From Malta: Mt. Etna & Syracuse Day Trip with Guide

Mt. Etna
The largest and most active volcano in Europe. The climb to the crater takes us through picturesque villages and an ever changing landscape. The lower slopes of the volcano are extremely fertile with groves of oranges, lemons and other Mediterranean flora and of course vines which produce Sicily’s best wines. We go through forests of chestnut trees which gradually give way to oak, beech, birch and pine.

Syracuse
Syracuse is one of the loveliest cities in Sicily. We tend to forget that it was once the most important city in Western Europe. The city owes its origin to the Greek settlers who, from 733 BC onwards, turned Sicily into Magna Graecia, when Greece ruled not only the Mediterranean but also the known world.

Ortigia - Ancient Syracuse, is in fact an island, now joined to the mainland by a short bridge. It is the heart and soul of Syracuse, where the Greeks, for reasons of defense, decided to found their new city. Ortygia was in recent years given a face lift and is attracting more and more visitors.

Piazza Duomo - At the centre of Ortygia is the Piazza Duomo, with the Duomo taking pride of place. The Duomo is unique, no other word for it. It was built by the Greeks as the Temple of Athena. When the Byzantines conquered Syracuse, instead of demolishing the temple, as so often happened, they converted it into a Christian church. The Normans modified the interior and built a more Christian façade. When the façade was destroyed in the 1693 earthquake the baroque façade which we see today was erected. The Duomo, one of the oldest sites of continued worship in the world is uniquely an example of Greek, Byzantine,