The tour guides listed here are all licensed, mean­ing they have earned uni­ver­si­ty de­grees in rel­e­vant fields, are flu­ent in En­glish, and have pas­sed a rigid qual­ify­ing exam to be­come legal guides. Don't con­fuse these pro­fes­sionals with "guides" who work for very low rates or even for free. Only licensed guides are per­mit­ted by law to lec­ture you or your group at pub­lic his­tori­cal or arche­ologi­cal sites (the un­autho­rized "guides" risk be­ing fined by po­lice). See our de­tailed desktop page for more in­forma­tion. Other per­son­al­ized ser­vices, such as itinerary plan­ning, are avail­able from Sicily Concierge.

Palermo, Monreale, Cefalù, Segesta, Erice

Francesca Lombardo (lofran07@libero.it), a native of Palermo, has worked in tourism for over twenty years, and has been a licenced guide for most of that time. At univer­sity she majored in foreign languages and literature, with a con­centra­tion in art history. As a profes­sional educator, Francesca brings a special talent to her profes­sion as a guide. She speaks German and French as well as English. Francesca is the kind of guide familiar with all kinds of fascinating details, and a "go to" expert for highly specialized tours like "winemaking and the English families of Marsala." A certified sommelier, she wrote a book on Sicilian wine and cuisine. For more information, visit her site.

Jackie Alio (aliojacqueline@yahoo.com) has worked in this field for over a decade. A lead­ing historian, she has authored several books on Sicilian history and written articles for this site. Jackie has worked with, among other media, The Discovery Channel, and lectured university classes. In addition to her ex­ceptional in­sights into the histories of the Fatimids and Normans in Sicily, her knowledge of Palermo's Jewish history re­flects the kind of arcane scholarly (original) research that fosters an ex­ceptional ex­pertise. Jackie specializes in per­sonalized tours as well as tours for larger groups. Visit her Palermo tour site for more information.

Siracusa, Ragusa, Noto

Liliana Rainieri (liliana.rainieri@gmail.com), in addition to being a guide, was trained as a school teacher, some­thing that brings a very special skill to her work. A tour with Liliana is truly a learn­ing ex­perience. The depth and breadth of Liliana's knowledge is re­markable, and as she explains the history of ancient Syracuse you sense that Plato and Archimedes were people she actually knew. It's almost as if they had come back to life and were speaking to you themselves.

Tour Guides in Malta (Malta on Best of Sicily)

Joan Sheridan (joansheridan@touringmalta.com) has many years of ex­perience as a licenced guide on the Maltese is­lands which, like Sicily, boast a multi­cultural heritage neces­sitat­ing a guide's highly-refined know­ledge of peoples, cul­tures and faiths.

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