Savoring Sicily - A Trip Report
Apr 26th, 2014, 07:15 PM
#21
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sartoric....just plugging away on my keyboard tonight! 
Mom and I have now taken to doing Friday night dinners together, she is a much more accomplished cook than I can ever hope to be, but I'm an appreciative eater and she likes to "test out" new recipes on me. Who am I to say no to that. If you are on Instagram you can find me at @prosecoprincess, and I chronicle our Friday night dinners ;-)
I will eventually post a link to my photos, but if you want to get a "taste" (no pun intended) of some of the pictures I took on this trip, 6 of my photos are featured in the "Show and Tell" section of the Browsing Italy website. Here is a link to that page: http://www.browsingitaly.com/sicily/...l-sicily/2714/
Mom and I have now taken to doing Friday night dinners together, she is a much more accomplished cook than I can ever hope to be, but I'm an appreciative eater and she likes to "test out" new recipes on me. Who am I to say no to that. If you are on Instagram you can find me at @prosecoprincess, and I chronicle our Friday night dinners ;-)
I will eventually post a link to my photos, but if you want to get a "taste" (no pun intended) of some of the pictures I took on this trip, 6 of my photos are featured in the "Show and Tell" section of the Browsing Italy website. Here is a link to that page: http://www.browsingitaly.com/sicily/...l-sicily/2714/
Apr 27th, 2014, 03:18 PM
#23
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Thursday, February 27, 2014
What a day! We met Don Saro in our hotel lobby at 9:30am for our tour of Palermo and we finished the day at 7pm! Talk about getting our monies worth!
We did a walking tour of the old city center of Palermo. We visited several churches, and of course my lack of notes during this trip is now starting to catch up with me as I begin to write this trip report. Please bear with me because I know I will not remember the name of every church.
We started with a walk to the Quattro Canti, or in English, the Four Corners. This is where Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Maqueda meet. It’s a busy intersection that is surrounded by curvilinear facades which depict the four seasons. The Baroque buildings were beautiful. You can read a little more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quattro_Canti
We visited the Church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini very near the Quattro Canti. This is a Baroque church and although the exterior is fairly plain, the interior and the dome are lovely. This Wikipedia page give more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Giuseppe_dei_Teatini
Upon exiting the Church of Giuseppe dei Teatini we were right across the street from Palermo City Hall. Don wanted to take us in, but due to a demonstration at the door and a gaggle of Carabinieri with guns and paddy wagons, we decided to simple gaze at the notorious fountain in front of city hall in the Piazza Pretoria.
This fountain, called Fontana Pretoria, has quite a history. The fountain is full of nude nymphs, and other aquatic creatures and was originally designed for a Tuscan villa but was brought to Palermo in 1573 in a bid to outshine a fountain that was in the town of Messina. The fountain’s location not only outside city hall, but across the street from the Church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini proved to be more than many Sicilian church-goers could swallow and it was dubbed the Fountain of Shame.
The next stop was at the Church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio, also known as La Martorana. The mosaics in this church are spectacular and only the first of many beautiful mosaic adorned churches we would see in Palermo. The history of this church is interesting. In 1433 the church became part of the Benedictine order of nuns founded by Eloisa Martorana. This order of nuns was also known for making marzipan, which they made in the form of various fruits. The convent no longer exists, but frutta di Martorana are still one of Palermo's most famous food items. To read more about this church click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martorana
The next church before we ventured to the Ballaro market was the Church of Gesu. As we stepped inside Don pointed out the interior columns looked like someone had just swirled whipped cream and the sculpture work truly did look light and creamy, we thought it a great analogy. To read more about this church check out this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_..._Gesu_(Palermo)
The Ballaro was market, was all that we expected an outdoor Palermo market to be, loud, crowded and fun! One of the benefits of having Don by our side guiding us through the market, was that, this was his local market, so he knew many, if not all (it seemed) of the vendors. We wound our way through the stalls “oohing and aahing” at all the beautiful produce and fish. When we came upon a stand selling hot out of the fryer, panelle and croquettas. Panelle is a flat chickpea fritter that is a tasty Sicilian Street food. The croquettas were of the potato variety and with a squeeze of lemon over the top of both made a great mid-morning market snack.
As we meandered through the market we came across several men huddle around a table scraping something from a very spikey looking shell. I was thrilled to see my very first sea urchin. Don expertly guided us through the way to slurp the briny, red, sea urchin from the spikey shell. It was like tasting the sea right there in the middle of the Ballaro market. Mom was reluctant at first to try, so I dove right in and once I tasted it, I knew she would love it. I think I’m safe to say mom really enjoyed her first taste of sea urchin too! The food portion of the tour ended with a stop at a local bakery known for their cannoli and boy were they good. The shell was crisp and the filling creamy, just the way it should be!
We really did have the weather on our side, because as we got into Don’s car for the drive to Monreale, it started to rain. We were happy the rain held off all morning for the outdoor part of the tour.
When we arrived in Monreale, Don dropped us off at the Duomo, and went to park the car. While he did that, mom and I found a bar and popped in for a coffee. Don joined us shortly and we had a rather nice chat. He’s a very interesting fellow. Born and raised in Palermo and then went to live and work in London for 12 years. Now he’s been back in Palermo for the last 3 years and making a go of the tour business. I’d say, he’s doing a pretty good job!
We spent some time in the beautiful Cathedral of Monreale. I really don’t think my words could do justice to how stunning the mosaics are here. My neck hurt from looking up and I think my chin had “rug-burn” from my jaw dropping in the splendor that surrounds this place. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monreale
The rain was starting to get steadier but we still had two more stops on Don’s “grand tour”. Next up for us was the Shrine of Saint Rosalie on Montepellegrino. St. Rosalie is the patron saint of Palermo, and as with many saints, she has an interesting story. It’s believed that she saved Palermo from the black plague. Her shrine is on a hilltop overlooking Palermo and is built into the side of a rock formation. It has to be one of the most interesting shrine locations I’ve ever been in.
As we left Montepellegrino the sun was setting and it was getting wetter outside. Our last stop was the beachside town of Mondello. I almost said to Don, “Let’s skip it”, since it was dark and rainy and in the off-season, how much could be really see? But I didn’t, mostly because we were enjoying his company so much. I was right, there wasn’t much for us to see in Mondello on a late February evening, Don even stopped to see if a place was open that served a certain kind of sandwich, but they were closed. So we headed back to the center of Palermo and to our hotel. Don dropped us off at about 7pm, which gave us just enough time for a glass of wine before our 8:30pm dinner reservation.
We completely enjoyed our day with Don and would highly recommend his services. He is not limited to tours of Palermo and the surrounding areas, he arranges tours throughout the entire island of Sicily.
I had booked dinner for this night prior to leaving home at a place called L’Ottava Nota, located at Via Butera, 55. It was about a 15 minute walk for us from the hotel. Here is their website: http://www.ristoranteottavanota.it/en/
My thinking behind booking here, is that it would be a completely different experience than Ferro di Cavallo from the night before, and it was. Maybe mom and I are just more “trattoria than ristorante” types. LOL!
L’Ottava Nota, in my opinion, is definitely striving for the Michelin Star “feel”. The interior was sleek and modern, we could have been walking into a restaurant in New York City. The staff was very friendly and welcoming. The food was good, but maybe I was expecting more, it kind of fell flat for both me and mom, or maybe I just made the wrong selections.
For starters I had the scrambled egg, porcini and octopus and mom had the lobster “tart” with mostardo, broccoli and olives, and mom definitely had the better of the two. For main dishes I had pasta with sea urchin and broccoli and mom had the red onion risotto with gorgonzola, mom “won” here again. I ordered the almond and chocolate nougat for dessert and it was creamy but wasn’t satisfying for me. With two limoncello the total cost was €98.
By the time the end of the night rolled around we were full and tired, which in our case, makes for very good sleeping conditions!
What a day! We met Don Saro in our hotel lobby at 9:30am for our tour of Palermo and we finished the day at 7pm! Talk about getting our monies worth!
We did a walking tour of the old city center of Palermo. We visited several churches, and of course my lack of notes during this trip is now starting to catch up with me as I begin to write this trip report. Please bear with me because I know I will not remember the name of every church.
We started with a walk to the Quattro Canti, or in English, the Four Corners. This is where Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Maqueda meet. It’s a busy intersection that is surrounded by curvilinear facades which depict the four seasons. The Baroque buildings were beautiful. You can read a little more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quattro_Canti
We visited the Church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini very near the Quattro Canti. This is a Baroque church and although the exterior is fairly plain, the interior and the dome are lovely. This Wikipedia page give more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Giuseppe_dei_Teatini
Upon exiting the Church of Giuseppe dei Teatini we were right across the street from Palermo City Hall. Don wanted to take us in, but due to a demonstration at the door and a gaggle of Carabinieri with guns and paddy wagons, we decided to simple gaze at the notorious fountain in front of city hall in the Piazza Pretoria.
This fountain, called Fontana Pretoria, has quite a history. The fountain is full of nude nymphs, and other aquatic creatures and was originally designed for a Tuscan villa but was brought to Palermo in 1573 in a bid to outshine a fountain that was in the town of Messina. The fountain’s location not only outside city hall, but across the street from the Church of San Giuseppe dei Teatini proved to be more than many Sicilian church-goers could swallow and it was dubbed the Fountain of Shame.
The next stop was at the Church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio, also known as La Martorana. The mosaics in this church are spectacular and only the first of many beautiful mosaic adorned churches we would see in Palermo. The history of this church is interesting. In 1433 the church became part of the Benedictine order of nuns founded by Eloisa Martorana. This order of nuns was also known for making marzipan, which they made in the form of various fruits. The convent no longer exists, but frutta di Martorana are still one of Palermo's most famous food items. To read more about this church click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martorana
The next church before we ventured to the Ballaro market was the Church of Gesu. As we stepped inside Don pointed out the interior columns looked like someone had just swirled whipped cream and the sculpture work truly did look light and creamy, we thought it a great analogy. To read more about this church check out this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_..._Gesu_(Palermo)
The Ballaro was market, was all that we expected an outdoor Palermo market to be, loud, crowded and fun! One of the benefits of having Don by our side guiding us through the market, was that, this was his local market, so he knew many, if not all (it seemed) of the vendors. We wound our way through the stalls “oohing and aahing” at all the beautiful produce and fish. When we came upon a stand selling hot out of the fryer, panelle and croquettas. Panelle is a flat chickpea fritter that is a tasty Sicilian Street food. The croquettas were of the potato variety and with a squeeze of lemon over the top of both made a great mid-morning market snack.
As we meandered through the market we came across several men huddle around a table scraping something from a very spikey looking shell. I was thrilled to see my very first sea urchin. Don expertly guided us through the way to slurp the briny, red, sea urchin from the spikey shell. It was like tasting the sea right there in the middle of the Ballaro market. Mom was reluctant at first to try, so I dove right in and once I tasted it, I knew she would love it. I think I’m safe to say mom really enjoyed her first taste of sea urchin too! The food portion of the tour ended with a stop at a local bakery known for their cannoli and boy were they good. The shell was crisp and the filling creamy, just the way it should be!
We really did have the weather on our side, because as we got into Don’s car for the drive to Monreale, it started to rain. We were happy the rain held off all morning for the outdoor part of the tour.
When we arrived in Monreale, Don dropped us off at the Duomo, and went to park the car. While he did that, mom and I found a bar and popped in for a coffee. Don joined us shortly and we had a rather nice chat. He’s a very interesting fellow. Born and raised in Palermo and then went to live and work in London for 12 years. Now he’s been back in Palermo for the last 3 years and making a go of the tour business. I’d say, he’s doing a pretty good job!
We spent some time in the beautiful Cathedral of Monreale. I really don’t think my words could do justice to how stunning the mosaics are here. My neck hurt from looking up and I think my chin had “rug-burn” from my jaw dropping in the splendor that surrounds this place. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monreale
The rain was starting to get steadier but we still had two more stops on Don’s “grand tour”. Next up for us was the Shrine of Saint Rosalie on Montepellegrino. St. Rosalie is the patron saint of Palermo, and as with many saints, she has an interesting story. It’s believed that she saved Palermo from the black plague. Her shrine is on a hilltop overlooking Palermo and is built into the side of a rock formation. It has to be one of the most interesting shrine locations I’ve ever been in.
As we left Montepellegrino the sun was setting and it was getting wetter outside. Our last stop was the beachside town of Mondello. I almost said to Don, “Let’s skip it”, since it was dark and rainy and in the off-season, how much could be really see? But I didn’t, mostly because we were enjoying his company so much. I was right, there wasn’t much for us to see in Mondello on a late February evening, Don even stopped to see if a place was open that served a certain kind of sandwich, but they were closed. So we headed back to the center of Palermo and to our hotel. Don dropped us off at about 7pm, which gave us just enough time for a glass of wine before our 8:30pm dinner reservation.
We completely enjoyed our day with Don and would highly recommend his services. He is not limited to tours of Palermo and the surrounding areas, he arranges tours throughout the entire island of Sicily.
I had booked dinner for this night prior to leaving home at a place called L’Ottava Nota, located at Via Butera, 55. It was about a 15 minute walk for us from the hotel. Here is their website: http://www.ristoranteottavanota.it/en/
My thinking behind booking here, is that it would be a completely different experience than Ferro di Cavallo from the night before, and it was. Maybe mom and I are just more “trattoria than ristorante” types. LOL!
L’Ottava Nota, in my opinion, is definitely striving for the Michelin Star “feel”. The interior was sleek and modern, we could have been walking into a restaurant in New York City. The staff was very friendly and welcoming. The food was good, but maybe I was expecting more, it kind of fell flat for both me and mom, or maybe I just made the wrong selections.
For starters I had the scrambled egg, porcini and octopus and mom had the lobster “tart” with mostardo, broccoli and olives, and mom definitely had the better of the two. For main dishes I had pasta with sea urchin and broccoli and mom had the red onion risotto with gorgonzola, mom “won” here again. I ordered the almond and chocolate nougat for dessert and it was creamy but wasn’t satisfying for me. With two limoncello the total cost was €98.
By the time the end of the night rolled around we were full and tired, which in our case, makes for very good sleeping conditions!
Apr 27th, 2014, 04:42 PM
#24
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Thanks for the photos, did the sabre fish taste like sword fish ? Hehe..
I love the idea of Friday dinner with Mom. I don't have a handle on Instagram (or any social media for that matter) perhaps it's time to get to grips with it all !
Fun day with you guys and Don, I'm with the (I bet) many who are looking forward to the next episode.
Cheers
Caroline
I love the idea of Friday dinner with Mom. I don't have a handle on Instagram (or any social media for that matter) perhaps it's time to get to grips with it all !
Fun day with you guys and Don, I'm with the (I bet) many who are looking forward to the next episode.
Cheers
Caroline
Apr 28th, 2014, 08:52 AM
#28
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Friday, February 28, 2014
We had the morning and the early part of the afternoon to ourselves today before meeting the other tour group members for the “official” start of our Rick Steves tour. We planned a visit to the Palazzo dei Normanni , also known as the Il Palazzo Reale and we were very happy we made the effort to see this complex, since it was not to be included in the group tour. Here is the link to their website: http://www.fondazionefedericosecondo.it/
It was about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. The tourist entrance is on Piazza Indipendenzia. This complex includes the Palatine Chapel and Royal Apartments. If you are interested in seeing the apartments, which I highly recommend, make sure you check the opening times. When we were there, the apartments were closed on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and the Palatine Chapel is closed on Sundays. With a little patience I was able to figure out the open hours for both places and Friday morning would be our only “time slot” when we could see both.
We walked up to the ticket booth there were maybe 2 people in front of us, but a school group had just entered as we made our ticket purchase. We made our way to the entrance of the Palatine Chapel and there was a rather lengthy line of students waiting to see the chapel and we fell in behind them. The chapel is stunning, to put it mildly. Again, we saw more mosaics, but when the detailed artwork is this good, we never get tired of looking at it. The chapel is not large and with all the student groups moving through we did not spend a lot of time, but just enough to enjoy and appreciate what we were seeing.
After the Palatine Chapel visit, we made our way up a flight of stairs and were stopped in our tracks with another line of people. The entry into the Royal Apartments was monitored and there were 2 large student groups in front of us. We waited about 15 minutes before we gained access, but it was worth the wait. The first room we visited was the chamber of the Sicilian Parliament. The reason the Royal Apartments are closed several days a week is because the Sicilian Parliament uses this facility for meetings. It was very interesting for us to view this chamber, along with the beautiful Royal Apartments. Here’s a Wikipedia link which tells more about the Palazzo dei Normanni: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_dei_Normanni
Prior to leaving the hotel in the morning, I had asked the front desk clerk to make a lunch reservation for us at Osteria dei Vespri, located at Piazza Croce dei Vespri, 6. This osteria was recommended to me by Judy Francini of Divina Cucina and I knew she would not steer us wrong! During “high” season this is a fine dining establishment, but in the winter months, they offer more of a rustic menu, still high quality food, but with more limited options. Here is their website: http://www.osteriadeivespri.it/?lang=en
We stepped into a cute and rustic wood-beamed dining room with red and white checked tablecloths and were warmly greeted and seated. Osteria dei Vespri provided one of our favorite meals of this trip! We chose from the €20 lunch menu. For that price we each had an antipasti, pasta, dessert and a quartino of house wine (white or red).
For starters I had a plate of mixed cured meats with boconcino (fried dough pillows) and mom had the veal tongue. Yes, mom was slightly more adventurous then I this time! For our pasta dishes I had the bucattini alla sarde, which was delicious and perfectly cooked. Mom had the spaghetti with artichokes and sun dried tomatoes and proclaimed in “pasta perfection”. For dessert mom had a chocolate and pear crostata that was the ideal combination of flavors and I had the apple crostata with vanilla cream, which I dare say, could be the best apple “pie” I’ve ever had! With 2 coffees to end our lunch the total cost was €44. We were completely happy and satisfied and would go back to Osteria dei Vespri in a heartbeat.
Soon we realized our leisurely lunch needed to end and we needed to be back at the hotel’s rooftop terrace to meet our soon to be travel-mates.
Back at the hotel we made our way to the roof terrace and met a very nice group of 23 other travelers keen on exploring Sicily. We met our main guide, Donald (not Don Saro, who we hired for our previous private tour), a Scotsman, who has been living in Italy for 20+ years and been working with Rick Steves for many years. Our assistant guide, Aldo, is Italian, and was raised on the Amalfi coast, but his dad is Sicilian and now Aldo makes his home just outside Taormina. So we had a good mix of experience on this tour.
After introductions and tour basics, we were soon off for an orientation walk of the area around the hotel and then to dinner. Now, I know, mom and I are just a “wee-bit” food focused and we hoped the group meals on the tour would be better than average. I have to say they ranged from excellent to below average. I know that on tours such as this every meal won’t be extraordinary, so that’s why I try to do my “homework” before the trip and make the meals during the tour that are “on our own” more memorable.
The first night group dinner was at a restaurant located behind the Teatro Massimo (opera house). Clearly this place made their money in banquet style events. While we were there, several large parties celebrating graduations were having meals. It felt a little chaotic and although the food was nicely presented and fairly tasty and heavy in the seafood category (which is great for us since we love seafood) but it really did remind me and mom of family style banquet food. We were glad our lunch at Osteria dei Vespri was more the type of meal and place that suits us.
We had the morning and the early part of the afternoon to ourselves today before meeting the other tour group members for the “official” start of our Rick Steves tour. We planned a visit to the Palazzo dei Normanni , also known as the Il Palazzo Reale and we were very happy we made the effort to see this complex, since it was not to be included in the group tour. Here is the link to their website: http://www.fondazionefedericosecondo.it/
It was about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. The tourist entrance is on Piazza Indipendenzia. This complex includes the Palatine Chapel and Royal Apartments. If you are interested in seeing the apartments, which I highly recommend, make sure you check the opening times. When we were there, the apartments were closed on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and the Palatine Chapel is closed on Sundays. With a little patience I was able to figure out the open hours for both places and Friday morning would be our only “time slot” when we could see both.
We walked up to the ticket booth there were maybe 2 people in front of us, but a school group had just entered as we made our ticket purchase. We made our way to the entrance of the Palatine Chapel and there was a rather lengthy line of students waiting to see the chapel and we fell in behind them. The chapel is stunning, to put it mildly. Again, we saw more mosaics, but when the detailed artwork is this good, we never get tired of looking at it. The chapel is not large and with all the student groups moving through we did not spend a lot of time, but just enough to enjoy and appreciate what we were seeing.
After the Palatine Chapel visit, we made our way up a flight of stairs and were stopped in our tracks with another line of people. The entry into the Royal Apartments was monitored and there were 2 large student groups in front of us. We waited about 15 minutes before we gained access, but it was worth the wait. The first room we visited was the chamber of the Sicilian Parliament. The reason the Royal Apartments are closed several days a week is because the Sicilian Parliament uses this facility for meetings. It was very interesting for us to view this chamber, along with the beautiful Royal Apartments. Here’s a Wikipedia link which tells more about the Palazzo dei Normanni: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_dei_Normanni
Prior to leaving the hotel in the morning, I had asked the front desk clerk to make a lunch reservation for us at Osteria dei Vespri, located at Piazza Croce dei Vespri, 6. This osteria was recommended to me by Judy Francini of Divina Cucina and I knew she would not steer us wrong! During “high” season this is a fine dining establishment, but in the winter months, they offer more of a rustic menu, still high quality food, but with more limited options. Here is their website: http://www.osteriadeivespri.it/?lang=en
We stepped into a cute and rustic wood-beamed dining room with red and white checked tablecloths and were warmly greeted and seated. Osteria dei Vespri provided one of our favorite meals of this trip! We chose from the €20 lunch menu. For that price we each had an antipasti, pasta, dessert and a quartino of house wine (white or red).
For starters I had a plate of mixed cured meats with boconcino (fried dough pillows) and mom had the veal tongue. Yes, mom was slightly more adventurous then I this time! For our pasta dishes I had the bucattini alla sarde, which was delicious and perfectly cooked. Mom had the spaghetti with artichokes and sun dried tomatoes and proclaimed in “pasta perfection”. For dessert mom had a chocolate and pear crostata that was the ideal combination of flavors and I had the apple crostata with vanilla cream, which I dare say, could be the best apple “pie” I’ve ever had! With 2 coffees to end our lunch the total cost was €44. We were completely happy and satisfied and would go back to Osteria dei Vespri in a heartbeat.
Soon we realized our leisurely lunch needed to end and we needed to be back at the hotel’s rooftop terrace to meet our soon to be travel-mates.
Back at the hotel we made our way to the roof terrace and met a very nice group of 23 other travelers keen on exploring Sicily. We met our main guide, Donald (not Don Saro, who we hired for our previous private tour), a Scotsman, who has been living in Italy for 20+ years and been working with Rick Steves for many years. Our assistant guide, Aldo, is Italian, and was raised on the Amalfi coast, but his dad is Sicilian and now Aldo makes his home just outside Taormina. So we had a good mix of experience on this tour.
After introductions and tour basics, we were soon off for an orientation walk of the area around the hotel and then to dinner. Now, I know, mom and I are just a “wee-bit” food focused and we hoped the group meals on the tour would be better than average. I have to say they ranged from excellent to below average. I know that on tours such as this every meal won’t be extraordinary, so that’s why I try to do my “homework” before the trip and make the meals during the tour that are “on our own” more memorable.
The first night group dinner was at a restaurant located behind the Teatro Massimo (opera house). Clearly this place made their money in banquet style events. While we were there, several large parties celebrating graduations were having meals. It felt a little chaotic and although the food was nicely presented and fairly tasty and heavy in the seafood category (which is great for us since we love seafood) but it really did remind me and mom of family style banquet food. We were glad our lunch at Osteria dei Vespri was more the type of meal and place that suits us.
Apr 28th, 2014, 09:32 AM
#29
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LCI - I'm loving your trip report so far. I've read some of your previous TR's and I see that you are a great trip planner and a very independent traveler. I am wondering how you feel about independent travel versus a group tour (Rick Steves). Do you feel as though you spent too much time on a bus with the RS tour - or were there too many people in the group? How does it compare? I'm interested in possibly doing a RS tour in the future (eastern Europe) and I'm still on the fence. Any insight would be appreciated.
Apr 28th, 2014, 09:34 AM
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LCI - I'm loving your trip report so far. I've read some of your previous TR's and I see that you are a great trip planner and a very independent traveler. I am wondering how you feel about independent travel versus a group tour (Rick Steves). Do you feel as though you spent too much time on a bus with the RS tour - or were there too many people in the group? How does it compare? I'm interested in possibly doing a RS tour in the future (eastern Europe) and I'm still on the fence. Any insight would be appreciated.
Apr 28th, 2014, 11:00 AM
#32
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Thanks everyone for sticking with me. I have to apologize for the typos and errors (Ugh! even in my first sentence!) Writing trip reports at 10pm is perhaps not my strong suit! ;-)
bab...
This was my 8th RS tour and my mom's 5th. I do like the way his company handles tours, it works for me/us. Plus if there is something on the tour itinerary we don't want to do, we don't have to (which is the case for our day in Siracusa...stay tuned for that!)
However, on this particular tour although I enjoyed it, for me, 8 nights in the whole of Sicily was too much too fast. There were mostly 2 "nighters', which really is only 1 full day in each place and this felt to rushed to me, but we were also dealing with limited time off from work.
Our assistant guide mentioned the RS itineray for Sicily is the only one he knows of giving this short amount of time, many others do 10-12 day minimum. I don't think we spent too much time on the bus, the days were planned in a way that the most we ever "sat" on the bus was maybe 3 hours. I heard it mentioned by our lead guide, this tour is being "revamped" and the itinerary will look different in 2015, he eluded to the fact there may be a day or 2 added, which I think is the right way to go.
I have come to realize over my travel experience that I really do enjoy independent travel, maybe slightly more then the group tour experience, but when I do a trip on my own, it takes an enormous amount of my time to plan. I do all my own reserach and vetting, I book all transportation and hotels and activities (day tours, museum tix, cooking lessons, etc). So it's a trade-off convenience of a group tour with "pre-planned" activities vs. my time and effort. But I do enjoy the planning process, it's just sometimes for a variety of reasons (new place, unsure of surroundings, and/or language) I go with a group tour option.
This tour had 25 people, which is almost the max RS takes (I believe his max is 28), it felt like a reasonable number to me. I have done the RS Eastern Europe tour in 2006, and I know the itinerary has changed since then, but I really did enjoy that tour. I did a trip report of it, in case you want to pull it up and read it for reference. Although some of the cities may have changed you would certainly get a feel for what that tour would be like.
I hope this answers your questions.
bab...
This was my 8th RS tour and my mom's 5th. I do like the way his company handles tours, it works for me/us. Plus if there is something on the tour itinerary we don't want to do, we don't have to (which is the case for our day in Siracusa...stay tuned for that!)
However, on this particular tour although I enjoyed it, for me, 8 nights in the whole of Sicily was too much too fast. There were mostly 2 "nighters', which really is only 1 full day in each place and this felt to rushed to me, but we were also dealing with limited time off from work.
Our assistant guide mentioned the RS itineray for Sicily is the only one he knows of giving this short amount of time, many others do 10-12 day minimum. I don't think we spent too much time on the bus, the days were planned in a way that the most we ever "sat" on the bus was maybe 3 hours. I heard it mentioned by our lead guide, this tour is being "revamped" and the itinerary will look different in 2015, he eluded to the fact there may be a day or 2 added, which I think is the right way to go.
I have come to realize over my travel experience that I really do enjoy independent travel, maybe slightly more then the group tour experience, but when I do a trip on my own, it takes an enormous amount of my time to plan. I do all my own reserach and vetting, I book all transportation and hotels and activities (day tours, museum tix, cooking lessons, etc). So it's a trade-off convenience of a group tour with "pre-planned" activities vs. my time and effort. But I do enjoy the planning process, it's just sometimes for a variety of reasons (new place, unsure of surroundings, and/or language) I go with a group tour option.
This tour had 25 people, which is almost the max RS takes (I believe his max is 28), it felt like a reasonable number to me. I have done the RS Eastern Europe tour in 2006, and I know the itinerary has changed since then, but I really did enjoy that tour. I did a trip report of it, in case you want to pull it up and read it for reference. Although some of the cities may have changed you would certainly get a feel for what that tour would be like.
I hope this answers your questions.
Apr 28th, 2014, 11:06 AM
#33
Gosh, every time I read a Sicily report I really want to go back and revisit. We were all surprised by just how much we loved Palermo. Gritty, yes, but sooo much to see and do there. Were you able to see any of the Oratorios with the Serpotta stuccoes? Marvelous. I wanted about three more days in the city.
Apr 28th, 2014, 11:20 AM
#34
I, too, am mostly an independent traveler, but I have done five RS tours, including the very first Sicily tour (that year the tour was longer). If I wanted a European tour I would certainly start by looking at his - very good guides, central hotels, generally good food (I found on the Sicily tour I seemed to have better ideas about where to eat than the guide did), friendly fellow travelers. Click on my name for my Sicily and Bulgaria TRs, both RS tours.
Apr 28th, 2014, 12:26 PM
#35
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LCI - Thanks so much for your detailed reply. My husband and I are definitely independent travelers - so I'm a bit nervous about taking any kind of organized tour. Rick Steves offers a tour that includes Poland, Budapest, Prague, Hungary, Croatia and more - which are essentially countries of my heritage. We would never see these countries on our own - so the tour seems perfect. We wouldn't be so concerned about multiple languages, currency, customs, etc. - we would have someone lead the way. But - on the other hand - we wouldn't be able to pick our own restaurants - and we would have to go with the flow. I guess I will try a tour so that I can compare. If I did a tour, it would definitely be Rick Steves. His guidebooks have been very valuable over the years and we enjoy his TV series.
thursdaysd - Thanks for confirming my suspicion that RS offers top notch guides.
thursdaysd - Thanks for confirming my suspicion that RS offers top notch guides.
Apr 28th, 2014, 12:38 PM
#36
bab, for what it's worth I went to Poland and the Czech Republic on my own (with a friend) last summer. It is <i>not</i> difficult to visit these countries independently if you are so inclined. In fact at the end of our trip, my friend flew off to meet her family in Croatia for Vacation Part 2.
/Okay, sorry for the interruption!
/Okay, sorry for the interruption!
Apr 28th, 2014, 01:13 PM
#38
I agree with Leely, you don't HAVE to do a tour in Eastern Europe, i've found it quite easy on my own. On the other hand RS tours don't include all your meals - breakfasts and half your dinners - so you can pick your own restaurants part of the time.
Have you been to his website? Lots of scrapbooks by people who have taken his tours: http://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scra...lum-scrapbooks
Have you been to his website? Lots of scrapbooks by people who have taken his tours: http://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scra...lum-scrapbooks
Apr 28th, 2014, 02:40 PM
#40
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>>"We were completely happy and satisfied and would go back to Osteria dei Vespri in a heartbeat."
I ate lunch there in January and actually did go back -- not in a heartbeat but the next night. I had the veal tongue and the pear/chocolate like your mother and the bucatini like you but also ate pasta ribbons with chicken livers plus octopus and other dishes on my return. I am not sure I would like their "creative" cooking in the summer as much as I liked their classics.
I was staying in an apartment in the Capo market for a week but agree that the via Roma is a good location for accessing every part of Palermo. We had excellent luck in many small trattorie in Palermo and with the exception of Osteria dei Vespri felt that the "elevated" restaurants were less satisfying (although even in those we only hit one clinker perhaps due to its hosting a business event that night). Food is fun in Sicily and pretty much jumps out of the market and onto your plate.
I ate lunch there in January and actually did go back -- not in a heartbeat but the next night. I had the veal tongue and the pear/chocolate like your mother and the bucatini like you but also ate pasta ribbons with chicken livers plus octopus and other dishes on my return. I am not sure I would like their "creative" cooking in the summer as much as I liked their classics.
I was staying in an apartment in the Capo market for a week but agree that the via Roma is a good location for accessing every part of Palermo. We had excellent luck in many small trattorie in Palermo and with the exception of Osteria dei Vespri felt that the "elevated" restaurants were less satisfying (although even in those we only hit one clinker perhaps due to its hosting a business event that night). Food is fun in Sicily and pretty much jumps out of the market and onto your plate.
