Sicily

Continuing our late August/early September trip, our next stop was Sicily where we stayed for 5 days at a seaside resort hotel. 

Our flight from Naples to Catania was on EasyJet and was about an hour. We arrived fairly late in Catania, picked up our car rental and drove about 45 minutes south to our hotel in Giardini Naxos. We stayed at the Delta which turned out to be a great location for our activities in the area. We had a lovely ocean view room with two spacious decks. The room was a bit eclectic with older style furnishings, yet it was quite a large space. The dated room style felt a bit strange given all the common areas of the hotel were more modern and appeared to have been relatively recently updated. The beach area was great, two distinct areas with lots of loungers which had built on sunshields that you could maneuver over your head to provide protection from the hot sun in addition to standard sun umbrellas. The beach itself was comprised of rocky pebbles which made water shoes a necessity because it was a bit difficult getting in and out of the water otherwise. The Ionian Sea was crystal clear and warm, easy for swimming and we really enjoyed our beach time here. The hotel had a couple restaurant options, and we enjoyed a great buffet breakfast there, but just outside the hotel are a lot of great restaurant options available. We chose to eat at two different offside restaurants with the first literally across the street. We enjoyed fabulous pasta dishes and a pizza that came with an axe shaped pizza cutter; maybe a gimmick but it made us order a pizza. The other was an outdoor pizza restaurant we just happened to stumble across as we were actually looking for some quick takeaway. 

With a car we were able to drive around and explore; though given our short stay there we only had time to explore a small portion of the eastern part of the island. Sicily is the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean with 4.7 million people and it is situated just off the "toe" of the Italian "boot". Needless to say there is a lot more exploring to be done; guess a return trip is in order. 

The roads for the most part were easy to navigate though when driving through some of the smaller towns we did find your typical narrow European streets where you’re not sure whether two cars actually can fit. Z did most of the driving but I did manage to drive a few times to give him a needed break. Italian wine is a must try so we booked a couple wine tastings. The first was to a family run winery called Gambino perched on the side of Mount Etna. The volcanic soil providing great minerals and the unique climate help the grapes flourish and produce fantastic wines. The setting provides for picturesque views of the island. On our tour we learned a bit about the history of the winery, their organic farming practices, that the grapes are harvested all by hand, and their conservation and sustainability practices. For our tasting, we enjoyed a private table and were given 5 different wines to taste. The tasting also included lunch and we started by being given a hard boiled egg and told that eating a hard boiled egg before drinking helps the body absorb the alcohol more slowly as the protein lines the stomach and reduces the likelihood of feeling intoxicated and can lessen the severity of a hangover. I can’t say for certain whether it worked, but neither of us seemed to have any ill effects after our tasting, very educational indeed. Along with the wine tasting, we also enjoyed a lovely three course meal. Our sommelier was very informative and provided us with a brief outline of each of the wines we tasted. Three were from their Etna collection while the other two were from their Sicilia farm. All in all this was a really great experience, good value for money, in a very scenic setting. 

While our wine tasting at Gambino brought us near Mount Etna, we really wanted to drive up the mountain and hike around. We had limited time and realized we didn’t pack warm enough clothes for heading up to the top of the volcano so instead we spend some time walking around the lower level and walked around a couple of the dormant volcanic craters. Afterwards, we drove ourselves to our second wine tasting which was a private lunch and tasting operated out of the host's home. This was probably the top experience on this trip. We arrived and were warmly greeted by our host, Angela. The setting is absolutely stunning situated outside on the deck overlooking the valley below. We enjoyed an amazing home cooked meal that was cooked using in season fresh ingredients. Our meal was with paired with wines from the vineyard neighbouring the property. We started the meal with fresh cheeses and bread served with a tomato jam. We then dined on two different types of bruschetta, one traditional tomato based, but the other was zucchini and it was delicious! We were then served a fresh fruit salad comprised of pear, plums, and peaches with ricotta cheese and all dressed in a light olive oil. It seemed light a strange combination for a salad, but it worked well and tasted amazing. Our next course was a fresh made pesto pasta - nothing compares to fresh made, and finally for dessert we were served custard like dessert that Z said was very similar to a Lebanese dessert. 

One evening we drove up the very windy road to Taormina. This hilltop town was recently made a bit famous by the show White Lotus when they filmed one of their seasons on Sicily. The quaint town is literally built into the mountain and is renowned for its stunning landscape. A lot of the restaurants have their outdoor seating situated on steps that lead up to other restaurants or bars. It’s guess it’s the best way to maximize space when you live on the mountainside. The old town is situated about 250 metres above sea level providing an impressive view of the coast. The town is filled with old churches, restaurants, bars, and shops.  

Our time on Sicily was amazing and left us with a good taste of what it has to offer. Our time was short but immensely enjoyable, enough so that we know we want to go back and explore some different parts of the island, but also perhaps return to Catania again. From here, we flew back to Naples and made our way to Pompeii for a couple days.