Sicily in 2027

I’ve been traveling to Italy almost yearly since my first trip when I was seventeen and my excitement never diminishes. Each vista, alleyway or farm is another opportunity to enter into a conversation with people eager to share their culture. Of course, I’m a food focused person leading a food focused life so it’s no surprise that the tours I lead for Via Rosa, my longtime friend, Elizabeth Minchilli’s tour company are built around the culture of cuisine with enough architecture and history to give us context.

In March 2027, I’ll be leading The Culture of Food in Sicily Tour a journey focused on the food culture of Western Sicily—a part of the island where history isn’t just something you read about, it’s something you taste. Sicilian cuisine is a vivid layering of Mediterranean ingredients, shaped by Arab, Norman, Spanish, and Italian influences. Sweet meets savory and every dish carries the imprint of the island’s past.

We’ll be based in Palermo, a city that rewards curiosity at every turn. One minute you’re standing in front of a baroque façade, the next you’re elbow-to-elbow at a market stall, eating something fried, fragrant, and utterly irresistible. It’s deeply alive and beautiful.

From there, we’ll move between city and countryside—visiting farms, bakeries, and cheese makers, meeting the people who carry these traditions forward. There will be hands-on cooking, leisurely meals, conversations that stretch and meander, and moments that always seem to happen on these trips—the ones you couldn’t plan, but remember forever.

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Yes, we’ll chase the perfect cannolo. But what I’m most excited about is everything around it: the ricotta still warm from the morning’s production, the baker who fills the shell to order, the quiet pride behind something that looks simple but isn’t.

There will be time to wander on your own—to get lost in Palermo’s streets, to sit with a coffee, dine with new friends. These trips aren’t about checking boxes. They’re about immersion, discovery, and pleasure.

If Sicily has been calling to you—even quietly—this might be the moment to answer.
Here are more details and information on how to sign up.