geetika

whitehall, am so enjoying your posts are gorgeous pictures, thank you! We were in Sicily exactly a year back, spent almost 2 weeks between Palermo, Ortigia/Sirscusa and Catania, with one night in Agrigento. It was a dream
come true, a beautiful island with warm and welcoming people. Would love to go back and explore some more.

Italy is my second fav destination after France, thinking of going to Rome for the Thanksgiving week…

whitehall

Hi Karen and thank you again. We are moving ahead with our dream of up to six months in Italy with two trips a year. If and when we get dual citizenship, we are hoping it will be consecutive time. Any more than that involves Italian taxes. And a good base from which to see many other places in Europe. I hope you get your return. Add Puglia and Matera, the Italian Riviera down to Portafino and Rapallo and of course Cinque Terre. Maybe Lake Garda and the Dolomites. And the Adriatic coast. Not to mention Umbria about which we also did a lengthy trip report 18 months ago. Yes, so much to fit in so little time.

whitehall

Thank you for your kind comments. As a one-time investigative reporter in an extremely varied career, I can easily get focused on the who, what, why, where of the local tourist spots. We will order "Stolen Figs". A side note, we have been living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and recently saw that Frances Mayes now lives in an old house in Durham, NC, where she regularly shows the flowers in her yard and home there. You would think she would be in Tuscany for the wonderful spring, but she doesn't go until May this year. She does sell such things as olive oil from her NC home and spends a lot of time locally with little book stores, etc.

whitehall

Thank you. We always enjoy time in Rome, even with the crowds, noise and trash. I am glad you were able to spend a night in Agrigento; many make a day trip out of the Valley of the Temples, but we thoroughly enjoyed Agrigento. Good food and a fun atmosphere. Sicily seems to be a current place to go, partly because of such TV series as White Lotus, but I hope that won't become permanent.

whitehall

Well those cannoli were from Calabria, but we just couldn't wait!

J62

Love the report. Along the coast near Agrigento is my paternal grandmother's home. She arrived in the US as a toddler so we have no known direct relatives there. That side of Sicily is on our plan-to-go-to list when we have time for a 3-4 week trip. Maybe I'll have my Italian citizenship & passport by then.... The commune there was very quick to get us certified birth records - much faster and more responsive than grandfather's commune in Lazio.

whitehall

The new Italian government has resurrected the idea of a bridge to Sicily. After all, it’s only about two miles between the closest points. The idea has been floated off and on since the Romans, BC. But money, and more recently environmental considerations, have stood in the way. And, that was before cruise ships have gotten so large that the bridge would have to be extra high and the discovery of a significant earthquake fault right in its path.

We travelled the usual way by a sleek ferry that had spacious lounges, a fast service counter with adult beverages, espresso and pastries, a child’s play area, an escalator and more. A nice presentation for a 20 minute ride.

The ferry leaves Villa San Giovanni, a fairly unattractive sprawl of a city. And if you don’t already have a ticket, you can’t get one at or near the boat. We spent more time trying to find a very large drive-up (if you can figure out how to get to the road into it) self-serve ticket place than we did on the ferry. We finally had to jump a short wall by foot and have one of the kind attendants there give us full service.

Our ferry was for cars only. We would have liked to see the ones with railroad tracks on them for the trains that go back and forth every day.

We landed In Messina and saw a lot of reasons to return there for a previously delayed day trip. The crowds are already in Taormina, and next I will jump back to our two Sicilian trips last fall and winter, following our lengthy trip report for last May’s trip.

whitehall

We were in Athens, after a week in the Greek islands and then onto Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia (click on our name, if interested, for several trip reports about these places). We had booked the flight to Athens before we were invited by our cousins to their Sicilian grape harvest; but Athens to Catania was a simple, relatively inexpensive flight.

We arrived in Ortigia after dark. We have been here twice before for day trips, but this was the first time we slept there. And, this allowed me to take the wrong bridge and get my first Italian ticket, months later, for this violation when no one else, but the cameras, were around.

Not far from our apartment, we found a great little family pasta place, a perfect night for outdoor dining. Unlike Taormina, which is busy from mid-morning until late at night, Ortigia at times can be a quiet delight. We walked empty streets at night and, again, after sleeping in, the next morning. Although the spectacular main square was empty, the small daily market is always a little more active.

whitehall

Hoping our effort won't take 10 years. We will be ancient by then, but we are doing it mostly for the kids and grandkids. We are paying extra to have the lawyers acquire the necessary documents, so we won't mess up. Both of my grandparents left Italy as kids in the very early 1900's. We have never found relatives of my grandmother either. But my Dad was able to meet five of his Sicilian first cousins more than 80 years later.

whitehall

I recently got in touch with a US cousin when my Aunt (his mother) passed away after turning 100. He told me that his late father, who was from Sicily, always talked about regularly playing in Greek ruins near his home. I guessed Siracusa until I realized his Dad’s hometown, Buccheri, was a good hour away.

We visited Buccheri and sent my cousin photos. Like a lot of non-touristy Italian towns, it has seen its best days, but it was lively. We were there for the extended noon-time church bells. And, we discovered Greek ruins within a couple miles of the village. We drove up to the site, actually in Palazzo Acriede, but were shooed away by a lady saying the rural place was closed for re-construction, but we saw no other activity. We had seen online that there was a beautiful Greek theatre just over the hill from us, but the lady wouldn’t allow me to hike up and take a quick photo while the place is closed.

Buccheri was a real Sicilian village that rarely sees a tourist, judging by the stares we got popping photos with our iPhone. It was exciting to see a town where my uncle came from, given that we did not know, until the last year, that he was even born in Sicily.

whitehall

Back in Ortigia, next to the daily market, we finally enjoyed one of the best sandwiches you can buy in Sicily. Our son told us about and shared you tube videos of the amazing sandwiches that this family puts out. We decided to take a little picnic and head to the water. We have seen the Ortigia waterfront from many different angles, but this time we found a nice lower level esplanade, close up to the mega yachts that regularly tie up there.

While we were enjoying some cool drinks on a warm day, a number of police vehicles pulled into the area. They didn’t seem too interested in one big yacht we had seen the night before.

That one was mentioned in earlier trip reports that we spotted at a couple of locations earlier in the week in Croatia. The James Bond themed “Spectre” is owned by Rob Sands, who co-owns with his brother Constellation brands. They own Corona beer rights in the US, Mondavi wines and lots more.

When Sands, the billionaire, and his wife walked away holding hands, the police seemed more focused on a yacht named "Va Bene".

We, at times. aren’t shy to act like paparazzi, and we took one photo of what appeared to be the owner of the yacht "Va Bene" driving away. When he saw my iPhone pointed his way, he covered the left side of his face. But we quickly identified him: Eric Clapton.

mila0229

Wow! Whitehall, I admire your trip reports, as I am sure a lot of us. The pictures you are posting are unbelievable! I will use your reports as a Bible when we go to Sicily in the fall. I can't wait! Thank you so much!

KarenWoo

Love your yacht and Eric Clapton story! And those sandwiches are awesome!!!!

whitehall

First, let me say that there is what we call the tourist Sicily and the real Sicily. And, I admit that’s a very subjective generalization. The first photo below was taken late September in Taormina; it looked the same yesterday at 4 pm, even after most of the guests from two cruise ships had left for the day. I always say that there is a reason for the crowds, a reason to visit, and that’s why we go to Taormina. The ancient theatre is one example of the real Sicily. The setting and views another. But sadly, it has become more like a Disney experience.

You don’t have to go far, though, to find the real Sicily. I wrote in my trip report last Spring about Malvagna, where my grandfather was born in 1890. It is less than 20 miles from Taormina. It has seen its best days, and populations continue to decline. It is a very religious town; the church bells ring a lot; on Sundays, before Mass, canned choir music, for half an hour, is loud enough for the whole town to hear. It’s very close to Etna; it’s a fairly self sufficient community.

(Of course, all of us on this forum are tourists, and I am not recommending Malvagna to visit, although the countryside on the north side of Etna, including Alcantara Gorge, is magnificent. There are plenty of places that we think are close to the real Sicily yet providing a bit of tourist infrastructure. Near Malvagna, there is the steep village of Motta Camastra, where the opening scenes from the Godfather were filmed (and it's not on the usual Godfather tours). And beautiful Castiglione di Sicilia within sight of Malvagana. Or the larger Randazzo. But we visited 76 places last May, and most of them fit within our idea of the real Sicily)

Our cousins, who invited us to return there, had guessed October 1 for the grape harvest, and fortunately that date worked. They purchased some special shears for each of us to cut bunch after bunch of grapes until no grapes remained in a small field just outside of town. We saw other families on nearby properties going through the same routines. There were maybe a dozen of family and close friends for our half day harvest.

Over the next several days we watched the simple processing of making red wine, without additives or chemicals. A smooth wine that doesn’t give us a headache. Grapes are everywhere, eating ones and wine ones. But, frankly, we thought the wine ones were excellent for eating too.

The grapes were collected and trucked back to a garage in town, where on harvest day, a simple little machine separated the stems and grapes. A pitchfork stirred the pot of grape mixture, and two days later, bucket after bucket of the liquid grape mixture went into the barrel for pressing. As the juice was squeezed out of the barrel, eventually, it was easy to grow tired of turning the arm as the remaining moisture dried and solidified. The sides of the barrel were removed to show the solid mass. That mass went onto a piece of canvas, where it was cut into smaller pieces and went back for a second squeeze. As the liquid flowed into a large tank in the lower part of the building, we got our first drink; not of wine, of course, but of the best grape juice we had ever tasted.

But, before that final processing, on harvest day, there was a family party of thanks at a neat old country place. This property had a couple dozen fruit trees, some of them unrecognizable to us, but most of them in season for tasting.

The party itself included lots of singing, a harmonica and tears, since some of the songs clearly had some local sentiment that sadly escaped us. And, lots of great food.

The result of the family harvest, a 50% bigger yield than the year before, maybe 1500 bottles of wine.


Taormina, late September 2022


Taormina April 19, 2023

whitehall

Thank you. I have seen your itinerary and know it will be full of great memories!

Thank you. Ortigia is a tourist town, but, most of the time it doesn't feel overwhelmed.

KarenWoo

Can't believe how crowded Taormina is, especially the photo from September 2022. The most crowded place we have visited is Seville and it could rival Taormina.

Love all the grape photos and wine-making photos!

Fra_Diavolo

Great report and photos!

mila0229

[QUOTE=whitehall;17456977]Thank you. I have seen your itinerary and know it will be full of great memories!

Great pictures! Thank you! I will make sure that we will stop by at least one of the places you mentioned on our way back from Mt. Etna. Pictures from Taormina look scary though. That's how Rome looked around Fontana di Trevi last September.

Adelaidean

Happy to see another of your TR’s!

Melnq8

That's quite a sandwich!

Thoroughly enjoying your report.