The best traffic-free bike rides in Zona Speciale di Conservazione 'Conca del Salto' - ITA080011

The hiking trail runs entirely through a riverbed, making it heavier than normal. The caves are shielded within a tourist attraction and are not accessible. On Tuesdays in late April, it is also not open and few people are seen, so probably still closed in the early season. All in all, not an attractive part to walk either. A little bit for the experience is nice, but then it's quickly over, because you only have to look down where you can place your feet.

Recreational bar!!

The Church of Carmine in Scicli is an elegant example of Sicilian Baroque architecture, located in the heart of the city's historic center. Its sober and harmonious façade is characterized by a richly decorated portal and a slender bell tower. The interior, with a single nave, houses valuable stuccoes, frescoes and a magnificent high altar.

Harnessing the power of moving water to drive a mill wheel is an ancient invention, documented as early as pre-Christian times. Thanks to such a design, a watercourse – natural or artificial – could easily replace human or animal muscle power, for example, to grind grain into corn. There are essentially two drive variants for watermills: Either the water simply hits the blades of the water wheel from below to set it in motion; or the water is guided above the wheel and falls onto the blades. This design utilizes natural gravity to achieve greater efficiency.

It is one of the oldest churches in the current city of Scicli, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693 under concession from the Confrati of the church of San Michele Arcangelo to the Augustinian nuns. The reconstruction works, begun in the second half of the eighteenth century by the Syracusan architect Michelangelo Alessi, concluded in 1859 under the guidance of the architect Giuseppe Far» Palermo. The main façade has three orders, with a slightly convex surface enlivened by free columns with Corinthian capitals which, in the first order, flank the main portal surmounted by a heraldic shield; in the second order, a window enriched with floral motifs and closed by a wrought iron window. The third order denotes a neoclassical architecture characterized by a triangular tympanum that concludes the facade and by flat pilaster strips with Corinthian capitals that replace the columns and frame the belfry decorated with festoons. Of extreme interest is the solution given to the side portal of via F. Mormina Penna as the architect having to deal with a small space resorts to illusionistic effects. The interior is an extraordinary jewel of art and there is no shortage of stuccos, frescoes, paintings, sculptures, decorations reproducing musical instruments in relief, called "musical choirs". The colors and stuccos of the whole are not those originating from the eighteenth century but the work of the sculptor Giuseppe Sesta Poliziano in 1851. On the curved surface there are four altars on which are placed paintings depicting St. Augustine, St. Michael the Archangel, the Adoration of the Magi to Baby Jesus and an oval depicting the Madonna delle Grazie and finally a wooden crucifix dating back to the fourteenth century. On the vault there are paintings from the second half of the century XIX depicting episodes from the life of St. Augustine by Gaetano Of Stefano. In the sacristy, precious remains of Christian Saints and Martyrs are preserved in an artistic reliquary.

Entrance fee 5€. There is also an audio guide in different languages

left Rosolini Center right Noto/Syracuse

Equipped area