After a tiring 3-hour evening drive from Ragusa, Noto and Modica (for approx 130 km distance, there are no highways in southern Sicily yet) we reached Agrigento. Even when you approach you see the gorgeous lighted Valley of Temples – the major and quite large attraction of Agrigento, for which we had planned to spare 3-4 hours.

Agrigento city itself is not something special. What I liked is it’s positioned on a small hill, with the Valley of Temples below it. So when you walk/drive along the streets (there were interesting restaurants and bars in the city, but nothing more special) – you can always enjoy magnificent views to the Valley.

After Syracuse, our final destination was supposed to be Agrigento on the south coast. Still, perhaps not wanting to finish our vacation yet, we were eager to see some more beauty spots on the way. Modica and Ragusa were on the way, but it wasn’t clear (according to our guide) which one was more worth seeing. The puzzle was ‘solved’ by our host in Sicily who recommended seeing a 3rd city, Noto by all means! OK – what could we do, we decided to visit all three of them on the rough and narrow road to Agrigento!

Syracuse was the city in Sicily I had been waiting to see with utmost interest. It’s the birthplace of the greek mathematician Archimedes, and had marvelous sights according to the guides.

The Old Town of Syracuse, spread over the island of Ortygia (connected to the mainland by a bridge for more than 2,500 years) is the area with most historical sights, and that’s where we headed right after arriving. It has so much to see, and yet just walking around all those impressively white-ish buildings, with large streets and squares made the stroll magical, plunging you back into an atmosphere of the past.

Catania is Sicily’s second largest city, with a population of over 300,000. Like any big city, Catania looked really unattractive, messy, noisy and busy at first. Our accommodation was very centrally located, but on an awkward, sofa-flooded commercial street. And amid the sofas – big barrels for baking chestnuts, something observed all over Sicily but most popular here in Catania it seems. True and authentic Sicily! 🙂

Due to its closeness to Etna volcano, Catania had been destroyed twice in the 17th century, following a lava eruption first, and then earthquake. After that the town was reconstructed in Baroque style using a a cheap and much available building material – lava! That’s the reason Catania is a grey city and is well known in the world for this.

Cefalu (the name derives from the ancient greek word for ‘cape’) is a small and very beautiful city on the North coast of Sicily, just an hour drive east of Palermo. It was the first stop from a 5-day Sicilian vacation in November.

They say Cefalu is a very touristic place in the summer, the most touristic Sicilian town after Taormina actually. And I believe it, judging by the fairly large number of tourists in November (the tourist season in Sicily is between May and September, with these two months claimed to be the best for visiting this piece of paradise).

For a small town, Cefalu offers a lot – lovely old town with cozy small streets, trattorias, and amazing little shops for souvenirs and traditional Sicily sweets (canoli and some fruit-like calorie bombs :)).

Visiting Sicily has long been a dream of mine. Why? Because it’s a place combining the crystal waters of the Mediterranean, the melody of Italian language, fascinating countryside, a mystique volcano and an unparalleled historical legacy.

I’ve been to southern Italy (Naples and around) before and it was so different from the North. My first impression was it was so…dirty and noisy there, but later on I realized you could really feel Italy, the true and authentic one, much more in the South than the North. Hence my dream to visit Sicily as the southernmost part of Italy, and crash into the colors, passion and temperament of Italian culture at its extreme.

Sicily, however, turned to be a unique place where Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, French, Germans, Spanish, Italians and even British people left a footprint in the culture and mindset of the people inhabiting it. And it addition to this spectacular cultural mix, there’s also the diversity of nature, ranging from steep rocks through thick forestry to peaceful green fields.