Food & Wine: Southern Italy & Sicily

Board your overnight flight to Catania today.

Welcome to Italy! Tonight, get to know your Tour Director and fellow travelers over a welcome dinner at a local restaurant in Catania. Savor the signature flavors of the city—along with local, Sicilian wine—and whet your appetite for more of Sicily’s culturally and historically rich cuisine still to come in the days ahead.

Head outside of the city of Catania today to explore the culinary traditions of southeastern Sicily.

• Join a local guide for a tour of Noto, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its Baroque churches and palaces
• Wander along Noto’s Corso Vittorio Emanuele, a long, pedestrian-friendly avenue lined with cafes, shops, and historic buildings
• Visit the Cathedral of San Nicolò, an imposing Baroque structure that was built in the 18th century and stands at the top of a wide, stone staircase
• Stop in a local sweets shop to sample Sicilian pastries and chocolates, keeping an eye out for varieties made with almonds or pistachios—both types of nuts grow on the island and are commonly featured in Sicilian confections
• Enjoy a pasta or seafood lunch on your own in one of Noto’s cafes, or treat your sweet tooth to a distinctly Sicilian dessert; local specialties include dense and creamy gelato, which you can enjoy atop a crunchy cone or sandwiched between two slices of buttery brioche

Travel northeast to the Avola wine region. Its thick-skinned, namesake grape, the Nero d’Avola, has grown on Sicily for hundreds of years. It remains the most widely planted grape on the island—in its indigenous region and beyond—for the production of red wine.

• Visit a local winery for a behind-the-scenes look at its growing and production processes
• Learn what factors contribute to Nero d’Avola’s fruit-forward flavor, full-bodied structure, and high acidity
• Enjoy light snacks paired with a variety of vintages of Nero d’Avola wines

After your winery visit, transfer to a historic countryside villa and the home of an Italian contessa.

• Enjoy wine with focaccia, olives, fresh buffalo mozzarella, and other antipasti, then sit down for a homemade, family-style dinner set in the villa’s former stables
• Learn some of the contessa’s most-trusted cooking tips, which will help you recreate her rustic dishes—such as linguine with lemon, and rice with mushrooms—at home

Meet your local guide and set out to discover Catania, an ancient port city that sits at the base of active Mount Etna volcano.

• Discover Catania’s historic city center, with its narrow, stone streets, busy Piazza del Duomo, and Baroque Catania Cathedral
• Explore the city’s famous, open-air fish market, where you’re likely to spot whole branzino, tuna, and many other freshly caught delicacies neatly laid out on ice
• Tour the Museo Storico dello Sbarco, a WWII museum focused on the allied invasion of Sicily
• Try to spot ash from previous Mount Etna eruptions in Catania’s streets as you make your way through the city

Enjoy a free afternoon in Catania or add an excursion.

Travel to Messina, Sicily’s third-largest city, then take a ferry across the Strait of Messina to Reggio Calabria. You’ll explore this coastal city in southern Italy alongside your Tour Director.

• Visit the National Museum of Magna Graecia to view the storied Riace Bronzes—two life-size, bronze statues of Greek warriors sculpted in Greece in the 5th century B.C. and pulled from the Ionian Sea in the 1970s
• Enjoy free time to explore Reggio Calabria on your own

Then, travel north to Tropea. The town is situated along the coast in Calabria, a southern Italian region whose culinary traditions are rooted in la cucina povera, or peasant food. This evening, sit down for an included dinner. Enjoy wine alongside dishes such as fried seafood and stuffed eggplant, which capture the spirit of Calabrian cooking.

Get to know Tropea on a sightseeing tour led by your Tour Director.

• View the spectacular Santa Maria dell’Isola monastery perched high above the sea in Tropea
• Stop for a tasting of locally made pecorino sheep’s-milk cheese, salami, breads, roasted vegetable spreads, and cipolla rossa, the sweet red onions for which Tropea is known
• Continue on to Pizzo for a taste of the coastal city’s famous tartufo di Pizzo—a ball or bombe of chocolate and hazelnut gelato shaped around a hidden center of melted chocolate and rolled in cocoa powder

Sit down this evening for an included dinner served with wine. Traditional dishes to try might include baked spaghetti-and-eggplant involtini.

This morning, pass through the Calabrian countryside on your way to Matera. The ancient town is built on a rocky outcrop in Basilicata, a southern Italian region whose traditions of grain cultivation and baking have endured for centuries.

Explore Matera, known as the Subterranean City, with a local guide.

• Visit Sassi di Matera, the two districts that make up Matera, which are known for their 9,000-year-old cave dwellings
• Stroll through the Old Town, passing Matera Cathedral and the ruins of the 16th-century Castello Tramontano
• Admire the bell towers, mosaics, sculptures, and other architectural details of the 16th-century Palazzo del Sedile, or Palace of the Seat, which has served as the seat of the municipality of Matera as well as a music conservatory
• Step inside Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario to see what life was like inside a typical cave dwelling
• Explore the chiese rupestri, or rock churches
• Visit a local shop to taste regional breads, such as highly regarded, sourdough-style Pane di Matera, and cheeses, like soft mozzarella and gooey stracciatella

Enjoy a free evening in Matera or add an excursion.

Please note: Depending on the season, this may take place on the afternoon of day 7.

Today, venture to Sannio, a hilly and highly regarded wine-producing area and Domain of Controlled Origin, or DOC. In Sannio, regulations require that grapes—Aglianico, Falanghina, and other varietals among them—be sourced from hillside vineyards, where the climate is ideal for producing high-quality fruit.

• Walk along steep streets in the medieval town of Guardia Sanframondi, and take in views of its hilltop castle
• Grab a seat at a local bar and enjoy a cocktail made with Falanghina wine and Strega—a saffron-infused, after-dinner liqueur that originated in Benevento in the late 1800s
• Visit a sustainable winery co-operative that produces wines under the brand Janare
• Sit down at the co-operative for an included lunch paired with Janare wines, which are produced from Falanghina and Aglianico grapes grown on Sannio vineyards

Please note: The order of today’s activities is subject to change.

Today, make your way to San Marco dei Cavoti, located northeast of Naples. This mountain village in the province of Benevento is one of the best-known places in Italy for the production of toronne, a nut-and-nougat confection.

• Join a local chocolatier for an artisanal chocolate tasting and shop tour
• Watch a chocolate-making demonstration and try a few different sweet treats, including Croccantino—a crunchy torrone covered in dark chocolate

Later, settle in to your agriturismo in the Benevento countryside. Then, head to the nearby town of Telese Terme for a cooking class in the kitchen of a Michelin-starred restaurant known for its creative dishes that marry traditional and innovative techniques. Follow along as the restaurant’s world-class chefs teach you how to craft traditional Campanian dishes, such as tortellini Campagnola, and make note of tips and techniques to try out when you get back home. For dinner tonight, savor the fruits of your labor, along with wine, in the company of your fellow travelers.

Please note: The order of today’s activities is subject to change.

Take a guided sightseeing tour of Benevento this morning.

• Marvel at the Arch of Trajan, a triumphal arch built by Emperor Trajan in the second century
• Continue past the 10th-century Church of Saint Hilary, a stone structure that has served as a church, a convent, and a farmhouse
• Enter the UNESCO-recognized Church of Santa Sofia, which was built in the eighth century and features an unusual, star-shaped structure and radial arrangement of columns and pillars
• Cap off your guided tour with a taste of ice cream or chocolate infused with Benevento Strega liqueur

Then, continue on to the Taurasi wine region. This is where the flagship red wine of southern Italy is produced from 100% local Aglianico grapes or, in some instances, a blend of Nebbiolo and Sangiovese grapes as well.

• Walk through a vineyard alongside a local wine expert to learn about the harvest and wine production processes
• Enjoy light snacks and a taste of white and red wines—including Taurasi, the region’s signature red, which is known for its structure, complexity, and aging potential

Continue on to Salerno, a lively port town steeped in cultural tradition. This evening, celebrate your trip over a farewell dinner served with wine. Menu items might include regional products such as seafood, prosciutto, sardines, zucchini, and other local specialties.

Please note: The order of today’s activities is subject to change.

Explore the coastal area of Cilento today. This spot is known as the birthplace of the widely celebrated Mediterranean diet, which is a set of skills, rituals, symbols, and traditions centered around food production and consumption—and which UNESCO declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage.

• Tour a local, organic dairy farm, and savor freshly made mozzarella, ricotta, and buffalo-milk gelato during a light lunch and tasting served with wine
• Travel to nearby Paestum for a guided tour of the ancient city’s Greek and Roman ruins
• Visit the Archaeological Museum of Paestum to see the Tomb of the Diver, which was created around 470 B.C. and contains a rare Greek wall painting

Raise a toast to your trip—and your fellow travelers—as you enjoy a farewell drink this evening.

Transfer to the Naples airport for your flight home or extend your stay to visit Naples.