Walking in Western Sicily
Combining some fine walking with exquisite sightseeing
Our Walking in Western Sicily Tour is a combination of walking some of Sicily’s most beautiful footpaths and sightseeing in its capital Palermo. It is the perfect itinerary for those who would like to learn something of Sicily’s illustrious history and at the same time see some of its most delightful countryside…
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Tour Features
- Small group travel: maximum group size is 14 guests.
- Guaranteed departure dates
- Accompanied by a Tour manager/Tour leader throughout your journey
- Levanzo
- Palermo
- Monreale cathedral
- The Madonie
- Cefalù
- 2 nights in Trapani (classic room)
- 2 nights in Palermo (classic room)
- 1 nights in Santo Stefano Quisquina (classic room)
- 2 nights in Cefalù (classic room)
- All meals are included
- Arrival/departure airport: Palermo
- Transfers and pick-ups/drop-offs from/to the main airport of arrival on the day of arrival/departure of the tour are included
- Moderate walking.
Our Western Sicily walking holiday combines some light walking with some of the fascinating sights of this side of the island of Sicily. It runs concurrently with our Eastern Sicily Walking tour, enabling you to combine them into a grand walking tour of Sicily. There is a 5% discount for anyone booking both the Eastern and Western Sicily walking tours together.
The crystalline waters of Levanzo cave painting in Grotta del Genovese Walking on Levanzo
Full Itinerary
Day 1
Arrival and onward to Trapani
We rendezvous at Palermo airport in the afternoon and transfer by minibus on a short drive (1 hours) to our hotel in Trapani.
We eat a fine sea-food dinner in one of Trapani’s more intriguing trattorie.
Day 2
Levanzo
We get up early to catch the hydrofoil to Levanzo – one of the outlying Egadi islands.
Our walk on the island follows a rough farm track looping above the crystalline turquoise waters and through typical Mediterranean maquis, to the Grotte del Genovese. The discovery, in 1949, of some prehistoric cave paintings dating back around 10000 years revaled some of the most extraordinary cave art in Europe.
On our return to Trapani, if ferry times allow there will be the opportunity to stop of a Favignana for an ice-cream and to enjoy the small port town.
Evening meal and overnight in Trapani.
Day 3
Monte Cofano
We start the day with a drive out to Custonaci from Trapani. The marble quarries of Custonaci – the source of much of the marble in the Baroque churches of Palermo – are a familiar sight to anyone who has been to Erice and our walk around Monte Cofano starts by trekking up through these quarries. After three quarters of an hour we reach a saddle and look down onto the windswipt coastline of north-western Sicily looking out to San Vito Lo Capo. There is a gentle descent to the shore before we countour round the seaward side of Monte Cofano back to our starting point. At the end of our walk we visit the museum of the traditional life at the Grotta Mangiapane. Anyone who has seen the detective series of Montalbano will be familiar with these caves which conceal a small hamlet inside them. They have now been converted into a fascinating museum of country life.
We transfer to Palermo for evening meal and overnight.
Day 4
Full day in Palermo
This day is a change of gear from the solitary wildernesses of Levanzo and Sicily’s north-western shore. We begin with a short journey to Monreale where we visit the fabulous Norman cathedral. From its somewhat rough exterior, it is impossible to guess the sheer overwhelming expanse of the Byzantine mosaics contained within and we spend an hour marvelling at their creation whilst our guide tells us the story of how they came into being.
In the late morning, we return down the hill into the city of Palermo to visit the Palatine chapel – a smaller, but even more beautiful version of the cathedral we have visited at Monreale.
In the afternoon there will be free time to visit some of the other marvels of Palermo – perhaps the Archaeological museum, or the Martorana church, or maybe the extraordinary stucchi of Giacomo Serpotta in the Oratiorio of Santa Cita.
Overnight and evening meal in Palermo.
Day 5
Palazzo Adriano
We begin the morning by driving south from Palermo towards Palazzo Adriano and the beautiful Sicani mountains. When Giuseppe Tornatore was looking to film his iconic Cinema Paradiso, he traversed the whole of Sicily looking for the perfect setting until he finally came upon Palazzo Adriano. In origin, this town harks back to the Albanian immigration of the South of Italk in the sixteenth century and there are still vestiges of its Arbëreshë culture.
The scenery around, the Sicani mountains, is enchating and some of the most evocative in the whole of Sicily. With its deep gorges and wooded hillsides, almost any angle of it could be used a film set. It is through this scenery that our walk for this day takes us.
Evening meal and overnight in Santo Stefano Quisquina.
Day 6
Ficuzza
Ficuzza was the hunting ground of the Bourbon King Ferdinand and in the nineteenth century he built a magnificent hunting lodge here.
Our walk today is in the hunting grounds of the King and the shadow of the Rocca Busambra. It is an excellent site for bird watching enthusiasts, with some of the large raptors soaring over the Rocca and the woodland of Ficuzza filled with songbirds.
After our walk we transfer to Cefalù.
Evening meal and overnight in Cefalù.
Rocca Busambra in winter
Day 7
Pizzo Carbonara
On our final day, we venture into the Madonie mountains above Cefalù to climb the second highest peak in Sicily after Mt Etna – Pizzo Carbonara (1979m above sea level).
Evening meal and overnight in Cefalù.
Day 8
Departure
Departure from Palermo airport.
For those who are joining our Eastern Sicily walking tour, there is a chance to spend the morning in Cefalù before travelling on to Milazzo by train (2 hours) in the afternoon.
Grotta Mangiapane, Custonaci
