The Splendors of Sicily
April 16 - 24, 2027
Join Huron Tours as we discover Italy's “Cherished Island” and experience the wonder that is a Sicilian Spring with blossoms of such profusion and variety that it will leave you breathless. Our private Horticultural Guide, Sergio Cumitini, will lead us on a journey of floral discoveries and share his insight into how Sicily’s unique climate, soil and history have shaped its beautiful landscapes while we visit top public and private gardens, vineyards, olive and citrus groves.
This exclusive garden tour will showcase Sicily’s diverse flora and rich horticultural history as well as the Island’s architecture, stunning mountain and coastal scenery, art heritage, and awe-inspiring cultural wonders. Your tailor-made itinerary includes 5-Star luxury accommodations and renowned Sicilian gastronomy.
Please read on for more information on this incredible tour. We hope you'll decide to join us!
Happy Travels, - Katie and John Kosta
Thursday, April 15
Flights to Palermo, Italy
Though not an official tour date we include this day here to help your planning efforts.
Travel to Palermo Airport (PMO). Most flights from the US will connect through Rome (FCO). ITA Airways (Alitalia) is a popular choice. In most cases you'll depart April 15, and arrive the morning of April 16 (the first day of the tour).
Please give us a call for airfare prices and schedules. (800) 734-1192 or (504) 267-2057.
Your air carrier provides dinner and breakfast.
Friday, April 16
Palermo, Italy arrival, Welcome dinnner
Grand Hotel et Des Palmes
Arrive into Falcone Borsellino Airport (PMO) in Palermo and privately transfer to the 5-Star Grand Hotel et Des Palmes. A former 19th-century noble palace, this Art Nouveau masterpiece has been a symbol of luxury and sophistication for over a century. The property has beautifully restored interiors with high frescoed ceilings, original stained-glass windows, and a blend of antique and modern furnishings. There are two restaurants and a cocktail lounge, plus several magnificent sitting rooms and lounges, including the Sala del Gattopardo where Wagner stayed for a year writing Parsifal!
Tonight, we’ll celebrate our arrival with a welcome aperitif and dinner at the hotel.
(Meals on flight, welcome dinner included.)
Saturday, April 17
Walking tour of Palermo, Chiesa di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria, Piazzas Vigliena and Pretoria, lunch, guided visit to Palazzo dei Normanni
Cathedral of Palermo
After breakfast this morning, we’ll meet our local Palermo guide Alberto and begin our explorations of Sicily. Our first visit is to The Church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (Chiesa di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria), an extraordinary architectural complex in the historic center of Palermo. Built between 1566 and 1596, it is celebrated for its dazzling Sicilian Baroque and Rococo interiors featuring intricate frescoes, marble inlay, and stunning stuccos by master artist Giacomo Serpotta. Attached is a beautiful cloister featuring several species of fruit trees.
The site is also home to a former Dominican monastery where we will taste traditional pastries made from old recipes by the nuns who once lived there.
Continuing our walking tour, we will visit Palermo's most famous squares: Piazzas Vigliena and Pretoria.
This afternoon we’ll enjoy a nice lunch together in a local restaurant, a recommendation from a trusted friend.
After lunch, Alberto will continue our tour with a guided visit to Palazzo dei Normanni, the Royal Palace, an authentic jewel of Byzantine and Arab-Norman art.
Dinner this evening is on your own in beautiful Palermo, so be sure to consult our well-researched restaurant recommendations list.
(Breakfast and lunch are included today.)
The Cattedrale di Monreale is magnificent
Sunday, April 18
Cattedrale di Monreale, Ciambra, Villa Tasca
This morning we’ll transfer to nearby Monreale to visit a jewel of Norman art, the Cattedrale di Monreale. Its enormous golden mosaics cover three naves of the church and are the largest in Italy. Next to the cathedral is the monastery; its cloister impresses with charming columns and a lovely garden, which is embellished with a palm-shaped fountain.
We’ll then stroll through the charming village of Ciambra featuring small alleys, colorful corners, and quaint shops, on an informative walking tour.
We’ll have lunch together in a nearby restaurant cherished by the locals.
We return to Palermo this afternoon and visit the park of Villa Tasca. Originally a formal garden, it was later transformed into the English-style with three sections: the swan lake, the artificial hill, and the acclimatization garden. The rooms of the villa have hosted illustrious figures such as King Ferdinand of Bourbon, Margherita of Savoy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Verdi, and Wagner, who composed the third act of Parsifal right here. We’ll end today with an aperitif and Sicilian pastries in the park.
This evening, you are free for your own explorations and dining discoveries.
Those of you who watched 'White Lotus Season 2' will no doubt recognize the frescos at Villa Tasca from the opening credits
(Breakfast and lunch are included today.)
Monday, April 19
Depart Palermo, vists to Piazza Armenia, lunch and olive oil tasting, arrival in Taormina, welcome dinner
After a liesurly morning, we'll depart Palermo for the town of Piazza Armerina where we will enjoy lunch and a professional olive oil tasting led by an expert local producer.
We then continue to our home for the next 5 nights, the 5-star San Pietro Hotel in Taormina. Welcome to our panoramic mansion overlooking the Ionian Sea, surrounded by a lush Mediterranean garden of citrus and ancient olive trees! Suspended between sky and sea, in a most strategic position surrounded by the enigmatic majesty of Etna, the poetry of the little island of Isola Bella and its cobalt tale, the Blue Grotto. The property features an outdoor pool and sun terrace, plus a traditional Sicilian restaurant and a poolside snack bar. Guests can relax with a cocktail in the lovely garden.
This evening, we’ll get together for a nice welcome drink and dinner in the hotel.
(Breakfast, lunch, dinner are all included today.)
Tuesday, April 20
Walking tour of Taormina, The Greek Theater, visit to impressive Pietradolce for an informative wine tasting
Following breakfast on the amazing terrace, we'll head into the magnificient town of Taormina and to visit the Greek theater. The construction of the theatre probably began with the Greeks around the 3rd century BC. To facilitate this, over 100,000 cubic metres of rock had to be manually removed from the mountain. The structure was then restructured and expanded by the Romans, who added columns, statues, and ingenious roofs. Built to host dramatic or musical performances, it was transformed during the Roman era to make room for gladiatorial games and naval battles.
We will then discover the Cathedral of Taormina and pass by its ancient palaces. You’ll have some time at leisure, followed by a tasting of the famous local granita.
After lunch on your own, we’ll transfer to the wine cellar at Pietradolce, where we will embark on a breathtaking tour of the ancient and unique vineyards, a scene straight out of paradise, lush with flowers and framed by ancient stone walls. Visiting Pietradolce is like stepping into a living history book.
You are on your own for dinner this evening, so consult our included restaurant recommendations list for a wide range of options
(Breakfast is included today.)
Wednesday, April 21
Mount Etna exploration, vist to Il Giardino di Giulia, private visit to Villa Cuseni
Today, an excursion to the region of Mount Etna! We’ll pass through the traditional small villages made of lava rock and drive along the roads carved between the lava stone to reach the Silvestri craters, formed during the 1892 eruption and located at an altitude of approximately 1,900 meters above sea level. During a pleasant walk, we will learn about the geology and flora of the area.
We continue with a visit to the lovely garden at the home of Giulia Gravina, the secretary of the Etna Garden Club of Catania. Giulia and her husband, Michele, will be our hosts. The garden evolved in the 1990s with the help of landscapist Ettore Paternò del Toscano and had previously been a mandarin orange grove and a vineyard. Set on terraces with a 360° view of the sea and magnificent sun exposure, the garden features a diverse array of beautiful vegetation. This includes cistus, agaves, aloes, scented pelargoniums, lantanas, euphorbias, irises, cycads, and citrus fruits. We’ll have a light lunch together in the garden.
After heading back into town, we'll make a stop on top of Taormina at Villa Cuseni, a private Arts & Crafts style residence surrounded by a rare Anglo-Sicilian garden commissioned by British Painter Robert Kitson and continued by his niece Daphne Phelps, author of ‘A House in Sicily’. We will see pergolas of citrus trees and exotic climbing plants, a rare hanging garden with neo-Renaissance fish ponds, and magnificent terraces with walled fountains overlooking Etna. Later, we'll enjoy a typical Sicilian aperitiv with snacks and spumante on the terrace.
Upon our return ot the hotel you are free for dinner.
(Breakfast and lunch are included today.)
About "Il Giardino di Giulia," by Giulia Gravina, (sent from her iPhone)
The garden is located near a small village on the slopes of Etna above the city of Catania.
Owned by the family since 1800, this was part of a large vineyard that was then transformed into a citrus grove over the years. The farmhouse has always been a holiday destination during the hot summer months, and in 1994 it was enriched with a new and larger plot of land, a beautiful and very welcome gift from my husband Michele.
And so, having a the house in the city, this became our permanent home and with it its garden that has seen a long and slow process of enhancement.
Its location along the edge of the crater of a volcano (pre-Etna) extinct for millions of years, makes it a natural balcony overlooking the sea and the beautiful gulf of Catania and behind it is dominated by the imposing and majestic volcano Etna.
The initial layout benefited from the precious advice of dear friend Cavaliere Ettore Paternó del Toscano, a refined and passionate landscaper as well as a profound connoisseur of exotic plants.
So next to the exquisitely Mediterranean vegetation that includes plants such as oaks, cypresses, olive trees, hackberry trees, carob trees, strawberry trees, almond trees and citrus trees together with native shrubs, plants such as Cycas, Erythrina, keleuteria, Brachychiton, Iacaranda appear.
Plants and shrubs that develop along the terraces that divide the garden and that leave a clear view of the spectacular “layered” and “colonnaded” lava stone wall that, delimiting the garden, forms a natural amphitheater!
Plants such as bougainvillea, raphioletis, viburnum fragrans together with bulbous plants such as purple and blue Iris enrich the garden with splashes of color that alternate throughout the seasons.
From the very beginning, my love for the garden allowed me to approach the nature of the place with great respect, convincing myself that human intervention should only enhance and exalt its beauty without virtuosity, and any insertion or change in the landscape should aim for a natural and spontaneous effect. From dawn to dusk, the commitment and hard and tiring work, supported by that of the gardeners who have taken turns over time, had to deal with the scarcity of water and drought, a critical point of our beloved land Sicily, which is why various species of succulents were often chosen!
It was not always easy, therefore, to get to do everything we set out to do.
But the infinite energy that day after day I dedicated to this place without sparing resources of any kind, I was amply repaid thanks to the magical gifts that only nature can give! And this has been for me, over the years, an extraordinary opportunity for personal enrichment! Privileged guardian of this place I find myself contemplating it with unchanged emotion; emotion always shared with my family, the many friends and all the garden enthusiasts who have passed by here to visit it in recent years!
The place, thanks to its special beauty and particular peace, has always been called "Paradise"; and in fact this is for me a pleasant and relaxing paradise!
Recently the site has also received from UNESCO (on the basis of a selection made by the Acireale commission) a recognition as a place of high historical and landscape value and for the care that has allowed the conservation of a green lung to protect the architectural heritage.
This was a great honor for me after so many years of intense and hard work!
Thursday, April 22
Biviere Garden visit, lunch in the garden, Garden San Giuliano
On the grounds of Giardio del Biviere
“A garden created as if by magic”: art historian Cesare Brandi used these words to define this unique and special Mediterranean garden, created on the site of the dried-out Lake del Biviere.
This morning we’ll travel to the area of Syracuse to visit Biviere Garden. The current owners, descendants of the famed Borghese family, decided to establish an estate for the cultivation of citrus fruits and durum wheat in areas that had remained uncultivated and abandoned. Here, two long flowerbeds display an extraordinary collection of succulents and large examples of Yucca Elephantipes, while other parts of the garden are home to lush palms, light blue jacaranda, antique roses, and a rare example of Xanthorrea arborea facing the chapel of Sant’Andrea. Orange blossom and jasmine pervade this colourful, fragrant garden where we will have lunch together.
Later this afternoon, we visit the Garden San Giuliano, the 800-year-old estate of a Sicilian marquis and designed by various landscape architects, including Ettore Paternò, Mrs. Ferragamo, Oliva di Collobiano, and the English horticulturist Miss Regent Lamb. The estate is cloaked in the scents of orange blossoms in bloom, ensuring that the garden always feels beguiling and alive.
Spend a relaxed evening having dinner in the hotel or visiting another one of the excellent restaurants on our recommendations list.
(Breakfast and lunch are included today.)
Friday, April 23
Visit to Le Stanze in Fiore, free time, farewell dinner
Le Stanze in Fiore - the rooms in bloom
Today, we visit ‘Le Stanze in fiore’ by Rossella Pezzino de Geronimo, a renowned horticulturalist and artist who will accompany us through her 7-acre private garden, surrounding a neo-classical country villa built in the 1800s. This contemporary flower garden brings together over 1000 species of rare tropical and sub-tropical plants and is among the most representative of the new Sicilian Mediterranean style. We’ll enjoy lunch together on the estate before returning to Taormina, and some time at leisure.
This evening, we'll experience a grand Huron style farewell as we dine together on the terrace of the Mazzarò Sea Palace, overlooking a pristine stretch of Sicilian coastline. The perfect setting to toast our travels.
Mazzaarò Beach views from our farewell dinner
We always have a great time and tons of laughs on Huron's tours - and nowhere moreso than in Italy
(Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)
Saturday, April 24
Departures
We’ve lived “La Dolce Vita” during our time in Sicily, and sadly, now our journey has come to an end, at least until your next Huron tour. Morning transfers to Catania airport (CTA) for your return flights home, or continue on for further travel in Italy. Ask us for our suggestions!
We've created a memorable stay in Italy!
(Breakfast included today.)
A $1,000 per person deposit will hold your space. Please use the link above, or below, to access our secure online shopping cart. If you'd like to reserve over the phone, we'd be happy to talk to you and can be reached at either (504) 267-2057 or (800) 734-1192.
