Sicily Food & Wine Tours
Sicily has the best street food in Italy, the country’s most exciting new wine region on the slopes of a live volcano, and a pastry tradition, cannoli, cassata, granita, that the Arabs started a thousand years ago. This is our Sicily hub. Below are the top-rated food and wine experiences on the island, then our detailed pages: Palermo, Catania, Etna, Taormina, Syracuse, the west coast and the Val di Noto.
Top-rated food and wine experiences in Sicily
Why Sicily for food? Because it is a different country at the table: Arab, Norman, Spanish and Greek all left recipes, the markets are the loudest in Europe, and Etna’s wines are as good as anything on the mainland.
Ways in: Palermo street food tours through Ballarò and the Capo; Palermo cooking classes; Catania for the fish market and the arancino; Etna wine tours from Taormina or Catania; Taormina cooking classes; Syracuse and Ortigia; Marsala wine and the Trapani salt pans; Modica chocolate and the Val di Noto.
What to eat: arancina in Palermo and arancino in Catania, panelle and crocchè, pane con la milza, sfincione, pasta alla Norma, pasta con le sarde, couscous di pesce in Trapani, caponata, cannoli, cassata, granita with brioche in summer, Modica chocolate, and Etna Rosso, Nero d’Avola, Cerasuolo di Vittoria and Marsala.
How the island works for a food trip
Sicily is big, and its food is regional. Palermo, on the north coast, is the street food capital: the Ballarò, Capo and Vucciria markets, and a canon of fried things eaten standing up. Catania, on the east under Etna, has La Pescheria, the fish market, the arancino, and pasta alla Norma, named after Bellini’s opera. Taormina, an hour north of Catania, is the resort and has the best cooking classes. Etna rises between them and its slopes make the island’s finest wines. Syracuse, an hour south of Catania, has the Ortigia market and the baroque Val di Noto behind it: Noto, Modica for chocolate, Ragusa for Cerasuolo di Vittoria. The west, Trapani and Marsala, is salt pans, couscous and fortified wine. Palermo to Catania is about two hours forty by bus; Catania to Taormina under an hour by train; Catania to Syracuse an hour and a quarter.
The street food
Palermo’s list is short and fixed: arancina, the rice ball, feminine and round in the west; panelle, chickpea fritters, and crocchè, potato croquettes, in a sesame roll; pane con la milza, the spleen sandwich; sfincione, the thick soft pizza; stigghiola, grilled lamb intestine. Catania’s version is the arancino, masculine and pointed like the volcano, plus horse-meat grills on Via Plebiscito. A guided evening is the way in; see Palermo street food tours and Catania food tours.
The wine
Etna DOC, Sicily’s first, from 1968, grows Nerello Mascalese and Carricante on volcanic soils between 400 and 1,000 metres, in 133 named contrade; harvest is in October. Nero d’Avola is the island’s everyday red; Cerasuolo di Vittoria, near Ragusa, is its only DOCG; Marsala, in the west, is the fortified wine an Englishman commercialised in 1773. See Etna wine tours and Marsala.
The sweets
Cannoli and cassata are Arab-era Palermo; granita descends from sherbet made with snow stored from Etna and is eaten with a brioche for breakfast from May to September; Modica works chocolate cold in the method the Spanish brought from Mexico, protected since 2018. See Modica chocolate.
When to come
April to June and September to October for weather and markets; October for the Etna harvest; summer for granita and the Ballarò night market; late September for the couscous festival at San Vito Lo Capo. Catania closes for Sant’Agata from 3 to 5 February. August is hot and much of the interior shuts.
Frequently asked questions
Palermo or Catania as a base?
Palermo for street food and the west; Catania for Etna, Taormina and Syracuse. A week does both with the bus between them.
Is Sicily good for wine?
Etna is one of the most talked-about regions in Europe right now, and the tours from Taormina and Catania are excellent. Add Marsala in the west and Cerasuolo in the south-east if you have time.
What is the one thing to eat in Sicily?
An arancina from a Palermo friggitoria, then a cannolo filled while you wait. After that, everything.
Read next: Etna wine explained
How we choose
We list only experiences with a strong rating over a meaningful number of reviews and free cancellation where available, and we favour small-group and family-run hosts. FindEatLocal earns a commission when you book through GetYourGuide or Viator links on this page; it doesn’t change the price you pay. More about how we choose.