Sicilia!

9 DAYS
Rome 2 • Sorrento 2 • Taormina 1 • Palermo 2

Basic Inclusions

Accommodations

Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person.

Meals

All breakfasts. All dinners. Dinner with music on Day 3.

Transportation

Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. Deluxe touring motorcoach. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.

Guide

Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout. All tips are included in the Program Cost. Whisper headsets included.

Travel Protection

Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.

Tour Summary

Itinerary Includes

Unlimited public transportation

Days 1-2: Home - Rome

Arrival transfer

Visit to the Pantheon

Stroll on Piazza Navona

Day 3: Rome

Rome City Sightseeing: 24-hour public transportation pass in Rome, Local Guide, Visits to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, Visit to the Vatican Museums, Headset receiver for the Vatican sites, Visit to the Sistine Chapel, Visit to St. Peter's Basilica

Dinner with music

Day 4: Rome - Sorrento

Visit to the Naples National Archaeological Museum, Local Guide, Visit to the excavated Roman city of Pompeii

Day 5: Sorrento

Excursion to Capri: Round trip shuttle to the port, Ferry Sorrento-Capri, Round-trip Capri funicular, Visit to Capri's Gardens of Augustus, Ferry Capri-Sorrento

Day 6: Sorrento - Taormina

Ferry to Messina

Day 7: Taormina - Palermo

Visit to the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento

Day 8: Palermo

Half-day city sightseeing in Palermo and Monreale: Local Guide, Visit to Monreale Abbey Cloister and Cathedral with audioguide

Day 9: Departure

Departure transfer

UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE

 
25 E-Z
25 E-Z
25 E-Z
25 E-Z
 

Detailed Itinerary

Days 1-2: Arrival, Pantheon, Piazza Navona

Rome is your destination; a wide-bodied jet is your vehicle. Swoop down over the Alps and touch down on the wide concrete runway at Fiumicino Airport. You've arrived in Italy!

Proceed to your centrally-located hotel, settle in and get ready to explore your surroundings.

Trevi Fountain

If your schedule allows, consider a visit to the Trevi Fountain, one of Rome's most celebrated sights, which was the terminus of the Aqua Virgo aqueduct. Throw a coin over your right shoulder and into the spray to ensure your return to this wonderful city!

Visit to the Pantheon

Inside the "Temple to All the Gods," you will understand why it has been called one of the better-preserved and most harmonious monuments of antiquity.

Stroll on Piazza Navona

Walk through the plaza built on the site of Domitian's Stadium. Lined with grand buildings and trendy cafes, this oblong square is adorned with statues and fountains, notably Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers.

Meals included: Dinner
Overnight: Rome

Day 3: Rome City Sightseeing, Dinner with Music

Set out on a sightseeing tour of Rome.

A full-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Rome, will accompany your group.

Visits to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum

Walk through the best known monuments of Ancient Rome, the Colosseo and the Foro Romano. Once the heart of a vast empire, the Forum was filled with extravagant buildings and crowded with people from all over the known world.

Visit to the Vatican Museums

Discover outstanding masterpieces collected for the Vatican Museums since the early 1500s. See exceptional statues from antiquity, such as Laocoön and His Son and the Apollo Belvedere, as well as stunning Renaissance paintings, notably the The School of Athens fresco in the Raphael Rooms.

Headset receiver for the Vatican sites
Visit to the Sistine Chapel

Marvel at Michelangelo's Last Judgment and brightly-colored ceiling frescoes in the Cappella Sistina.

Visit to St. Peter's Basilica

Enter the sanctuary recognized as the world's largest church. The Basilica di San Pietro also houses priceless works of art, in particular Michelangelo's Pietà and Bernini's Dove of the Holy Spirit.

Dinner with music

Tonight, enjoy dinner while local singers and musicians entertain you with O Sole Mio, Volare and other favorite Italian songs.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner with music
Overnight: Rome

Day 4: Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento

Board your coach and travel south on the autostrada to the Bay of Naples.

Visit to the Naples National Archaeological Museum

Visit the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, one of the world's great museums of Greek and Roman antiquities, housed in an impressive 16th-century palace. It holds ancient statuary, including the Sosandra Aphrodite and the Artemis of Ephesus, a fabulous collection of mosaics from Pompeii, artwork from the Villa Pison at Herculaneum, and more.

A full-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Pompeii and Naples, will accompany your group.

Visit to the excavated Roman city of Pompeii

Walk through the Roman city recognized by UNESCO as a treasure of Western Civilization. See how well-to-do Romans lived 2,000 years ago, until Mt. Vesuvius all at once destroyed this city in one day and preserved it for all time.

Travel to Sorrento

Continue to the fabled town of poets and sunsets, also renowned for its embroidery and intarsia (wood-inlay).

The evening is free to enjoy Sorrento's scenic delights and spectacular views. For the finest overlook of all, you may want to go to Punta di Sorrento and watch the sunset from the belvedere.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: Sorrento

Day 5: Excursion to Capri

Descend the winding road to the port of Sorrento.

A ferry will take you to the Isle of Capri.

Transfer by funicular to the town of Capri's main square (Piazzetta), passing tropical gardens on the way. On the island stands Villa Jovis, the imperial residence from which Tiberius once ruled his empire. Recall tales of the Emperor Augustus, and of the mischievous Caligula.

From Capri's Piazzetta, it's an easy walk to the Gardens of Augustus, a magnificent public garden landscaped in the 1930s by the German industrialist Friedrich Krupp. Its terraces adorned with colorful and fragrant vegetation are perched atop a cliff with a sheer drop to the sea. The gardens face Capri's southern coast and provide splendid views of the 14th-century Charterhouse of San Giacomo, the Bay of Marina Piccola, down below, and the Faraglioni, the needle-like rocks that soar above the sea.

Board a ferry bound for Sorrento.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: Sorrento

Day 6: Reggio, Ferry to Messina, Taormina

Today, enjoy a scenic ride through Calabria to the city of Reggio, the very toe of Italy.

Board a ferry for the short crossing of the Strait of Messina to Sicily, the great melting pot of the Mediterranean world. Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans, French and Spanish have all left their marks here and contributed to a rich heritage.

Travel to the medieval city of Taormina, perched high above the sea.

Travel to Taormina

Settle into your hotel and luxuriate in one of Europe's most popular beach resort areas, situated in the shadow of 10,780-foot-high Mt. Etna, Europe's most active volcano. Its chimney is believed to reach thirty miles deep into the earth.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: Taormina

Day 7: Agrigento, Palermo

Travel through the hilly Sicilian hinterland, covered with pine and eucalyptus woods, then down through vineyards and olive groves towards the coast. Agrigento, Carthage's trade partner in antiquity, is the birthplace of both the ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles and the modern Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello.

Explore the exceptional site known as the Valley of Temples, since nine of the ten temples built there in antiquity are still visible. They are the remnants of a city that the 5th-century BC Greek poet Pindar called "the most beautiful city built by mortal men." The Temple of Zeus, though never completed, was considered the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World.

Continue to Sicily's capital city, which once rivaled Córdoba in Oriental splendor.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: Palermo

Day 8: Palermo City Sightseeing

Enjoy a sightseeing tour highlighting Palermo's landmarks. See the Piazza Bellini, a delightful square with Moorish features, the lively Via Roma and the Norman Palace.

Local Guide

A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Palermo, will accompany you today.

Visit to Monreale Abbey Cloister and Cathedral with audioguide

You will stop at Monreale, the site of a 12th-century Benedictine abbey. There, visit the dazzling cathedral to view 6,000 square yards of multicolored mosaics (chiostro) representing the complete cycle of the Old and New Testaments.

Free time in Palermo

The afternoon is unscheduled.

Check out the Vucciria, the maze of side streets around Piazza Domenico, crowded with produce vendors and a myriad of food stalls; the perfect place to have lunch!

Shop for souvenirs at the Via Papireto flea market, where you may see Sicily's famous painted carts.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Overnight: Palermo

Day 9: Departure

Most good things must come to an end. Your suitcase full of memorabilia and of photos ready to be processed, you'll arrive home later today, eager to share your discoveries with family and friends.

Meals included: Breakfast
 

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Visit to the Pantheon

Visit to the Pantheon

Visits to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum

Visits to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum

Visit to the excavated Roman city of Pompeii

Visit to the excavated Roman city of Pompeii

Sorrento, Italy

Sorrento, Italy

Excursion to Capri

Excursion to Capri

Taormina, Sicily

Taormina, Sicily

Palermo City Sightseeing

Palermo City Sightseeing

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