secret sicily:

art, archaeology & landscape

April 2025
tour leader: Dr Kathryn Welch

*** Preliminary Itinerary ***

Discover the less-visited delights of Sicily, exploring archaeological and artistic sites in stunning coastal locations and the island’s dramatic interior

OVERVIEW

We’ve drawn on decades of travelling through Sicily to design this tour, a survey of Sicily’s magnificent 3,000-year heritage. Based predominantly in small centres, it offers an authentic sense of Sicily, its people and its history, and avoids the large crowds that now form in the major centres.

We commence in Palermo, in order to understand the island’s complex historical layers through a case study of this vibrant town. Travelling to the pleasant coastal town of Trapani in the west, we explore the earliest Carthaginian settlements, visit the nearby Egadian Islands and sample the wine and seafood for which the region is famous. Travelling into the island’s interior via the magnificent Greek temples of Agrigento, we spend time on a countryside estate or agriturismo. It produces its own wine, oil and vegetables, and is close to remarkable Greek and Roman archaeological sites such as Piazza Armerina, Morgantina and ‘Montalbano country’ in the Val di Noto. Finally, from the seaside town of Cefalù, we visit the villages of the Madonie mountains and uncover a magnificent Norman legacy in a town originally settled by the Greeks.

A highlight of this tour is the guidance of tour leader Dr Kathryn Welch. A historian of ancient Rome, Kathryn is an expert at explaining the layers of history and culture, and she is also an experienced tour leader.

TOUR LEADER

Dr Kathryn Welch has a PhD in Roman history from the University of Queensland, in addition to degrees in Education and Latin Language. For 30 years she taught Roman and Greek history at the University of Sydney, and she is well known as an engaging public speaker to students of all ages.

Since her retirement in 2021, Kathryn has continued to pursue her academic research into the political and social history of Rome in the first century BCE. This has taken her from investigations into the role of formidable Roman women, to the interplay of history, invention and reinvention that continue to make the Roman world such a fascinating place to explore.

Kathryn has a strong interest in art, architecture and music, and in Italian history, culture and language. Together with Dr Estelle Lazer, she is co-director of the Pompeii Cast Project. Kathryn has led tours to Italy since 1999.

Highlights

  • Experience authentic Sicilian hospitality in carefully researched and selected accommodation in small towns and villages, well off the mass-tourism path

  • Visit impressive ancient archaeological sites from the Greek, Carthaginian and Roman periods

  • Stroll medieval villages in the island’s rugged interior

  • Visit exuberant Baroque towns, including those used as settings for the popular Montalbano TV series

  • Sample excellent food and wine at our farmstay and at some of Sicily’s finest restaurants

  • Enhance your understanding by travelling with Dr Kathryn Welch, a historian of ancient Rome

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