Sicily... Is this the right holiday for you?

Greetings Travelers,

My last three blog entries have been about our recent trip to Sicily, are you thinking about your own Sicilian adventure?  Here are a few things to consider in making your decision:

 I've traveled extensively throughout Italy and I find the public transportation, especially the trains easy to use and they are generally on time.  Busses as well.  When I've rented a car in Italy, I found driving to be fairly easy.  And most people I have interacted with in Italy, speak some English, so asking questions was not too much of an issue.  You can almost always get a menu in English or there is a server in the restaurant that can help translate.  In general, Italy seems much more prepared for tourism and welcomes it.

Traveling is Sicily is unlike traveling in mainland Italy in many ways. I enjoyed Sicily very much, but felt that in comparison to the mainland, it is a few steps behind in being ready for heavier tourism.  I think you need to have the spirit of adventure to travel throughout Sicily the way we did.  Even though we had a GPS system, we often were misdirected down small roads that took us no where.  You won't find a lot of people who speak english, menu's in english or signage.  Life moves a bit slower in Sicily.

You won't hear a lot of English speaking tourists in Sicily, at least not until you get to Taormina.  Most of the other travelers we interacted with were from Italy or Germany.

Having a good amount of time to travel and not be in a hurry to get from one place to another is important.  Feeling comfortable driving down narrow roads, sometimes dirt roads and being able to drive a manual transmission are all key if you want to take a driving tour the way we did.

In terms of the people, all the Sicilian's we interacted with were wonderful & kind.  Even with the language barrier, they always tried to help.  (I'll never forget the kind ambulance driver that helped us find our way to the motorway after our GPS led us down a dead end in Taormina!)  Sicilians consider themselves Sicilian first & Italian second and are so very proud of their heritage.

A Sicilian Adventure is definitely worth it!  Such a cultural experience and as you can see from the pictures posted on previous blog entries, it is so very beautiful... and the food... well, you can diet when you get home!

Here are a few notes on itinerary, places to stay that we liked, 'must do' sites and at the end, some food porn.

I booked all our hotels on Booking.com, which worked out well for us, we had no issues.

Cefalu:  Lirma B&B, Via Prestisimone 20.  Highly recommend.  You can't go wrong staying here
Erice:    Hotel Elimo.  I would skip Erice and stay in Trampani or closer to San Vito Lo Capo
Agrigento:  B&B Port Atenea, Via Atenea 2.  Highly recommend, spacious rooms, good breakfast
Ragusa Ibla: Hotel Dell'Orologio.  Lovely hotel, just remember you can't drive up, you have to walk
Siracusa: La Via della Giudecca: located on Ortigia - stay here, very charming!
Taormina:  Hotel Victoria.  Our least favorite hotel.  However it is right in the center of town & reasonably priced.

We started our journey in Cefalu, flying in to Palermo & ended in Taormina, flying out of Catania.  If I had to do it all over again, I would have reversed our itinerary so we would end in Cefalu.    Here would be my recommended itinerary based on everything we saw and learned along the way:

Fly in to Catania from Rome, rent a car, drive to Taormina.  Look for the signs that take you to 'Parking Garage Lumbi'.  Park& take the free shuttle in to town.  You pay for parking as you depart.  It is about 15 Euro per day.

To do in Taormina:  spend 2-3 hours visiting the third century Greek Amphitheater, an afternoon of exploring the town, shopping, etc.  Plan on a full day to take the cable car down to the beach, grab a boat ride over to the caves and Isolo Bella.

Drive to Siracusa:  Stay on the Island of Ortigia, connected to Siracussa by bridge.  It is such a charming town.  You can spend a full day exploring the town, don't miss the open market down by the bridge, walk along the waterfront and take a boat ride around the island.

Drive to Ragusa Ilba:  Leave enough time to stop at Noto on the way or Modica (or stop at Noto on the way and do a day trip to Modica one day.  Give your self a full day to spend exploring the town.  Take the small tram (looks like a train) around town to get the lay of the land.

Drive to Agrigento:  You can spend at least 4 hours in the Valley of Temples depending on how much you enjoy Greek ruins.

Drive to Trampani:  take a day trip using the cable cars to Erice.  A day trip to San Vito Lo Capo and the Zingo National Park.  A day trip to the Egadi Islands via the Hydrafoil - 30-40 minutes to get across to the islands - either Favignana or Levanzo or both if you have the time!

Drive to Cefalu & relax!  enjoy the beach, the town, the excellent food!

After total relaxation in Cefalu - you return the car to the Palermo Airport and head back to Rome.

While in Sicily make sure you try: Cannoli, Granita's, Gelato, Pizza, Pasta, Seafood, Marzipan & wine.  You can order a 1/4 or 1/2 carafe of the house wine in most restaurants.  It makes the meal!  Take your time with your meals, and savor the incredible flavors!

Arrivederci Sicily!
Until next time, Safe travels!
Susan

Sicilian Adventure - Part 3

Saturday, June 6 - Taormina, Sicily

We departed Ortigia, Siracusa for the approximately 1 hour 30 minute drive +  ( I say plus because even with GPS - it takes longer than you think to get anywhere and often GPS has trouble identifying the small town roads correctly.  We had decided to stop a beach before heading to Taormina.  We were not sure where exactly we were going to stop, but ended up at Giardini-Naxos.   It was past lunch time, so we found a nice beach restaurant and had a typical lunch - Salad & Pizza!   Afterwords we got ourselves  a couple of beach chairs and enjoyed being lazy after our drive.  The water is clear and beautiful and we enjoyed our afternoon.

A few pictures from our beach stop at Naxos

When we first started researching Sicily, Taormina was on of the first town we put on our itinerary.  Everything we read about it sounded wonderful.  The town of Taormina sits on a cliff overlooking the Ionian sea.

Panoramic View from the Piazza in Taormina 

Picture taken from the Piazza towards the Sea

Main Piazza

 Taormina is well know for the ancient Greek Amphitheater located there.  It is one of the most celebrated ruins in Sicily (next to the Valley of Temples) because it is very well preserved, so much so, that it is used for concerts currently.  While we were there, there were posters up for several Opera performances coming up.  We spent the better part of one morning exploring the Greek Amphitheater.  We wanted to get there early before the crowds so we could take some pictures.  (note, these are the only pictures I took on the trip :-)  I took about a hundred and Cathy narrowed it down to 5 good ones lol)!

Taormina is probably the most 'touristy' town we visited and the most well known, but it is quite charming and worth the visit.  Plus it is very close to Mt. Etna, and if you are going to go all the way to Sicily, you should at least see Mt. Etna, which is beautiful & majestic.

Me with our Vehicle for the trip with Mt. Etna in the background belching smoke!

Our hotel was the Hotel Victoria, which was located right in the center of town.  Taormina is another town that you can't drive in.  There is a parking lot below the town, you park there and take the shuttle up to town.  Somehow I had missed this piece of information in my research and it took us a bit of questioning & hand gestures with several Sicilians to figure it out.

The hotel was clean and well maintained.  The Breakfast staff & the housekeeping staff are one in the same.  These ladies did a fantastic job.  The breakfast offerings are pretty minimal here, but the staff was pleasant and efficient.  The front desk staff unfortunately, was not as pleasant.  Would I recommend this hotel?  Yes, for the location & price - 315 Euro for 3 nights (or 157 Euro each - totally reasonable).  We had a balcony that looked out on to the main street, which we enjoyed very much.  One night as we sat in our room we heard sounds of a band, we went out to the balcony and there was a marching band coming down the main street!  Then later that same evening a large religious procession came down the street.  We watched it all from our balcony, it was fascinating and we had a premium view of it all.

Last word on hotel Victoria: Because this is a popular tourist destination for cruise ships as well as Italians on holiday, there are lots of hotels to choose from.  I would probably look at a different hotel if I were to make a return visit.

Carmelo, our Captain

We desided for our last day, we would take the cable car down to the beach area (very handy so you do not have to drive back down the cliff roads) and see if we could catch a boat trip to Isola Bella.  We found just what we were looking for with Carmelo.  He was the perfect Captain and took us around the coast, to Isola Bella & the sea caves.  It was a lovely ride!

laughing at something Cathy said I am sure

inside the cave

approaching the caves

Cathy & Carmelo

looking back at Taormina from the boat --
see it, way up on the cliff

check out this rock with Cactus growing on one side of it!

Carmelo & his boat

After our boat trip, we spent the afternoon on the beach.  When the weather got a little threatneing in the late afternoon, we rode the cable car back up to Taormina and got there just as it started to rain.  We hurried in to a little cafe we had discovered the day before for a bite to eat and wait for the rain to let up.

We were in Taormina for 3 nights and enjoyed ourselves.  We had some great meals and did a bit of shopping besides doing the activities pictured above.  Taormina does get crowded during the day with the cruise ships bringing tours and day-trippers come, but at night it does quiet down some, so I am glad we chose to stay in town.

After our Sicilian adventure, we decided to spend a few days in our favorite small Italian coastal town, Lerici.  It was a long haul to get to Lerici from Taormina Sicily,  taking cabs, trains & planes over 12 hours, but totally worth it for 5 relaxing days.  I wrote about Lerici and the Ligurian Coast for this blog in July of 2013.  If you would like to see some absolutely beautiful photography and learn about this part of Italy, it is available on this blog - just check the archives.

One more entry to come -- Is Sicily for you?  What you need to know before going.  Also, I'll include some beautiful food porn from the trip!

Until Next time, travel safe
Susan

Sicilian Adventure - Part 2

Tuesday, June 2 - we travel to Ragusa Ilba

one of the two beds in our room 

While the drive to Ragusa was not as pretty as our previous drives because we were more inland and had to drive through some industrial looking areas, getting to Ragusa was no problem.  Finding our hotel was a whole different story!  After a couple of phone calls, we finally hooked up with Claudia at Hotel Dell'Orologio.  You can't get there by car! (thus our confusion).  You can get within two blocks of it, unload your luggage, roll your luggage up to the hotel and then Claudia will show you where to park your car!

Our room at Hotel Dell'Orologio

Susan & Cathy Selfie

Claudia & I heading back from the car park,
Cathy took this photo from our balcony

First let me say, it was worth the effort! What a charming hotel!!  The room they gave us was huge! The hotel is not like a typical hotel - the rooms are all different and it is like a small housing or apartment complex.  The owner has been fixing up each room one at a time and is currently working on a restaurant as part of the complex, which he hopes to have open by next year.  The breakfast here was fantastic and Claudia an amazing hostess.  She was very helpful with our questions and spoke english very well.

Ragusa is actually two towns - Ragusa Ilba, the old town where we stayed, and Ragusa, the new town where many of the people who work in Ragusa live.  Although we were told that many young couples are buying the old buildings and flats in Ragusa Ilba and fixing them up to live there.  I can see why, it is a charming town.

After getting settled in Hotel Dell'Orologio, we took a little walk around town and rewarded ourselves with a Grantia.  A Granita is a semi-frozen dessert/beverage (sort of like a slushy).

enjoying a Lemon Granita

They come in many flavors but the most common is lemon.  You also see coffee & almond frequently and when in season - Berry Grantia's.  And in Tamorna I had one that was Orange that was fantastic!  But I digress!  We fell in love with Ragusa Ilba.  It is a charming Baroque town that dates from 1693.  It was in this year that Ragusa, Modica, Scicli, Noto & Catania were hit with a terrible Earthquake and were completely destroyed.  When the rebuilding began, the citizens were divided on where to build, thus we ended up with Ragusa Ilba, built on the original site, and Ragusa Superiore built on a separate site not far away.

Our first full day in Ragusa we took the tram/train around town to get the lay of the land.

train & main drag Ragusa

We explored the town, had a lovely lunch, gelato for dessert of course.  Cathy took some wonderful pictures so I will let them do the talking and you will see what a lovely town Ragusa Ilba is!

one of Cathy's fav pictures
she took in Ragusa. Typical Sicilian Life

Our second day we took a short road trip to Modica - the chocolate city! There are many beautiful things to see in Monica, including the Church of San Giorgio, but we went there for the chocolate -- just being honest here!  I had read about this place, which is the only place that you can find chocolate made in this traditional way (cold-worked) that was brought to Italy by the Spaniards, and they got the recipe from the Aztecs.  This is not the 'smooth chocolate' texture that you are used to here in the US. The only ingredients in a bar of chocolate from Mondica are hand ground cocoa beans & sugar, + usually one ingredient to flavor.  Which can be anything:  pistachio nut, almonds, cinnamon, orange, lemon, mini jasmine, chill peppers... pretty much anything the Chocolatier wants to add. The finished product has a grainy consistency and rich flavor.  I did buy some chocolate to bring home, thinking I might give out as gifts.... sorry, it was too delicious and we started nibbling on it before we left Sicily!

 After 2 short days in Ragusa, we were off to Ortigia/Siragusa.

Arrivederci Ragusa!

 We had figured out our route, wanting to take a coastal route so we could stop at a beach or two along the way as well as the town of Noto.  We hit our first major driving challenge of the trip when the main road leading out of town towards Noto was closed for tree trimming.  The workers doing the trimming did not speak english but tried to tell us through hand gestures how to find a different route.  We reprogramed out GPS, but 'LuLu' was confused and took us in a giant circle.  It took us about an hour, but we finally got headed in the right direction.

Our first stop was a look out point that was the closest point to Africa from Sicily.  I never realized how close Africa was before this.

By the time we made it this far it was past lunch time & we were hot and starting to get hungry, so we drove down the road until we saw a beach resort type community.

There were several places that had beach chairs & umbrellas for rent as well as places to get a light lunch.  After lunch and a relaxing couple hours on the beautiful beach, we were off again to find our hotel.

Cathy had tomato & rice salad for lunch
They asked if she wanted Mozzarella with
that, and this is what she got!
Giant Mozzarella ball!  

Beautiful clear water, very refreshing

Isis di Ortigia is an Island and a province of Siracusa (Syracuse) Sicily.  You get to it by crossing a small bridge from Siracussa.  Again we were staying in a hotel that you can't really drive up to, but we had less trouble finding our hotel this time around, La Via della Giudecca.  What a great find this place was!  22 rooms and the room we got was like a small apartment and we had a small courtyard outside our room.  We arrived a bit late in the day so after getting settled in at the hotel, we headed out to look around and find a place for dinner.  We found a fantastic restaurant and ended up eating dinner there twice!  Il Nuovo Fermento.  See the pictures for the beautiful food & atmosphere!

On our second day after a great nights sleep and fantastic breakfast, we headed out for a stroll.  There is a walkway that goes along the water almost completely around the island.  We enjoyed the walk next to the water and the sunshine.

Piazza Dumo in Ortigia

We came across an open air market that sold everything from clothing to fresh fruit & veggies to fish.  We walked through the market at a leisurely pace - it is quite large.  The vendors are colorful and happy to have you sample their wares.  The fish is straight from the sea and they will cut up a whole fish for you right there.

All around the port there are boats offering tours around the island and to the caves, we found a reasonably priced one and did the tour after lunch. 

Beautiful colors!

the purple is sea sponge

View from the boat

Next up was Taormina, our last stop in Sicily before heading to the mainland and Lerici.

Until Next time, Safe Traavels
Susam