RELAIS SAN GIULIANO
Experiences on Etna and in eastern Sicily
All the beauty of Etna and eastern Sicily, waiting to be discovered on tour
Food and wine experiences, adventurous tours, art itineraries around the region.
Our Etna excursions and tours can change how you see things. They open your heart and your eyes to a beauty that’s simply impossible to resist.
Staying at Relais San Giuliano means experiencing the local area too, and the Etna region is full of contrasts: woods, centuries-old vineyards, some of the finest wines in the world.
Etna Wineries
Relais San Giuliano sits in a lovely spot for wine lovers, or for anyone curious about the millennia-old winemaking history that made this terroir famous. Tour the area’s prestigious wineries and see for yourself.
Today, the Etna wine region is one of the most dynamic in Italian viticulture, with hundreds of producers and countless wineries across its slopes.
The Etna DOC area is home to more than 200 wine producers and about 140 active wineries, spread across the volcano’s various sides. The wines are just as varied: within the DOC, roughly 6 to 7 categories come from the volcano’s different slopes, shaped by an exceptional range of microclimates and volcanic soils. Another lovely feature: over 133 registered “contrade” (districts), true micro wine zones that show off the area’s remarkable biodiversity, shaped by lava soils of different ages, varying altitudes and specific microclimates. Wineries dot the towns around the volcano, including Castiglione di Sicilia, Randazzo, Linguaglossa, Milo and Zafferana Etnea.
Bold, expressive wines pair with tastings of local produce, both born from an uncompromising land that human patience has learned, slowly, to work with. The winery’s specialist staff walk you through the vineyards, revealing farming methods both traditional and modern, in a multi-sensory journey where every step tells part of the story behind Etna DOC.
Etna wine roads
Relais San Giuliano is the perfect starting point for a wine-lover getaway on the Strada del Vino dell’Etna.
The route starts right here, in Viagrande, where historic wineries and lava-soil vineyards put wine tasting just steps from the hotel.
The Strada del Vino connects towns with a strong winemaking tradition through food and wine tastings, guided winery and farm visits, and tours of vineyards, wine shops and wine museums, in towns like Riposto, Viagrande, Linguaglossa, Bronte and Castiglione di Sicilia.
Our concierge team will happily give you everything you need for your Strada del Vino tour, or to keep your wine tasting going back at the hotel.
Yoga on Etna
The stillness of Etna Park makes it an ideal wellness retreat.
This volcanic land heals too, with a vital energy that can reconnect you to a bigger sense of balance. On request we organise yoga and meditation sessions in the woods of Etna Park.
In this striking, one-of-a-kind setting, with its surreal silence, nature teaches you to let go of the unnecessary and take better care of mind and body.
This experience also works well for corporate groups looking to mix meetings and incentive events with leisure or team building.
Trekking on Etna
Etna’s wild, striking landscape spreads across 59,000 hectares of Nature Park, perfect terrain for trekking, adventure and scenery lovers alike.
Etna’s varying altitudes host a range of flora and fauna so unique it’s earned a place among UNESCO’s environmental World Heritage treasures.
The mountain changes with the seasons and with volcanic activity: white during winter snow, fiery red during eruptions, dark grey near the oldest lava fields, and always shifting in the colours of its rich native vegetation and cultivated vineyards.
Trekking here means taking in incredible biodiversity and testing yourself against a landscape that’s rugged in places, thrilling throughout.
As a guest you can request a licensed guide to lead your Etna excursions safely, so you can simply enjoy the view.
Off-road
Add some excitement to your Sicilian getaway with a thrilling off-road tour of Etna, uncovering the secrets of Europe’s largest active volcano with an expert guide by your side.
In a 4×4 jeep, reach the lateral craters at 2000 metres, then the summit craters above 3000 metres, and the oldest lava caves, even more striking up close: stalactites, underground passages carved by molten lava.
At this altitude, on Etna’s northern side, you can visit the Pizzi Deneri Volcanological Observatory, a one-of-a-kind lab for monitoring the volcano’s seismic and eruptive activity.
From up here, the views of the Ionian coast are unmatched, especially at dawn or sunset, in an almost lunar landscape where only a few plants, like astragalus or the Etna violet, manage to survive.
Our off-road Etna excursions can be tailored down to the last detail: for families with kids looking for shared adventure, for couples building memories in Sicily, or for corporate groups doing team building.
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Discover the pleasure of a Sicilian relais, with SPA, restaurant and pool