Experience Authentic Sicily & Tuscany; Come as a tourist, leave as a friend.
SSicilia Mia Vacanze has collaborated with private villas in Sicily(Modica) & Tuscany(Siena) to provide an all-inclusive experience that will be a part of you forever. We coordinate your week from the moment you step off the plane in Catania/Florence until we accompany you back to the airport 7 days later. You will experience the authentic way to prepare Sicilian & Tuscan cuisine from your local chef in your cooking lessons, further enhance your relaxing vacation if you choose to do yoga, or take of on your own.
The Sicilian week includes excursions to Syracusa/Ortigia, Noto, Modica & Marzamemi. You will smell the sea air in Ortigia & Marzamemi, listen to the beautiful melody of the local’s bargain at the market, and let your palate discover the succulent wine, olive oil, and freshly prepared specialty cuisine. You will have guides explain the thousands of years of history that have made the island of Sicily so unique with the numerous archaeological & UNESCO World Heritage sites. Italy’s Southern gem will enchant you with its beauty and hospitality. We invite you to let us treat you to a week of authentic Italian culture, history, & new friendships.
The Tuscan week includes all food, wine, prosecco, villa accommodations, 3 cooking lessons, transportation, and excursions to Siena, Florence, San Gimignano, Montepulciano, and several wineries. At an additional cost of $200, a day-long excursion to see the leaning tower of Pisa, lunch and Cinque Terre is available.
**Private group tour dates are available for a limit of 8 people and the tour can be tailored to your group. Inquire within.
No Single
Supplement
Traveling Solo? Great!
We never charge extra for individual guests.
Small & Friendly Groups
Our small, intimate groups make the experience. We never book more than 8 – 15 guests.
Choose Your Activity
Vacations in Sicily & Tuscany Italy
An emphasis on Sicilian & Tuscan Cuisine.
From the moment you arrive at our villa, your relationship with the cuisine begins. You are greeted with a typical Italian Aperitivo and a refreshing Prosecco to set the stage for your week and allow you to relax from your journey. Monday morning you will have the chance to participate in your first of 3 cooking lessons led by our native chef that is eager to share their recipes and traditions with you. You will eat what you prepare for lunch, but not without a timely “Prosecco Time” before and with glorious wine during that will compliment your job well done.
Dinners will be prepared by the cook for you at the villa.
Leisure Vacation
If you would prefer to relax, rather than cook, please know leisure is an option. The villa is set up for a peaceful experience with olive trees that back up to the Hyblean mountains, a beautiful pool, and roads that allow for nice walks. We will also offer massages for an additional charge of 100Euro.
Private Group & Company Tours
Sicilia Mia is happy to coordinate private tours for your group.
If corporate, we can easily set up your meeting needs over breakfast, before your Italian experiences start for the day. Following breakfast and class, you will enjoy a cooking class led by our local chefs, followed by lunch to sample your skills. Then there is a bit of time to relax before heading out for the daily excursion. Later that evening you will enjoy dinner back at the villa.
What’s Included in Your Vacation
You week is all-inclusive(except air) for $3,000-$4,000 per person. Your vacation includes transportation, cooking lessons, food, wine, Prosecco, excursions, and the accommodations on the villa.
Included:
- Transportation to and from the Catania or Florence Airport
- Transportation to events & excursions
- Accommodations at Villa
- All food & beverages, including wine & prosecco
- Guided tours in at least 2 towns
- Wine tours and Tastings
- Chocolate tasting in Modica, Sicily
- Boat ride around the island of Ortigia, Sicily
- Visit Marzamemi & beach experience (Season depending)
- Experience Market in Ortigia & lunch at Sicilian restaurant
- Olive oil tasting at the Villa in Sicily
- Cheese farm tour in Tuscany
Syracuse/Ortigia: While in Ortigia, our native tour guide will take you through the Ortigia market, allowing you to taste test cheeses, almonds, and explain what is in season. From the market, you will learn about the Temple of Apollo, visit the Piazza del Duomo, admire the Syracuse Cathedral, the fountain of Aretusa, and finally, lunch!! You will dine al fresco at a restaurant that specializes in Sicilian food, and then, if the weather permits, take a boat ride around Ortigia and even go in a couple sea caves! After the boat ride, you will spend time touring the shops and island.
Noto: Here a tour guide will teach you the history of the Baroque town, the Noto Cathedral, Nicolaci Palace, among other sights and then have free time to visit the shops and have gelato before going to Zisola winery. This winery is beautifully set on a hill with a view of the sea, their wine was featured in Wine Spectacular magazine.
Modica: Known for its Baroque architecture, churches, and making chocolate. You will experience a chocolate tour, an option to take a train around the city, and free time to enjoy the town and shops before visiting a beautiful lookout area and then returning to the villa for dinner.
The villa owner will host an olive oil tasting on the villa so guests can distinguish the differences between quality and not so quality olive oils. The owners harvest their own olive oil that is so delicious that it leaves a ting on your throat indicating how fresh & organic it really is.
On the villa site, guests participate in cooking, yoga lessons, or can sit by the pool and read a book while lunch is being prepared. Our chef will prepare the dinners with the exception of one that is downtown Modica. We keep the groups small,(8-15) to keep an intimate feel, this gives the instructors plenty of time for personal attention.
Marzamemi: Is listed as one of the most beautiful 20 sea villages of Italy. Known for their tasty fish recipes at many of their picturesque restaurants on the sea. Also, season depending, we will have the option to visit the the beautiful San Lorenzo beach. We will admire the sea and in town, pass by The Tonnara, an ancient palace designed by the Arabs around 1000 A.D., the external courtyard was used to shelter the ships used to fish tuna. In the following centuries it was used to plant and prepare tuna then was abandoned for years and is now used for events. Marzamemi is internationally known for several shipwrecks dating back to ancient Greece.
Siena: Siena is famous for its large square, called Il Campo, winding medieval alleyways, and the Palio, a historic horse race that takes place twice during the summer months. Siena is also historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuries. Siena is also home to the oldest bank in the world, the Monte dei Paschi bank, which has been operating continuously since 1472. You will also see the grand cathedral that will take some guests breath away as you turn the corner. It was built in the 1200’s and has treasured artworks and marvelous marble floors.
Florence: You will have a guided tour here. Florence makes art-lovers’ hearts full. Fans of Renaissance art will feel like a kid in a candy store touring The Galleria dell’Accademia, which is bursting with works by Michelangelo. Architecture buffs can admire the ancient Ponte Vecchio bridge, while serious shoppers can spend a blissful afternoon wandering the shops of Piazza Santo Spirito.
San Gimignano: Is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. Known as the Town of Fine Towers, San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture, unique in the preservation of about a dozen of its tower houses, which, with its hilltop setting and encircling walls, form “an unforgettable skyline”. Within the walls, the well-preserved buildings include notable examples of both Romanesque and Gothic architecture, with outstanding examples of secular buildings as well as churches. The Palazzo Comunale, the Collegiate Church and Church of Sant’ Agostino contain frescos, including cycles dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. The “Historic Centre of San Gimignano” is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town also is known for saffron, the Golden Ham, and its white wine, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, produced from the ancient variety of Vernaccia grape which is grown on the sandstone hillsides of the area.
Montepulciano:
On the ridge that divides the Val D’Orcia from the Val di Chiana, Montepulciano stands on a chalky hilltop. This beautiful Renaissance hilltown, which still adheres to its medieval plan, is embedded in a picture-postcard landscape: every way you turn, you are confronted with the iconic image of the Tuscan countryside, where waves of hills and golden fields, dotted with cypresses, roll and roll together. Thanks to its superb soil and vineyards, the Montepulciano area is considered one of the finest winemaking regions in the world
Additional Day Trips & Services
There are three additional excursions offered to top off your vacation. These excursions are an additional option because they are an average of 2 hours from the villa, and considered an all-day excursion. You will be leaving the villa in the morning and returning in time for dinner. These tours are offered to you because they are a couple of the key attractive tourist destinations in Southern Italy. We will have time for 1 of these tours in the week, and it will replace one of your relaxing days at the villa. The price is based on a total of 8 people taking the tour.
Sicilian Optional excursions include:
- The Valley of the Temples & Scala de Turchi with lunch; $150 Additional
- Taormina visit with lunch; $250 Additional
- Mount Etna hike and visit to Barone Di VIllaGrande winery; $150 Additional
Tuscan Optional excursions include:
- Visit the Leaning tower of Pisa then continue to Cinque Terre where you will have lunch and explore the beautiful seaside town. $250
The Valley of the Temples & Scala dei Turchi for Lunch
The Valley of the Temples is an exceptional archaeological site in Agrigento, and certainly one of the most popular destinations in Sicily. The Valley of the Temples is a magnificent collection of seven temples from the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. the site was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997. After visiting the Temples, you will have lunch at a restaurant on the beach overlooking the beach near Scala dei Turchi. After lunch, you will walk down the beach to the Scala dei Turchi before going back to the villa for dinner prepared by the chef. Scala dei Turchi is a beautiful white stair cliff leading into the beautiful turquoise water, you will have time to walk to the site for pictures and to enjoy the beauty.
Add $150
Mount Etna Hike and Visit to the Nicosia Winery
This is an optional and additional excursion. Mount Etna, is Europe’s highest and the world’s most active volcano. “She” is in an almost constant state of activity. Mount Etna attracts thousands of visitors a year, especially when there are eruptions. The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the broad plain of Catania to the south.
This is an hour and a half, easy climb. You will visit a lava tube and hike the foothills of Etna and enjoy a packed lunch from our chef. After you experience your climb, you will visit the beautiful BaroneDi VillGrande Winery for a wine tour and tasting.
Add $150
Our massage therapist will visit the villa on request for private massage services. Indulge in deep tissue or relaxation massage:
Swedish Massage: Swedish massages use five styles of ling, slowing strokes to relax muscles and improve circulation. It’s helpful in treating pain, joint stiffness and anxiety.
Deep Tissue Massage: Airline travel may leave you in knots, select the deep tissue massage to relieve your stress and stiffness. The pressure will be more intense than a Swedish massage as the therapist works in focused areas of your body to release tension in your muscles.
Add $100 per session
General Itinerary
Morning (Mattina): Before our 8:30 am breakfast, guests are welcomed to take a walk or run around the villa grounds or main road lined with stone fences & olive trees. Italians usually eat light in the morning, we’ll serve a variety of fresh juices, yogurt, and granola, brioche, fresh fruits. Cooking lessons start at 10 am and the cooks will prepare lunch for everyone.
Lunch (Pranzo): Guests gather for Prosecco before we sit down to enjoy lunch that the cooks have prepared. You’ll sit on one of the villa terraces to eat and enjoy the fresh country air. After lunch, you will leave for your excursion.
Evening (Sera): You will arrive back at the villa in time for an aperitivo before dinner that is prepared by our chef. Dinner is paired with red & white wine, dessert and of course, Limoncello!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cost for a single traveler?
We refrain from charging single supplements. Solo travelers are welcome! If you have a hard time finding someone to travel with, look no more and make friendships that will last a lifetime. Sicilia Mia was born because Anitya was a solo traveler, not knowing a soul, joined 9 other ladies. That was a life-changing trip!
Will I have to share a bathroom?
No, you will have your own bathroom. Every room in our villa has it’s own bathroom.
What are the accommodations like?
Our villa has 11 guest rooms, beautiful large terraces, a commercial kitchen used for cooking classes, laundry, a stunning swimming pool, WiFi, and fantastic views of the nearby Hyblean Mountains. Nestled among olive and carob groves, lined by beautiful hand-laid stone fences, and has recently been meticulously renovated. The villa has been in the owner’s family for 5 generations! They take pride in growing vegetables, herbs and harvesting olive oil on the property to use in the local cuisine you will be enjoying. You will have the feeling that you are a world away from civilization when you are actually only 10 minutes from the stunning baroque city of Modica. Modica is the chocolate capital of Italy and is among one of the many cities in Sicily that is a UNESCO world heritage site.
How many people are on your tours?
Our tours are small, between 8-15 people to maintain an intimate feel and to allow the instructors to give personal attention to each guest.
