Caltagirone and Piazza Armerina Day Trip
Attractive visit to Caltagirone and Piazza Armerina, between roman and baroque culture!
Tour Caltagirone and Piazza Armerina Day Trip
Caltagirone and Piazza Armerina Day Trip: excursion to discover an attractive baroque city and a Unesco heritage site.
For the Tour Caltagione and Piazza Armerina Day Trip we provide for pick-up service at your accommodation or in the close vicinity, with comfortable and luxury 8-seats vehicle, at around 9:00 am.
Our first stop will be Caltagirone (UNESCO World Heritage), which is famous for its production of pottery. This tradition of ancient ceramics dates back to Arab dominations, and still holds its characteristic colours, blue and yellow. The Arabian contribution to the city culture is honored in the name of the town, that according to the most intriguing hypothesis, might be derived from the Moorish for “castle” or “fortress of vases”.
You will visit the historical center, the famous “Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte“, and the culture of pottery in all the city: excellent colored glazes blue and green that adorn the streets, staircases, balconies, squares, fountains, churches and palaces.
For the tour Caltagirone and Piazza Armerina you will enjoy a free snack: delicious tasting of typical products from Sicilian culinary tradition as the famous “tavola calda – hot table“. You will eat several arancini, pizza, calzoni, along with Sicilian Doc wine.
In the afternoon we will move to Piazza Armerina, city that hosts a huge Roman villa (UNESCO heritage site). A majestic imperial villa originally property of a powerful Roman family. Here you will find the best conserved in-site roman mosaics in the world.
The Villa Romana del Casale houses mosaic flooring – figurative and geometric – , wall mosaics, columns, stutues, capitals and coins.
At lunch time we’ll offer for free a rich Sicilian street food tasting, with water and red wine from Mt. Etna. Or, if you prefer, you will have one hour of spare time to enjoy lunch in the nearby.
When the Tour will be over, you get back on the minivan.
The return to Catania is expected at approximately 6:30pm.
For archaeology and artisan lovers enjoying the Tour Caltagirone and Piazza Armerina is an experience not to be missed during a trip in Sicily.
If your accommodation is not in Catania, you can reach us using one of our comfortable transfer services.
Important Information
Recommended equipment
Comfortable shoes, cap, sun protection, water bottle, camera
Itinerary variation
The itinerary may undergo variations based on extraordinary events, strikes, bad weather, or other unpredictable and non-voluntary situations
Included in the price
Luxury air conditioned vehicle, Mercedes or similar.
Small group tour, max 8 people
Baby Seat (if needed)
Free Snack with typical sicilian products, water and red wine from Mt. Etna
Multilingual speaking driver for the day at disposal
Not included in the price
Authorized tourist guide inside the historical monuments (available on payment and on request)
Full Lunch
Entrance ticket to the monuments
Everything not specified in the include list
Suitable for
Everyone Caltagirone
Caltagirone is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Catania, on the island (and region) of Sicily. The city is a production center of pottery, particularly maiolica and terra-cotta wares. Nowadays the production is more and more oriented to artistic production of ceramics and terra-cotta sculptures. Other activities are mainly related to agriculture (production of grapes, olives, peaches).
The city’s name derives from the Arabic “qal’at-al-jarar” (“Castle of [pottery] jars”) – a name that attests to the antiquity of the pottery works which are still thriving. It has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as shown by the presence of two necropolises dating from the second millennium BCE and by numerous other archaeological finds. It was later inhabited by the Sicels pre-Roman population.
Villa Romana del Casale is located in Piazza Armerina (Enna) and dates back to late Roman antiquity (period of transition between the ancient times and the Middle Ages): although it is defined as Villa mostly the characteristics of the imperial palace, since it consists of 4 pavilions. In addition to its architectural magnificence, the villa is famous for its beautiful mosaics, which represent scenes of everyday life and the function of the rooms in which they are located.