ARTS & CRAFTS
Traditions of Sicily
FOOD & WINE
To the roots
5-12 June 2021
Be one of the six Digging Deep Voyagers who will have the unique opportunity to explore Sicily through A Sicilian Journey, at a very special reduced price for a one and only experience.
Connect with locals discovering Sicilian traditions, with the craftsmen in their workshops, making your own piece of ceramic, attending the Teatro dei Pupi show and visiting the workshop where the marionettes are crafted.
Explore the nature and feel overwhelmed by the dramatic landscape of the Etna volcano or by the luxuriant Cava Carosello natural reserve where you can have a swim in one of the deep freshwater plunge pools.
Imagine the scent of wild herbs and inebriating orange blossom, while indulging in a delicious meal served at a farmer’s table or prepared by you at a special hands-on cooking class. Make Ricotta cheese in the traditional way with a local shepherd and rejoice in a tasting of splendid wines on the slopes of Etna.
Receive your Emotional Sicily Welcome Pack and a personalised digital photobook which we will carefully prepare for you.
About
Emotional Sicily
Emotional Sicily offers unique travel experiences where people connect genuinely on the basis of a respectful relationship.
The experiences we create are an opportunity to share a moment of pleasure, learning and amusement with locals.
All the people involved in this project feel strongly bonded to their land and their culture. Collaborators are selected according to an explicit commitment with their territory, culture, nature and people. Sustainability, respect for the environment and engagement with these values are the founding elements of Emotional Sicily.
We aim to contribute to a high-quality tourism, that is respectful and closer to local communities.
We are going the extra mile to offer you the authentic Sicily, far from the stereotypes that have abounded in relation to the island, turning our attention to people and projects that are committed with positive values, and acting in coherence. A lasting social impact can be generated, benefiting all concerned.
About me
I was a small child when my grandfather Nonno Peppe, proudly showed me the lands he owned. From the humble house set in the country, on the top of a hill, at a glance it was possible to see the acres of land he had been buying or, better said, ‘conquering’ along the years. He was obsessed with the idea of extending his lands. But those lands had a very low economic value. They were steep, and rocky, generally impossible to cultivate, and dry, damned dry. He felt pride when he crossed them by foot (the only possible way to access them) with his animals, the sheep. The same sheep that produced the milk he used to make the cheese we call Tuma. I am quite sure, although I never asked him, that the feeling he had towards his land was a sense of belonging to it instead of the land belonging to him. He felt that the land was an extension of himself, the place where his origins resided. The more land he owned, the deeper were his roots.
The same strong sense of belonging is what I feel towards Sicily. From my family I have inherited this deep connection with the island, with my origins and roots. Being born and raised abroad, Sicilian identity has coexisted within me, together with a more diverse and global view that allows me to look at my homeland from inside and from outside, at the same time. So, I see its lights and its shadows; the contradictions and the ambiguities but also the extraordinary beauty of its territory and, most of all, the people that work honestly and feel responsible for the future of their land.
These are the people you'll meet, the land you'll discover, the experience you'll live on a
Journey with Emotional Sicily
Manila Di Maira
Founder of Emotional Sicily
