Are you thinking about a visit to Scicli, Sicily–or heck, you just want to learn how to pronounce the name correctly? (It’s SHEEK-lee, by the way.)
Let our article help you.
Scicli is a charming small town in the Val di Noto in southeastern Sicily, Italy. It’s an ideal day trip if you want a real slice of Sicilian life with some tourism mixed in.
We wrote an earlier article about Scicli’s A Rutta Ri Ron Carmelu (The Cave Home of Don Carmelo), and we’ll briefly recap A Rutta in this article, too. Yet there’s even more to see and do in Scicli.
Before we dive in further, here are a few fun facts about Scicli:
–The population of Scicli is about 27,000 people.
–Scicli is a 40- to 45-minute drive from the popular destination of Noto, Sicily.
–The town was hit badly by a 1693 earthquake, which also destroyed much of the Val di Noto (Noto Valley). The upside, however, is that the whole area rebuilt itself over the following century in the Sicilian Baroque style that makes Val di Noto so famous today.
–It’s one of eight towns in the Val di Noto that’s been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
–Amazingly, the town dates back to the year 300 BCE.
I visited Scicli in early 2026 as part of travels around southeastern Sicily and found it be one of my favorite towns during the trip. It has the same beautiful Baroque architecture as Noto, which is more famous, but the town had a different feel.
Its rockiness reminded me of the state of West Virginia in the U.S.
Plus, people seemed….friendlier. I was happy that the people I met in Scicli were a chatty crowd, even with my just-emerging Italian language skills.
Note that I was traveling solo but sometimes use “we” in my writing just to avoid overusing the pronoun “I”.
Let’s go to Scicli!
7 Things to Enjoy in Scicli, Sicily, Italy
A Rutta Ri Ron Carmelu
We covered A Rutta Ri Ron Carmelu in a previous article but to recap this unique attraction: Signore (Mr.) Carmelo gives you a tour of the cave home where his grandparents raised his father and five other siblings. The cave home is set up with all of the “comforts” that came with their crowded cave life.
After the cave tour, Mr. Carmelo proceeds to show you his many, many creations, from soaps to ceramics to other souvenirs you may want to buy. During our visit, he demonstrates his spinning-top skills with a child-like enthusiasm.
All of this is done in Italian as Mr. Carmelo doesn’t speak English. Yet somehow, you still understand most of what he shares.
I’d rank A Rutta Ri Ron Carmelu toward the top of your list for a Scicli visit. Just double check hours in advance to make sure Mr. Carmelo will be available, and be ready for some uphill walking toward the Chiafura cave district. If you have a car, you should be able to drive most of the way there.
See Places from the Famous Italian Show “Inspector Montalbano”
As an American newly learning Italian language and culture, I’m a recent fan of “Il Commissario Montalbano”/”Inspector Montalbano”, a detective show set in Sicily that became a hit all around Italy.
I subscribe to MHZ TV through Amazon Prime to watch the series and the subsequent show, “Il Giovane Montalbano”/”Young Montalbano.”
“Inspector Montalbano” reached as many as 11.3 million viewers for an episode in 2017 and 1 billion viewers cumulatively during all of its 37 episodes, which spanned from 1999 to 2021. Each show is like a film, lasting almost two hours. The same is true of “Il Giovane Montalbano.”
Actor Luca Zingaretti plays the grumpy, seafood- and sea-loving inspector in the main show, and Michele Riondino plays the younger version of the inspector.
The show is based on a series of books by the late Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri that he began to publish at age 70. The books were in Italian but sprinkled with the Sicilian dialect, and the same is true of the show.
With my interest in Italian language and Sicilian scenery (because clearly I have a past life connection to Sicily, LOL), the two Montalbano shows have become fun weekend watching.
The shows are set in a fictional Sicilian town called Vigata, located in a fictional province called Montelusa.
Here’s the Scicli connection: Scenes from “Inspector Montalbano” were filmed around southeastern Sicily, and the fictional police station is Scicli’s actual town hall. It’s seen a lot in the show.
I saw the exterior of the town hall when I visited Scicli and snapped a few pics. Sadly, I hadn’t yet watched the show so I didn’t have the foresight to go inside and see the fictional set-up the town hall still has in honor of Montalbano. Next time!
Even if you don’t know the show, it’s worth a look if you want to appreciate something from Italian/Sicilian pop culture.
If you are indeed a Montalbano fan, there are day tours you can take to see various sites from the filming of the show.
Enjoy Baroque Architecture and Churches
As stated earlier, Scicli is one of eight towns in the Val di Noto famous for its beautiful Baroque architecture.
Some of the Baroque highlights in Scicli include:
—Church of San Bartolomeo (not far from La Rutta Ri Ron Carmelu), a quiet wonder during our short visit
–Palazzo Beneventano
–Church of San Matteo
–Church of Santa Maria La Nova
You’ll find other examples, including some sites that occasionally appear on the Montalbano shows.
The more well-known Baroque examples often have signs beside them in Italian and English to help you better understand their history and significance.
Eat and Shop, Shop and Eat
If you’re anywhere in Italy, you gotta eat, right?
If you’re in Sicily, famous for So.Much.Good.Food., this rule applies double.
Why not enjoy some of that famous food in Scicli?
We only grabbed breakfast while there, so we don’t have any Italy Dreams-approved restaurants to recommend.
However, folks online praise places like Baqqala, My Name Is Tannino and Prosit Sicilian Bistrot. If you’re looking for dessert, remember that gelato is calorie-free while you’re in Italy. 🙂
As for shopping, we made our way to several souvenir shops in Scicli, some of the higher-end variety with beautiful handmade items and others a little more generic. We had already purchased a small black vase at A Rutta Ri Ron Carmelu, so we didn’t make another purchase beyond some olive oil.
Yet we appreciated that shop workers were friendlier…not that they were unfriendly in other towns we visited. Perhaps in Scicli, they appreciated the business as it was still off-season.
Absorb Daily Life in Scicli
There was something about Scicli that made it easier to get a sense of daily life there.
There was the encounter we had with a local female police officer who got annoyed that we initially parked in the lot for the train station/police office (oops!).
There was the young couple arguing near the Church of San Bartolomeo, seemingly unaware of others listening.
There was the shopkeeper who swapped stories with me about his dog, after I pointed out (in Italian!) that a picture he had in the shop looked like my own dog.
There was the aforementioned encounter with Mr. Carmelo, who’s a real character.
There was the time spent in a small but maze-like supermarket where we compared prices for pasta, bread, produce and other items against our U.S. prices.
Could you have these types of encounters in another southeastern Sicilian town? Sure. Yet there was something in Scicli that made them more accessible, friendly, and easier to observe.
You can also find that kind of life interaction in Catania, for example, but there’s so much happening at once there, I found it harder to take in. That’s why Scicli was perhaps more appealing.
Enjoy Nearby Beaches
As we visited Scicli in the winter, we never made it to nearby beaches. Yet even with the hill-like feel of Scicli, you’re not too far from a dip in the sea on beaches like:
–Spiaggia di Sampieri
–Spiaggia di Mannara
–Spiaggia Pantano Arizza
Double check online or with locals about these or other beaches before you visit.
If you’re driving back towards Noto or Marzamemi, you have many other coastal options, including San Lorenzo or the beaches at Vendicari Nature Reserve.
And in case you were wondering: There are beach scenes from “Inspector Montalbano” filmed in Punta Secca, east of the beach destinations mentioned here.
Visit Other Nearby Baroque Towns
Whether you’re staying in Scicli during your time in southeastern Sicily or visiting for a day trip, you can absolutely take the time to take day trips to other nearby towns. This will be easier to do if you rent a car or hire a driver.
As mentioned before, there are eight towns in the Val di Noto that are considered UNESCO World Heritage sites for their Baroque architecture. They include:
–Caltagirone
–Militello Val di Catania
–Catania
–Modica
–Noto
–Palazzolo
–Ragusa
They’re all relatively close to each other (Catania’s a bigger city, of course). Between our experience and that of others, we favor Modica, Noto, and Ragusa.
Although it’s not a Baroque area, we enjoyed nearby Marzamemi as well.
Drive safe–here are our lessons from driving around Sicily–and enjoy your visit to Scicli and the surrounding area.
Buon viaggio!
Italy Dreams 