Featured holiday Painting holiday in Sicily Sicily

4 nights/5 days
This 4-night fly-drive painting holiday combines a stay in a boutique hotel on a wine estate set amongst vineyards and olive groves with personal art tuition by a local artist. Choose from oil, pencil, charcoal or watercolour techniques. You also have free time to explore the local area.
Included in your Expressions holiday
  • Scheduled return flights with British Airways from London to Palermo and back from Palermo to London
  • Hire of a Group B car for the duration of the holiday
  • Four nights’ bed and breakfast in a deluxe room with balcony and sea view at Baglio Oneto, Marsala
  • Two 2-hour painting lessons with all the necessary material provided
  • Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints

Painting holiday on a wine estate near Marsala in Sicily

Highlights

Marsala • Painting lessons • Erice • Segasta • Selinunte

Special offers for this holiday>

It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.
Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023

Holiday price guide Prices from £1,180 per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room.

From about

£1,180

Holiday Code FHIT27

Painting holiday on a wine estate near Marsala in Sicily

Special offers for this holiday>

It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.
Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023

Holiday price guide Prices from £1,180 per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room.

From about

£1,180

Holiday Code FHIT27

Our prices include ● Scheduled return flights with British Airways from London to Palermo and back from Palermo to London
● Hire of a Group B car for the duration of the holiday
● 4 nights’ bed and breakfast in a deluxe room with balcony and sea view at Baglio Oneto, Marsala
● Two 2-hour painting lessons with all the necessary material provided
● Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints

It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.
Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023

Holiday price guide Prices from £1,180 per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room.

From about

£1,180

Holiday Code FHIT27

Our prices include • Scheduled return flights with British Airways from London to Palermo and back from Palermo to London
• Hire of a Group B car for the duration of the holiday
• 4 nights’ bed and breakfast in a deluxe room with balcony and sea view at Baglio Oneto, Marsala
• Two 2-hour painting lessons with all the necessary material provided
• Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints

The journey and how you get there Marsala is about one hour's drive south-west from Palermo. Fly to Palermo and then collect your hire-car which you keep for the duration of the holiday.

Painting holiday on a wine estate near Marsala in Sicily

Hotels included in this tour

Special offers

Call to make your booking and save an extra £50 per adult Call us instead of emailing us when you are thinking of booking a holiday and save an extra £50 per adult (in addition to any special offers that might be available). We want to talk to you to discuss your requirements and a phone call is usually the best way for you to define what you want enabling us to respond more accurately. We want to talk to you and you save an extra £50 per adult.

It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.
Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023

Holiday price guide Prices from £1,180 per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room.

From about

£1,180

Holiday Code FHIT27

Our prices include • Scheduled return flights with British Airways from London to Palermo and back from Palermo to London
• Hire of a Group B car for the duration of the holiday
• 4 nights’ bed and breakfast in a deluxe room with balcony and sea view at Baglio Oneto, Marsala
• Two 2-hour painting lessons with all the necessary material provided
• Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints

The journey and how you get there Marsala is about one hour's drive south-west from Palermo. Fly to Palermo and then collect your hire-car which you keep for the duration of the holiday.

Painting holiday on a wine estate near Marsala in Sicily

Highlights of Sicily

An ascent of Mount Etna, partly by car and then further on foot (guides available) through the luxuriant vegetation which includes oranges and lemons, bougainvillaea and poinsettias and then higher up the groves of walnuts, cherries, almonds, pistachios and vines. Palermo is known for its street markets, especially Vucciria and Ballaro, where traders and hawkers, pickpockets and shoppers converge amongst narrow streets and stalls of wares. See the traditional costumes and dialect of Piana degli Albanesi, where Albanians settled in the 15th Century. Revel in the splendid site of Taormina above the sea with views to Etna. Local crafts include cork, ceramics, honey, embroidery, raffia. Enjoy the calm and remoteness of the Aeolian Islands with their clear waters, beautiful scenery and peaceful way of life. Enjoy the gardens of the Villa Giulia in Palermo and the Public Gardens in Taormina.

Cultural highlights of Sicily

Palermo contains some of the greatest Arab-Norman buildings in existence - San Giovanni degli Eremiti, the Palazzo Reale with its striking Cappella Palatina and La Martorana. Monreale outside Palermo is the greatest work of Norman architecture in Sicily and contains beautiful 12th and 13th Century mosaics and cloisters. The Doric temples of the 5th Century BC in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. Cefalu has the `Portrait of a Man` by Antonello da Messina, dating from 1465 in its Museo Mandralisca.

Festivals in Sicily

Many Sicilian local festivals are linked to Saints’ Days. A few of the most well-known festivals generally include Carnival celebrations in Taormina and Acireale. Easter is celebrated especially in Trapani, Marsala and Piana degli Albanesi. Messina celebrates Ferragosto on the 15th August with a firework display over the Straits. The Sagra del Mandorlo in Fiore takes place in Agrigento in the first and second weeks of February to celebrate the almond blossom. Taormina Arte is a summer festival of music, cinema, ballet and theatre, held in the Greek theatre. The Palio dei Normanni takes place in Piazza Armeria in August.

Gastronomy in Sicily

The gastronomy of Sicily, like much of the culture of the island, has been heavily influenced by its history. Cuscus is a Sicilian version of couscous, and marzipan features heavily in sweets. Local produce includes citrus fruits, almonds, capers, olives, peppers and fish. Local specialities include Maccheroni con le sarde (pasta with sardines, fennel, raisins, pine nuts and saffron), Pesce spada (grilled sword fish), 'alla Siciliana' with capers, red peppers and herbs. Cassata is a popular dessert made with ricotta, candied fruit and pistachios and Cannoli are almond biscuits stuffed with ricotta. Sicily produces a variety of red and white wines including Corvo di Salaparuta and Etna, Marsala and Malvasia.

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