Sicily had never been on our radar until some friends convinced us to check out the rugged, lush Italian island. Info on tackling where to go and what to do was overwhelming, but we went ahead anyway, learned a lot, got some great photos, met some amazing people and will never forget our time there.

Considering a visit? Here’s a primer on what to see, photograph and do, and hopefully we can help you plan for your trip.

For starters, the full-length Sicily PhotowalksTV episode is now complete, at nearly 30 minutes. If you want to get a sense of what it’s like to visit, what you’ll see and photograph and what the people are like, I suggest you start here. It was filmed on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, as well as a DJI Mini 4 Pro. 

Logistics: Sicily is an island at the bottom of Italy, near Greece and Africa, and a good ten hour drive away from say, Rome.

Why? You’ll get a different sort of history than you would visiting Rome, Florence and Venice in a land that was conquered by the Greeks in the year 3 BC, and the end result is a land with a mixed culture defined by the Greeks, Arabs and Italians.

Highlights: Gorgeous seaside resorts and cafes (did you see HBO’s The White Lotus? It was filmed in Sicily.) Old ruins. Mega mountains. And the nicest people I’ve ever met. Watch them in the Sicily episode—everyone from our food tour guide Laura to cooking instructor Manuela, Roberto, the cannolo magician and Emilio, who I can humbly say made us the best gelato cone ever, at Squagghio in Cefalu.

By Jefferson Graham

What the guidebooks say: See everything, stay one night each everywhere, and keep moving.

What Jeff says: Pick your sports and spend enough time in each place to get to know it before moving on. Everyplace we went to I was sorry to leave.

Our tour:

Palermo: The bustling capital, and home to the biggest opera house in all of Italy, the Teatro Massimo, which was seen in the “Godfather III” film. It’s one impressive building, but the best part of Palermo were the bustling streets. They’re made for endless walking, past cafes, ceramic shops, gelaterias, historic buildings and then some. The walk by the Opera House goes on for blocks and blocks and will keep you busy for days. On the other side of the Opera House is the sprawling Balero market, which resembles an Arab market in that vendors scream and yell to get your attention, food of every variety is offered, from exotic fishes (swordfish and octopus) to spleen sandwiches (no joke) with a side dish of intestines. The waterfront is a few blocks away, and it’s lovely, as our the many out of the way restaurants we discovered.

Best: Frida Pizza, named after the famed artist, which we learned about from our new friend Luca, the master drone photographer, who I met on an early morning shoot where we communicated in a 15 minute chat via Google Translate. Love technology.

We took a fantastic street food tour in Palermo from Streaty. Highly recommended.

Photo highlights: the Opera House, the Food Tour and the street scene near the quattro canti, the historical center of the city.

The view from Rahusa, Sicily

Cefalu. My favorite part of the island, a seaside, hilly Italian beach town that you could imagine visiting years ago, before the guidebooks and Instagram discovered it. It was here where all those lush beach scenes in the White Lotus were filmed, not Taormina, where the guests of the fictional hotel were all staying. Remember: the best gelato ever in Cefalu, as demonstrated by Emilio in the photo above.

Photo highlights: The “picture window” views of the beach.

Siracusa: The center of the historical district of the island, which also counts Ragusa, Modica and Noto. History goes back to 3 BC here, with Greek ruins awaiting you as you cross the bridge into Ortigia Island, and a long walk that will bring you to the huge center square with one of those great old churches. Ortigia also is seaside and has tons of seaside cafes to enjoy the amazing views.

The other towns we saw on a one-day tour that was too quick to really be able to enjoy it. Ragusa was the most interesting (perhaps because they gave us a full hour to enjoy it?) with fewer tourists than the others. Modica is known for making chocolate locally, and hilly terrain with some amazing villas. Modica wasn’t my favorite at the time, but in my photos, it pops big time, and is most impressive. Noto is also home to classic villas, and was where the fancy digs shown in the White Lotus were used for filming.

In Noto, we visited on a second day, when Mrs. Photowalks took a cooking class at an old historic farm, while I photographed everything. Also highly recommended.

Photo highlights: the view from the top of the hills.

The view from Taormina, Sicily

Taormina: The “Beverly Hills” of Sicily is home to high end stores like Rolex and Cartier (and the armed guards standing by) as well as the fancy Four Seasons Resort, which doubled as the White Lotus in the show, and charges upwards of $4,000 a night to stay there.

The beach in Taormina takes a full 30-minute downward climb to reach, but once there, it’s a beauty, and home to the Islo Bella island, the only island you’ve ever seen that you can walk to, on the sand, which the tide is low.

Taormina is at the foot of majestic Mt. Etna, which was snow-capped when we were there, and like the other Sicilian cities, there is one main street to walk on, Corso Umberto, which will take you from one end of town to the other, along with hilly side streets and amazing pizza and cannoli everywhere you look.

Photo highlights: The green waters of the beach!

The largest opera house in Italy, by Jefferson Graham

If you go, know that direct flights from LA to Sicily aren’t available, but that once you’re in Europe, flights on low-cost airline Vueling will get you to either Palermo or Catania, the two largest cities.

We didn’t get to Catania, or the other major tourist spot, Arrigento, but that’s OK. We’ll catch them next time.

That said, visiting the Greek ruins in Taormina and old churches near Palermo was fun, but the best time was roaming the streets with no agenda, having no idea where we’d end up.

And of course ducking spleen sandwiches.