Sicily: The Key to Italy

Palermo, in the words of journalist and native son Roberto Alajmo, is an onion—una cipolla. This city at the edge of Italy reveals its nature slowly. The same might be said for all of Sicily. For more than 10,000 years, layer upon layer has been added to the island’s history and culture by conquering warriors, merchants, sailors and travellers from across Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean basin.

On our tour, explore many regions of Sicily and their multicultural richness. Our leaders and guides will weave the diverse threads into a coherent whole through carefully chosen readings, and time for discussion and reflection. As you peel back each layer of Alajmo’s onion, revel
in the new delights: ancient Greek theatres still in use, golden Byzantine mosaics, sprawling Arab-Norman palazzi, vistas over an impossibly blue sea, the ruby red of a glass of nero d’avola. You’ll start in Palermo, where the focus will be Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa’s seminal novel The Leopard. You’ll also have time to explore Palermo’s revitalized art scene and taste its famous street food—the crowd-pleasing arancini (fried risotto balls) and pani ca’ meusa, a soft sesame roll filled with spleen, for those who don’t back down from a gustatory challenge. It’s then time to leave the city behind for a few days at an agriturismo among the olive groves of the south coast. On excursions to nearby Agrigento, stand “with all Olympus before [you]” in the Valley of the Temples, the remains of a 6th-century BCE Greek colony. Zip back into modernity to visit the home of Luigi Pirandello, whose radical works question the reliability of reality and the self.

More marvels of the ancient, medieval and Renaissance worlds await at Syracuse. For British novelist Lawrence Durrell, Syracuse was “the whole of science, magic, total time,” where past and present coexist. Highlights are Caravaggio’s depiction of the burial of St. Lucy, housed in the baroque church of the same name, the 2,500-year-old mikvah (Jewish ritual baths), and the archeological park that houses a Greek theatre where the tragedies of Aeschylus were performed before the playwright.

With our optional extension, end your journey at Mt. Etna. This formidable volcano is also responsible for some of Sicily’s greatest pleasures—its beautiful, fragrant citrus fruit and distinctive wine grapes that grow in the rich soil. Toast your Sicilian adventure with a delicate nerello mesacalese or a savoury, salty carricante.