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Sicilia 2026Seven days on the Ionian coast
Day6Day 6 · Sat 22 Aug

Aci Castello & Aci Trezza

The day the car stays parked — a black castle on the sea and the rocks Polyphemus threw

  • A swim before breakfast
  • Castello Normanno
  • Boat to the Faraglioni
  • The long afternoon in the water
The basalt sea stacks of the Faraglioni dei Ciclopi rising out of the water at Aci Trezza
The Faraglioni dei Ciclopi — the rocks Polyphemus threwEffems · CC0

After four days of long drives, this one happens entirely within walking distance of the front door. At the end of our street the Faraglioni dei Ciclopi rise straight out of the water — the boulders the blinded Cyclops hurled at Odysseus, and geologically the oldest volcanic rock in the whole Etna system. A Norman castle sits on a lava crag two kilometres south. Everything else is swimming, eating fish, and doing very little between them, which is the correct way to spend the hottest day of the week.

What it looks like

The route

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6 stops, on foot

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The day, hour by hour

  1. 07:30

    First swim, before anyone else is up

    End of Via Livorno

    The single best hour of a Sicilian August: the sea at 27 °C, the light still low and gold, the rocks not yet too hot to stand on, and the whole waterfront empty. Thirty seconds from the door in a towel.

    Sea1 h
    Map

    This is the swim to do every morning, not just today — six o’clock to half past nine is the good part of the day, and it costs nothing but getting up.

  2. 08:45

    Granita and brioche on the seafront

    Aci Trezza

    Breakfast the Sicilian way: almond or pistachio granita with a warm brioche col tuppo, dunked. Nobody here eats a croissant standing at the bar.

    Food45 min

    Ask for "granita e brioche" — mixing two flavours, mandorla and caffè, is normal and encouraged.

  3. 09:45

    Down the seafront to Aci Castello

    Lungomare dei Ciclopi

    An easy paved walk south with the sea on your left the whole way and the castle growing out of its rock ahead of you.

    Walk30 min
    Map
  4. 10:15

    Castello Normanno di Aci Castello

    Piazza Castello, Aci Castello

    Built in 1076 on a black basalt outcrop the sea has cut off on three sides. Small inside — a museum and a little botanical garden — but the terrace view back along the coast to the Faraglioni is the reason to climb up.

    Sight1 h 15€4
    Map

    There is almost no shade on the terrace, which is why this sits at a quarter past ten and not at noon.

  5. 12:00

    Out to the Faraglioni by boat

    Porto di Aci Trezza

    Small boats run half-hour trips out around the stacks and the Isola Lachea from the harbour. Eight basalt pillars and one small island, pushed up around half a million years ago — before the volcano behind them existed. Homer got there first with a better story.

    View1 h~€15
    Map

    Roughly €15 a head, and worth it on a calm morning. Some of the boats will drop you in the water out by the stacks, which is the best swim available here.

  6. 13:15

    Lunch on the harbour

    Porto di Aci Trezza

    Spaghetti ai ricci if anyone claims to have them, pasta con le sarde, or whatever came in that morning, grilled whole. The restaurants directly on the water charge for the view, and the view is genuinely good.

    Food1 h 45
    Map

    Sea urchin is protected and out of season in summer. If a menu offers ricci in August, order something else.

  7. 15:00

    The long afternoon in the water

    Straight in front of the flat

    The whole point of having the sea at the end of the street. You swim off flat lava platforms and ladders here rather than sand, in water that drops away deep and stays absurdly clear. The lidos rent loungers and umbrellas; the free rocks either side of them are just as good and considerably emptier.

    Sea3 h 45

    Water shoes make the volcanic rock much more pleasant — by three in the afternoon it is hot enough to hurt. Shade or an umbrella is not optional between one and five.

  8. 18:45

    Casa del Nespolo

    Via Arciprete De Maria, Aci Trezza

    A tiny museum in a fisherman’s cottage, dedicated to Verga’s *I Malavoglia* — set right here — and to Visconti’s film of it, which was shot in the village with the villagers playing themselves. Twenty minutes, and it recolours the place you have been swimming off all day.

    Sight30 min€3
    Map

    It shuts for a long lunch and reopens late afternoon, so this is the slot for it.

  9. 19:30

    Aperitivo at sunset

    Lungomare, Aci Trezza

    The sun sets behind Etna rather than into the sea here, which turns the stacks orange from the side and the sky above the volcano every colour at once. Order a spritz and wait for it — in the fourth week of August it goes down just before eight.

    Food1 h 15
  10. 21:00

    Dinner in the village

    Aci Trezza

    Everything within five minutes of the flat, and nothing to drive afterwards. Fish again — nobody will complain.

    Food

    Book, even here. Saturday in August, the square has more people than it has chairs.