Segesta, Erice, Piazza Armerina Tours

It's amazing how many requests our tour department gets for regular (scheduled) excursions from Palermo for Segesta and Erice, and of course Piazza Armerina. In other words, tours that visitors can simply join.

So they finally decided to include these Palermo Excursions among their services. These are the only regularly scheduled excursions of this kind offered by any tour operator in Sicily.

Joan and Jackie

No, the title of this post doesn't refer to the Collins sisters...

Our editors were looking at Best of Sicily's statistics a few days ago and we noticed that the last two weeks saw a certain page buried in our Magazine getting more visits than most of the other magazine articles. It's a profile of Joan Plantagenet published ten years ago. No need to describe it as the work speaks for itself.

It was written by historian Jacqueline Alio, an occasional contributor to the site.

An advance copy of Jackie's book, Women of Sicily, finally found its way to our office. We've seen hundreds of books on Sicilian history, published in Italian as well as English, French and German, but nothing quite like this one. Actually, I had already seen it, and posted about it in early April. It was our other five editors who had not yet seen it and were amazed at its content. Roberta Gangi said it was the best book she's ever seen about Sicilian women.

We highly recommend it.

Street Safety in Sicily

This is the "high" tourism season in Italy, and if you're planning a visit – even a one-day shore excursion in Palermo – this may be a good time to peruse our travel safety page.

There's no cause for paranoia. Sicily is safer than many places. But in the cities, watch your purse and smart phone!