thursdaysd...that farmhouse lunch was the best group meal on the whole trip! I'll give a hint, mom and I would go back to Ortigia in a "hot minute" :-D

latedaytraveler...yes, mom and I do enjoy our wine! ;-)

MrsWally...thanks for the compliment and following along! :-)

bab...I was posting at the same time you were. Yes! We found the Sicilian people to be incredibly warm and welcoming. I have to say the only other place we experienced friendliness at that level was last year in Portugal. That's not to say we haven't had good experiences elsewhere in Italy (or Europe) it just felt to us in Sicily and Portugal the warmth radiated out of the people.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

I think I can safety speak for mom when I say this was her (and mine too!) favorite day of the trip. Since we were not doing the group activity in the morning we slept-in a little bit and got to the hotel breakfast room after our group had left. This had its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was the room was not packed with a bunch of people trying to eat quickly and leave. The disadvantage was the buffet was really “picked-over”. We managed to have a nice breakfast but I will warn you, if you like cappuccino with your breakfast you may not want to have it here. What we got was more a cup of hot milk, then coffee, but that was a minor inconvenience.

After breakfast we went for a little exploration and found ourselves at the market in Ortigia. The first stall we came across had the most beautiful display of cheeses we’ve seen. There was scamorza (smoked cheese) shaped like little pigs. It may sound hokey, but they were too cute and so we purchased one and the friendly vendor was nice enough to kryo-vac it for easy travel. Not two feet away was another cheese vendor, I bet you can see where this is going. Here we found a pecorino with chili peppers, yup, that went into our bag too. The displays of prepared foods, sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, caponata, and vegetable salads, all looked so tempting. If we only had more time and were staying in an apartment, I could only imagine the meals mom could “whip up” here! It was in this market where we finally saw saberfish in its pre-cooked form. It truly does look like a saber.

The market was located in what I would describe as the more modern part of Ortigia and we took our time ogling the products on offer and then ambled up what seemed to be a main street filled with shops until we got to the older part of town with its tangle of narrow winding streets.

We spent time peeking in windows and wandered over to an art shop we had spied the night before. This shop sold pictures painted on papyrus paper. I’m sure most were replicas, but they also had framed original prints hanging on the wall. My intention was to buy a small-ish replica. There was quite a large selection and I was having trouble deciding on which one I wanted, when I kept looking up at one particular framed picture that caught my eye.

Mom agreed it was lovely, so I asked the shopkeeper the price for the picture unframed. She was such a nice lady and took the time to take the frame down and take the picture out. I initially thought maybe there were other copies in the back and the one on the wall could stay, but no, I go and pick an original. The shopkeeper even gave me a discount! I purchased a few other things and we happily headed back to the hotel to drop the purchases back in our room.

While back at the hotel, we asked the front desk receptionist to make a dinner reservation for us at Le Vin de L'assassin Bistrot. This place was a recommendation from our tour guide. He had been here a few weeks before and said it was owned by 2 Sicilian brothers who had lived and trained in France and came home to Siracusa and opened this bistrot. They do a French twist on Sicilian food and it sounded like a place mom and I would enjoy!

We spent our afternoon visiting the Cathedral in Ortigia, which we loved. The exterior of this church is lovely; I think I would never tire of looking at it. We also stopped into the church of Santa Lucia, on the same piazza as the cathedral, to see a Caravaggio painting.

It was coming up to lunch time but mom and I weren’t starving, so we walked around the cathedral to the Piazza Minerva and had a seat outside at Antico Caffe Minerva. Hard to believe, but we had never had a cafe affogato, which is usually a scoop of vanilla gelato topped with a shot of hot espresso. When we ordered the server asked what kind of gelato we would like and given the choice, we selected chocolate. The next thing we knew, 2 huge “sundae” glasses filled with chocolate gelato, espresso and whipped cream were placed in front of each of us! Oh My! I was in heaven. Mom, who isn’t as big a fan of sweets as I am, wasn’t as thrilled, but did concede it was enormous! Since we had no place special to be, after we finished our lunch time “treat” mom ordered a coffee….yes, “I’ll have a coffee after my coffee” became our joke.

There was a bit of miscommunication and instead of just bringing the one coffee mom ordered the bar man brought over 2, one for mom and one for me. No worries, it was the best cafe americano I had in a long time. We chalked it up to when the server (who spoke English and understood our order) told the barman to make the coffee, he (the barman) seeing 2 of us sitting there, assumed we each wanted a cup. Thinking about it made sense to us, why would 2 people sitting together not each have something, right? At least that’s the story we are sticking to.

After our very caffeinated lunch we took another stroll around Ortigia and promptly got lost. Well, it was really more disoriented than lost. How lost can you get on an island, when we hit water, just turn right or left and eventually we’d come across our hotel! But, since we “zigged” instead of “zagged” we stumbled into a wonderful ceramics shop that we never would have found otherwise.

The name of the shop is DoLu and here is the website: http://www.doluceramiche.biz/ The woman who is the artist was incredibly sweet. Mom and I had just stopped in front of her small shop window to admire the ceramics on display, we weren’t planning on going in, but when the woman saw us outside she opened the door and invited us in. The front showroom was small and narrow and her workshop was behind it. This really was an artisanal operation. Her designs were absolutely lovely, much different than the typical ceramic shops we had been seeing up until then.

Mom and I browsed a bit and when mom laid her eyes on a stunning coffee serving set it was love at first sight. I don’t think I’ve ever seen mom make a purchase decision for something like this so quickly. I continued to look around and glad I did, because I spied a limoncello serving set, 6 little cups and a tray. I thought, “How perfect is that”. So we asked about shipping and before we could blink an eye, the shop owner/designer/artist was on the phone to the shipping company asking how much it would be. At €60 to ship both back home, we didn’t hesitate, we purchased the coffee serving set for mom and the limoncello serving set for me and had them shipped home since we didn’t want to lug them back to Palermo and then home in our carry-on bags.

Just before 6pm we met up with our group to see a puppet theater performance. We enjoyed it more than I thought we would. The premise of the story (it was in Italian) was the age-old “damsel in distress”. It was really quite fun to watch and the puppeteers did an excellent job. Since our group was the only audience for this performance we got to have a question and answer session with the puppeteers which was interesting. This particular puppet theater is a family run business.

When we finished the puppet performance it was around 7pm, and our dinner reservation was for 9pm. This would be the perfect opportunity to have aperitivo at a place I had seen during our walk around town, called A’Putia located on Via Roma, 8. What originally drew my attention to this place was the funky, interior, all big clunky wood tables with mismatched chairs and big, home-sewn looking cushions.

It felt like a family run establishment the moment we walked in. Some tables were having just glasses of wine, others were having meals and again, we were greeted with a warm and friendly Buona Sera. They must have a lot of French speaking customers here, because we found ourselves with a French language menu, we had to giggle, hey, we can figure out wine in any language! I was thrilled to see a Benanti Winery white wine on the list, one we did not have at the tasting earlier in the week. We thought it was a “sign” and ordered 2 glasses and it was delicious. We also ordered the small meat and cheese plate and for €4 it was one of the best deals around. When we decided to order a second glass of wine each, the proprietress placed the whole bottle on our table, hey, who are we to complain! The nice thing was that instead of charging us by the glass, she just charged us for the whole bottle and at €14 it was another good deal in our opinion.

Shortly before 9pm we paid the bill at A’Putia and made our way to Le Vin de L'assassin Bistrot at Via Roma, 115. The place was packed! Usually a good sign in our book. I had to laugh because there were 2 large tables (parties of 6) at the front of the restaurant filled with our fellow tour-mates. I guess they started to listen to our guide’s recommendations. They waved hello to us as we walked in and made a comment about mom and I keeping the same meal hours as Italians…hey, we say, “When in Rome”, right?

One of the brothers/owners greeted and seated us and his English was perfect. Interestingly, we were seated next to French couple, hmmmm…we really had a French thing going on in Ortigia. (Ha-Ha). This was another terrific meal. Mom and I shared our starters of the eggplant and pepper dish and the spring rolls stuffed with goat cheese and herbs. Both were good, but the spring rolls with goat cheese was the clear “winning” dish. We both had the same main dish since the owner recommended this and it was scallops with prosciutto and a side dish of basil rice. What a great combination, and the scallops were cooked to perfection. We had a Donna Fugata white wine the owner selected for us and it was a great match for the scallops. We ended the meal with two espressos and two amaro. All this for €74.

We were sad to be leaving Ortigia, but happy we had such a great time in this lovely city. I know there is more to Siracusa then just the island of Ortigia, but this was the ideal way for mom and I to spend this day, it was definitely our kind of travel day.

I love reading your trip reports! And am I impressed by the credit you racked up with Uncle Rick! Hoping to cash in my first $50 sometime this year :-) More, please...

LCI- I've never really given much thought to Sicily, but you certainly have a way of convincing people what they are missing! :)

I most definitely love the food descriptions, etc. I love picking up little jars of homemade pestos and jams, etc. So all your little purchases sounded exactly like something I'd do- including the ceramics shop purchase!

Looking forward to more and who knows.. Sicily might have to go on that wish list. :)

thanks again for sharing!

The Piazza Duomo in Ortigia is one of the most beautiful piazze I have had the pleasure of visiting. Ortigia was our last stop in Sicily and we had several relaxing days there, so we spent hours sitting in the piazza people watching, wine drinking, and dessert trying. Glad you and your mom got to do the same. If you ever go back to Sicily and you like the Sicilian Baroque, Modica is well worth a visit.

AnnMarie...thanks for following along. Yes, the RS alumn discount is certainly a nice incentive to keep booking with him.

sarge...glad you are enjoying the food descriptions. Mom and I certainly do travel on our stomachs...LOL! :-D

Leely...I had read a bit about Modica and wished we had time to visit there. Yet another reason to return to Sicily.

Friday, March 7, 2014

If my memory serves me correct, this day seemed to be the one we spent the most time on the bus, but even saying that, it wasn’t more than maybe 3 hours or so. We left Siracusa and headed in-land to the town of Caltagirone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltagirone ).

Caltagirone is known for ceramics production and our first stop was at a ceramics workshop to take a tour and see how ceramics are made. It was interesting to watch how the process works, going from a block of clay to a painted and finished plate or bowl. The ceramics workshop, although not huge, was much larger than the studio mom and I stumbled across in Ortigia and although all the products on display in Caltragirone where nice, we were very happy we made our ceramics purchases prior to this stop.

We had some free time in this town and got to see the stairway that is decorated with lovely ceramic tiles. We also popped into a few shops to browse as we slowly made our way back to the bus at the bottom of town. Our next stop was at the Villa Romana del Casale, here is the site’s website: http://www.villaromanadelcasale.it/en/

Astonishing is the word that comes to my mind when describing the mosaics at this villa. I was not expecting the villa complex to be so extensive and I could hardly wrap my brain around how well preserved many of the mosaics were. Mom and I have been fortunate to see many places with mosaics but the sheer volume and excellent condition of these were incredible.

When we were done viewing the mosaics at the Villa Romana del Casale, we hopped back on the bus for the ride to Agrigento. We arrived at the Colleverde Park Hotel just before sunset and were escorted by the hotel manager out to the hotel terrace which had a sweeping view of the Valley of the Temples. It was a little taste of what we would be seeing the next day. Here is the hotel website: http://www.colleverdehotel.it/

Shortly after settling into our room, mom and I wandered down to the lobby bar for a glass of wine. Had the temperature been a little warmer, the outdoor terrace would have been the perfect spot, but the lobby area was pleasant and we were ready for a little vino. As we sat enjoying our wine we were joined by other tour members and then we were off to a group dinner at Trattoria Caico located at Via Nettuno, 35 in Agrigento.

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this meal. It was definitely seafood-focused and the portions were abundant. There was a lot of happy conversation going on and mom and were introduced to a new (to us) dessert wine called passito. We will certainly seek out this in future travels. After dinner the group piled into two minivans and were whisked back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep before exploring temples the next day.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

This was our last full day with the tour group and it was another jaw-dropping day. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like the Valley of the Temples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrigento

I am running out of words to describe what I have seen in Sicily. Are “stunning, amazing, and incredible” good enough to use? I’m not sure, but that is how I felt. The temples are (in my less than well-informed opinion) unbelievably well preserved. It probably helped that we had a lovely sunny day and very few other visitors during the time we were there. The local guide, Michele, was a fount of information and passionate about what he spoke on.

We spent time wandering about and before we knew it, the time had come to move on. We took a lunch break at a local truck stop and had a very tasty pasta lunch, but the big treat at this stop was the vintage Fiat CinqueCento painted to look like a Sicilian cart. What a great photo op for me, who is obsessed with those cute little Fiat CinqueCentos!

Our next stop was at Segesta to see another well preserved temple and another Greek theater with a beautiful view. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segesta

As the sun began to set we made our way back to Palermo and the Hotel Ambasciatori. Just when I thought we couldn’t get a bigger room, we now had a room with a bedroom area, a foyer area and the largest bathroom I have ever had in Europe.

Our farewell dinner was scheduled to be at the hotel. They had recently gotten permits to serve as a full restaurant, not just a breakfast room, so our dinner would be in the rooftop terrace/breakfast room. Mom and I wandered up to the roof about 30 minutes before dinner and sat down for a glass of wine as other group members began to wander in.

The conversations were flowing around all the tables, and I wish I could say this was one of the best meals of the trip, but it was not very good at all. We disliked it so much, neither mom nor I can even remember what the menu was. We did not let this get us down, since we had many great memories of this trip and met some wonderful people. After saying our goodbyes, since many tour members had very early flights the next day, we made our way down to our room to get some shut-eye. We were looking forward to our last day in Palermo, which would be in our “style”.

Aren't those mosaics fabulous! I think Sicily has the best Roman mosaics I've seen anywhere, and the only possible competition for the Byzantine mosaics is Ravenna.

The Agrigento hotel is an itinerary change. The tours used to stay at an agriturismo outside Piazza Amerina. I think it's an improvement, there was nothing to do at the agriturismo if it wasn't swimming weather, and I was sorry not to see the temples at sunset.

LCI - We, too, loved the Valley of the Temples. We stayed in Agrigento at a B&B and we also saw them from the rooftop terrace. So beautiful. We took lots of pictures the days we visited the temples - and hope you did too. Would love to see pictures of your trip if you would be willing to share them.

thursdaysd...I agree with you about the mosaics! Yes, our guide mentioned the hotel change from the agriturismo. He said this way seemed to work well for the timing of seeing the temples and arriving back in Palermo earlier in the afternoon.

bab...I will post a link to a shutterfly album of my pictures at the end of the trip report.

LCI,
I am so enjoying you report. Bringing back wonderful memories! Nice to see we have another Sicily convert.

My highlight was Villa Romana too. Just simply amazing - the sheer size and the artistry.

My interest was originally sparked by Bob's trip report, then I read thursdayd's, Leely2's and others. I still thank you all for your trip reports, recommendations and advice!

So nice when people pay back with trip reports.

Ciao

LCI - Your trip report is so well written and detailed. Do you 'journal' during your trip, or do you write when you return home? I just returned from Rome and Bologna and wrote the Bologna portion of my TR while I was in Italy. Once I got to Rome, I was so busy that I stopped writing. I have notes and my itinerary for reference but the Rome portion may not be as detailed. What's your secret to so much detail?

We visited Villa Romana del Casale 2 years ago. I absolutely loved it. The owner of our B&B was a certified tour guide so she drove us there and we each paid her 20euro for a tour. She was fabulous and a wealth of knowledge about the mosaics. We did not make it to Agrigento so I am in the process of convincing my husband we need to go back next March. I am loving your trip report. Thank you so much for writing it!!!

Thank you all for the kind remarks.

bab...I used to be an avid travel journaler, but found I was spending more and more time in the evenings during the trip journaling, and it was getting to be too much. Now I use the TripIt website to create an itinerary and on that I take notes, some more detailed then others. This helps to jog my memory, but for this trip the only helpful hints I wrote on the itinerary were restaurant meals and prices, everything else is pretty much by memory this time. I was already starting to forget things, so I figured if I didn't do it now, I may never! Also, my photos really help to job my memory too! :-)

Once I start writing, I tend to come at if from an angle as if I'm having a conversation with someone about my trip and I think that helps me remember things too!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

We had only one thing on our agenda today, and that was to visit and tour the Teatro Massimo. Here is the opera house’s website: http://www.teatromassimo.it/index_en.php

The Teatro Massimo is the opera house in Palermo and it is the third largest opera house in Europe. They offer tours in English and after a little sleep-in mom and I took the short walk there from the hotel. On a Sunday morning, the streets were blissfully quiet in Palermo and if my memory is correct, part of Via Roma was closed to vehicular traffic.

When we entered the opera house we inquired about purchasing tickets. The young women that helped us, was a cute as a button and her English was excellent. She began to guide us toward the ticket window, when she stopped us and said to mom, “I’m sorry to have to ask you this, but would you tell me your age?” Mom did and when we arrived at the ticket window the woman we were with told the ticket seller that mom would pay the reduced rate, mom’s first senior citizen discount in Europe!

We had about a 10 minute wait before the tour started and we were joined by a French speaking couple and two Asian gentlemen. We were happy to see the same young women who helped us with the tickets would be the tour guide.

It is not a long tour, maybe 30 minutes, give or take, but it was nice to be able to stand in the orchestra section of the theater and see the stage and the seating areas. Next we moved upstairs and got to see the theater from the presidential box. Hearing the history of the theater and seeing some of the original chandeliers was a great way to spend the morning.

Upon leaving the Teatro Massimo we realized the temperatures were warming up! We meandered down the traffic-free street for a bit, and realized we were thirsty just as we came upon the Touring Café at Via Roma, 252. I had read about this place being notorious for having arancini the size of your head, ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but they were at least the size of my fist. We weren’t particularly hungry, but we did want something to drink.

At this point in the trip I was coming down with a cold (which followed me home and lasted 10 days) so, the fresh squeezed orange juice at the Touring Café was calling my name and mom had an iced cappuccino. Both drinks cooled us off and were refreshing.

Prior to leaving the hotel in the morning I had asked the front desk receptionist to make a lunch reservation for us. Being a Sunday, most of the restaurants I had on my list were closed, so I flipped open the Lonely Planet guide book we had and went on pure faith by picking Trattoria Primavera.

This was a great decision. Trattoria Primavera is located at Piazza Bologni, 4, which is just off the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. We got there right at our 1pm reservation time and received a warm greeting. The staff was going to seat us inside, but the sun was shining and they had several tables outside under umbrellas, so we asked if we could sit outside. Without missing a beat, the young man picked up a set table from inside the restaurant and walked it outside and placed it in a perfect shady spot under the umbrella.

Sunday lunch is definitely a big deal. As we sat down, the tables inside and out began to fill up, some with parties of 2 or 4 but many with parties of 6 or more, it seemed to us, this was family meal day!

As mom and I sat there, a young couple with their toddler sat at the opposite end of the outside area. The young man looked so familiar to me, and then it hit me, it was one of the Benanti brothers from the winery tour! And within a few minutes, a distinguished older gentleman walks by and mom says to me, “Why does he look so familiar to me, who would I know in Palermo?” I said, “Well, I think it is Mr. Benanti because it sure looks like his son at that table over there”. We didn’t disturb their meal, but we each thought….hmmmm, this restaurant shouldn’t too bad, if the winery family is going here, and we were right with that assumption!

We had a very leisurely lunch, the sunshiny day, was the perfect backdrop for such an “event”. For our starter we had a dish of caponata, I really enjoyed this version, mom thought it was just a little on the sweet side for her. For main dishes mom had the grilled swordfish and I had the Saberfish involtini. Finally, for once, I had the “winning” dish of the meal. Mom’s swordfish was grilled to perfect and beautifully moist and tender but the Saberfish involtini was so flavorful, I didn’t want the meal to end, it was so good. We had 2 side dishes of grilled vegetables and a tomato and olive salad. The side dishes were ok, but the fish dishes were the stars of the meal. With a bottle of water, a half-liter of house white wine and 2 amaro for our disgesitvo we had very delicious lunch for €53.

We sauntered back to the hotel to start the packing process. We were smart this trip and brought with us 2 folding duffle bags, because we knew we would want to buy wine while in Sicily. Yes, we have purchased suitcases on other trips, because we do tend to like bringing back wine and I was not going to have to go running around Palermo looking for another suitcase. Let me just say you should see the collection of sad little suitcases we have from around the world!

Once our bags were packed and ready for our very early morning departure, we decided we needed one or two last glasses of wine in Palermo. Our intention was to go back to Cana Enoteca, but when we got there it was closed for a special function (they are usually open on Sunday evenings), so we walked back over to the Touring Café since they were open and had a couple glasses of wine before calling it an early night.

Monday, March 10, 2014

We were in the lobby and the driver we arranged through Don Saro was there right on time at 4:30am to whisk us to the Palermo airport. Our Alitalia flight was scheduled to depart at 6:30am and when I saw the huge line at the check-in desk I was glad we arrived early. Even better, I spied the much shorter line for Sky Priority members and we got in that line with only 2 people in front of us. Sometimes having gold status on Delta does help. By the time we checked our bags, got our boarding passes, made our way through security and found our way to the departure gate it was only about 30 minutes before boarding.

I’m happy to say all our flights were on time and our connections were smooth, and after essentially traveling for 24 hours, we were glad to lay our heads down on our own pillows.

For those interested, here is a link to our trip photos:

https://marcysviewoftheworld.shutter.../pictures/1965

Bookmarking!!

Yep, Sicily is now at the top of my list

Thanks for the fab report, as usual. So glad you and your mom had such a terrific trip!!!