfect for a day trip! Beautiful baroque buildings and famous for its traditional chocolate.
- Scala Dei Turchi – Stunning White cliffs made from Marl, gently eroded from the sea and salty breeze.
Palermo
Palermo is a city that i’ve always wanted to visit so it seemed a good place to base ourselves for this trip. On our first day here we set off early and did our own walking tour taking in as much of what the city had to offer. I recommend you start at Stagnittas for some of the best coffee around. from here you can visit
- Massimo theatre
- Hermit Church
- The Antonino Salinas Regional Archeological Museum
- The quattro Canti (4 Gates road)
To finish the day we had to try an Italian pizza at Ciccio Passami l’ lolio – 9 Euros each. It was worth every penny!
On our second day we started a little later as we did so much on day 1. First for the day we went to visit the Botanical Gardens, when we explore a new city it is always on our list of places to walk around and relax. After we had a nice walk and some food there we headed over to see the No Mafia museum which gave a good insight to how life is and what it used to be like in Sicily. From here we did a little Walking food tour where we went down to the local market to eat a few different street food dishes. it really was delicious and i highly recommend. From here we had to try the famous Arancini. There are loads of place to choose from but we went to Sizzles Via Maqueda which had great reviews and we just beat the crowds that appeared. Next door was a Cannoli shop so we had to give that a try too.
Cefalu
Cefalu is a seaside Town in northern Sicily, It takes around an hour to drive from Palermo. Packed full of charming little streets and restaurants it makes for a great place to spend a couple of days. We only popped over for the afternoon/evening which we really enjoyed. We had a lovely walk on the sandy beach and harbour area, you can take some beautiful photos at sunset or sunrise from here. If you want to be a little more active then you can hike to the top of La Rocca mountain for some breathtaking views of the town and coast. After that take a walk through the back streets and find somewhere to eat and drink some local wine.
Cretto Di Burri
Just over an hour from Palermo lies the famous artwork at Gibellina – Cretto di Burri. In 1968 a devastating earthquake wiped out the whole village and although it was rebuilt just a few kilometres away the artist constructed this Labyrinth of narrow passages to mirror the streets of the original village that lay directly below. Alberto never saw the land art finished as he ran out of funds and only completed 26 years after it was started.
We loved this location! We had another early start to get here first and really enjoyed looking around trying to capture some unique photographs.
Modica
Modica was on the top of our list of places to visit for two main reasons. One was it is known as the city of chocolate, who wouldn’t want to visit for that reason alone. The second was its amazing Baroque buildings. It’s a long drive from Palermo and we didn’t pack any snacks so when we arrived we parked up on Corso Umberto I the main street and picked the nearest restaurant to fuel up on with some tasty pasta so we were ready to explore. not many place were open so we chose Trattoria Da Ignazio which was delicious.
We took a slow stroll through the city visiting some stunning landmarks such as Cathedral of San Giorgio, Garibaldi Theater and the Cathedral of St. Peter. After we had seen all the churches etc we walked up the winding streets to get the best views overlooking the city. Our final stop was to test out some of the famous Aztec chocolate. There are a few great places to choose from but we went to Antica Dolceria Bonajuto. With over 4.5k reviews on google we thought we couldn’t go wrong. so we tasted a few of the varieties and stocked up on our favourites and headed back to palermo. Not before an ice cream pitstop at Cafe Adamo.
Valley of the temples
We paired this day out with our trip Scala dei Turchi, only 1.5 hrs from there or 2.5hrs from Palermo the Valley of the Temples is one of the most spectacular places to visit in Sicily . Especially if you enjoy this type of historical attraction.
The Valley of temples is not actually located in a valley but instead it is perched on top of a hill dominating the view from the surrounding areas. You can see why it was built here as you arrive. There is 8 temples here built between 510BC and 450BC. i think we arrived around 10-11 Am and the temperature was really hot so make sure you bring sunscreen and a hat etc so that you can spend a good amount of time exploring the East and West sides of the site. if you only have a small amount of time i highly recommend that you visit the East side as it is home to the best remaining temples. The area is completely surrounded by some of the oldest looking olive trees that i have seen, i had to keep taking shade underneath. We had the headset which gave us a clear voice over of each location and the history behind it. we really enjoyed this day out. We had some lunch on site too which was very fresh and tasty.
Scala dei Turchi
The white cliffs of Sclala dei Turchi are located on the south coast of Sicily around 2hrs drive from Palermo and near the town of Agrigento. Its nickname is stair of the turks, in ancient times the ships of the Arab and Turkish marauders used the bay for shelter, waiting for the perfect time to climb the white marl steps to raid the local villages. Over the last few years it has become much busier so if you want the place to yourself then we recommend you get there early. We arrived just after sunset and had the first hour pretty much alone however it did get a lot busier.
Sicily Foodie Photo Tour
If you want to know our favourite places to eat from our trip let us know in the comments.
