Villa Spiga - Country estate with private pool, luxuriant garden placed in Noto

“All of Sicily is a dimension of the imagination,” wrote the Sicilian author Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989) of his island, summing up its very nature. Has any other island in Europe captured our imagination over so many hundreds of years as Sicily? Its sun-drenched landscapes and rich cultural heritage have always attracted travellers from the North, hungry for learning. As early as the 18th and 19th centuries, Sicily was an essential stop on the “Grand Tour”, the long educational trip around Europe that young aristocrats – mainly from England and France – took before starting out in life. And Germany’s great writer Goethe (1749-1832) embarked on a study trip around Italy over several years, which also took him all the way to Sicily. Not only thanks to its mild Mediterranean climate, Sicily is still a very popular destination today. The island’s main attraction is its wealth of archaeological and culturally significant sites – many of which are on the UNESCO world heritage list.