Your favorite experience or hidden corners of Sicily?
 

There are often little hidden places, shops, experiences, etc., that we just stumble across in our travels. Some actually become the highlight of an entire trip. Does anyone have a special memory of Sicily ... an unplanned detour in your itinerary ... a place you would like to return to or a hidden gem that made your trip special?

How about some place, event or detour you would not like to repeat?

We spent 2 weeks traveling through Sicily. We stayed 5 days in Taormina at Hotel Timeo. We did day trips from there. It was a wonderful hotel. The town is very charming and is great for walking a night.Agrigento is a must for one night to see the Valley of the Temples we stayed at Hotel Villa Athena only because of the location.
We also stayed 5 days in Palermo at the Hotel Igiea.The best thing you can do is get a book on Sicily and use it to plan your trip. It is beautiful driving and also very easy. I will say don't plan on driving in Palermo it is awful. At our hotel they had a shuttle into the city every half hour. If you are going in the summer look into staying also at a beach area. We were there this past Nov. so we did not do the beaches.
Good luck with your trip.

A few of our favorite stops: San Stephano where we bought the most wonderful ceramics at half the price of Taormina. Also had the BEST pastry here from a local corner store. We loved Tyndari - the basilica perched up high on a bluff overlooking the sea on the north coast. The tiny gift shop along the road right outside the basilica was a real find. We bought boy and girl Capodimonte dolls in fabulous costumes for SIX dollars each! We have seen them here in Boston for $75 each - same dolls!
The best seafood we had was at Ganziri along the water's edge - fantastic!

I cannot wait for my elderhostel cruise to Sicily and the Aeolian Islands in April 2005. I am really looking forward to seeing all the ruins!

While going with a group is different than going solo, the cruise is on a sailboat, not a big ocean liner. I hope it is as much fun as it sounds!

My favorite "hidden" part of Italy is the Nebrodi Mountains area, especially the town of San Salvatore di Fitalia.

This town is in a part of Sicily that was populated by the ancient Siculi people, and then the Greeks, and then also came under Arab domination. But the strongest influence of the present-day town was the Norman domination. Much of the architecture in the area is Norman, and in some nearby towns the local dialect has a words that came from the Normans.

San Salvatore is a small tan hilltown with clean air and beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and of the neighboring towns, each on its own small mountain. This is not a parched, barren part of Sicily. It is a fresh green area covered with hazelnut and other nut trees.

It's surprising that such a tiny town actually has two tourist-worthy sights. There is a strange, but interesting little museum of regional religious customs. One of the most bizarre things there was a collection of wax sculptures of body parts. Apparently people would have these wax replicas made of ailing body parts, and would pray to be healed. There were lots and lots of legs, heads and a variety of digits, made with varying degrees of skill. One case held a pair of wax lungs, and another, two big wax breasts in front of a tiny wax infant.

There are several churches, one of which, Santissima Salvatore, has a structurally very beautiful simple interior. It was originally Byzantine, with layers of later history reflected in various architectural elements. The exterior looks mainly Norman. Another church is famous for its statue of the town's black patron saint.

There are some interesting, but not famous, places to visit very near San Salvatore, too. The town is near, but not actually within, the Nebrodi Mountains parklands, which are known for their unspoiled natural beauty. In San Fratello, there are the Sanfratello horses, a breed that developed only in this area. The town of Tortorici, which is very near San Salvatore, serves as a commercial center for surrounding towns. But it retains a very traditional character. It has a nice little museum of everyday material culture and folkways. Nearby Galiti Mamertino, one of the hilltowns that is easily seen from San Salvatore, has the ruins of a fortress on the high point of the town, and from there, there are great views of the Nebrodi parklands. Frazzano has the ruins of a convent. It is only partly restored, and doesn't get much attention. The restoration is very incomplete, partly because so much was stolen. The site was interesting to me because it had such a mixture of architectural and decorative elements from Arab, Byzantine, and Norman periods.

P.S. My visit to this area was not unplanned.

Dorgal: What else did you like about Santo Stefano di Camastra besides the ceramics shops? I never stopped there, but when I passed though on a bus (when the train couldn't run and everyone was switched to a s-l-o-w bus) it looked very dry and dusty and I saw so many ceramics shops and nothing but ceramics shops. I was surprised that Santo Stefano di Camastra is actually within the confines of the Nebrodi parklands, so I know it must have some natural feature that made it qualify.

Also Dorgal: I also enjoyed Tindari. I didn't even notice any shop. It was probably hidden by the hundreds of outdoor vendors. They were tacky, but I think that kind of scene is typical of a lot of religious pilgrimage sites and is not just some modern phenomenon. It was very crowded, but most of the people, including the people who took me there, seemed fairly local, not foreign tourists. I was impressed with the Greco-Roman archeological site there, which was far more extensive than I expected. The views down to the sea from that point were spectacular.

Sharoo: I was also in Sicily in November (2002). Wasn't that a pleasant time of year there? (It was pretty cold in the Nebrodi mountains, but mild every place else I went on that trip.) That's olive harvest time, too. An even worse place to drive than Palermo is Catania. I've never driven in Sicily, but I'm trying to get up the nerve to do so some day. I'm willing to struggle with public transportation routes and schedules to travel between major destinations in Sicily, but in any trip to Sicily I want to include a special visit to a somewhat remote area, which used to be very inaccessible on narrow unpaved mountain roads, but is now easily reached by a good fast modern road. I got rides the last two times, but next time, maybe I'll have the nerve to rent a car.

Was anyone able to pick up an automatic car in Sicily any place other than Palermo or Catania?

The little islands off the coast of Sicily are wonderful. I stayed in Volcanello where we hiked to the top of the volcano, swam in the bubbling water, and hiked the beautiful and deserted beaches.

Siracusa: especially the area known as Ortigia a little spit off the main city, jutting into the sea that has wonderful twisting allies each one ening in a charming shop, cafe, bar or artists workshop.

Noto: south of Siracusa, a little Baroque jewel of a town with almond pasties to die for and seafood that is fresh and very inexepensive compared to the big cities

Noto Vecchi: the ruins of the original town: we came here to "kill" an hour one day and were blown away by the evocative atmosphere, spooky but beautiful

Erice-the most beautiful hilltown I have ever visited in Italy.

Topping because I'm a huge fan of Sicily and want to know about more "hidden" ane little known places.

cmt - re: San Stephano - -no I guess now that you mention it - there was not a huge amount of natural beauty there - I think it may be regarded almost as a "factory" town becaue of all the ceramics shops.....but wow - so many beautiful ceramics at such cheap prices!
re: gift shops at TYndari - yes it was one of the little stalls right along the road outside the church on the way to the mosaics. We hunted thru every one of them and as usual - came out with a great "find".
Also - yes- I agree with a trip to Syracusa - fantastic mazes of OLD stone alleys and streets - another world - truly!

Dorgal: There must be natural beauty somewhere within the comune of Santo Stefano, because I think it's in the Nebrodi Mountains Park, technically, and I find that odd. Maybe it was just politics.... Anyway, I've heard from others that it's a great place to shop for ceramics, but I don't think most first, second, or third-time visitors to Sicily go there.

I hope people post about more truly "hidden" places. Of course all the NON-hidden places are wonderful, but we know about them.

One more somewhat less famous place that I liked was Salina, one of the small Aeolian islands. I loved seeing caper flowers in bloom. A hike up to a high point of the island was beautiful and refreshing and not excessively strenous. It's also enjoyable to see a scenic spot where part of the movie Il Postino was filmed.

Thank you for all the great postings. I have my map in hand and am planning new routes.

I don't know if it qualifies as "hidden", but we visited Favignana, one of the Egadi Islands, last summer. It is a short ferry ride from Trapani and can be done as a day trip. You can rent bicycles or motorinos at the ferry landing and explore the island. It has some of the prettiest and least crowded beaches I've seen in Italy.

To RBrazill: where do you catch the ferry to Favignana? Trapani? Do you remember how often they run? Thank you.

Ferries to Favignana leave from Trapani and Marsala. Here are the websites for the ferries from Trapani, as well as a website just about Favignana:
http://www.gruppotirrenia.it/
http://www.usticalines.it/orariegadi.htm
http://www.favignana.com/
Roger

CMT, if you haven't already read it, then you'd probably enjoy The Stone Boudoir, by Theresa Maggio. Described as "Travels through the Hidden Villages of Sicily". I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

She also wrote Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily.

I have ancestors that lived in little villages such as Villedolma, Villaba, and Santa Anna, Girgento (Agrigento?)Anyone been there and could describe those villages?

Princess: If it's Agrigento that you mean, that is NOT a village! It's one of the cities in Sicily, a provincial capital, in fact, and one of the most visited places in the region. You can find a lot of answers and personal experiences about Agrigento if you do a simple search for it here on Fodors. (I was there, but many years ago.) I haven't been to the other places, but I have been to the small town of my own ancestry in Sicily, and I highly recommend the experience, wherever yours might be.

Are you sure of the spellings of each of these towns or villages? Could it be Villabate or Villalba rather than Villaba, and Villadoro rather than Villadolma? If you're not sure of the spelling but are just trying to remember what you heard long ago and no one's alive to verify, then it would help if you knew the province or the general area of Sicily a town was in and then you can figure out which particular somewhat similarly spelled town it might be. Michelin orange map #432 is good. It has an index, and it even shows little villages.

Favignana, definitely. Utterly beautiful island, no tourists in spring. Can bicycle around the entire thing. Couldn't get more perfect.

CMT: Thanks for all the great info on the Nebrodi area. I can't believe you were in Tortorici. I was there last August to visit family I had never met, as my grandfather was from there. And now my whole family is going back in 2005 so these tips are great! Thanks so much.

We drove around Sicily a few years ago and went to Taormina looking for a hotel. Our car, which was small enough, actually got stuck on a narrow dead-end street and we couldn't move at all. Luckily a local resident took pity on us and asked his neighbors to open their garage doors to allow us to turn around. He did it for us with barely a scratch on the car! Grazie!

After that we wanted out, since Taormina seemed busy & crowded with many tourists, so we headed for Mt Aetna (via Nicolosi). We spent the night on top of Mt Aetna in a "refugio" (hostel style). There was a gorgeous night sky and we it was so quiet and still...we really slept well! The next morning we took the funicular to the TOP. When busloads of tourists started to arrive, we headed out again.

Kelly: Half of my ancestors were from San Salvatore di Fitalia. That's so close to Tortorici. (Maybe we're related.) The agriturismo where I stayed is on land that is partly in Tortorici, partly in San Salvatore, and I think partly in Galati Mamertino.

I was first there long ago, when I was 16, with my parents. I met lots of relatives, including close cousins who now live in Switzerland and Umbria. My father was born in the US, but was taken back to Sicily as a baby and was raised by his grandmother in San Salvatore di Fitalia. The second time I was there was in 2000, and since I couldn't keep myself away long, I was there again in 2002.

I don't exactly know swarms of people interested in little towns in the Nebrodi Mountains. If you'd ever like to plan an off-season trip there with me (i.e., separate trips, but meet for a few days to travel around that area), let me know. (I usually look at any thread that has Sicily in the title, so you can probably catch my attention.)

Does Tortorici have a hotel? I've been thinking that if I ever learn to drive stick shift (or if I have a travel companion), then maybe next time I'll stay in Tortorici when visiting "my" town, instead of staying at La Vedetta dei Nebrodi, the agriturismo. The last two times I depended on rides--in 2000 from a cousin who lives in town, and in 2002 from the owner of the agriturismo. He (supposedly) offers full and part-day excursions for guests. I was skeptical, since it is a family subsistence farm, with just two guest rooms, and not some huge hospitality operation (though I think it's a very nice place--that's not meant as a criticism--but realistically it's just not set up to offer trips AND still be able to operate as a farm). When I made my reservation for the two nights I stayed in November 2000, I'd asked ahead whether I could have an excursion each day. He said I could. My conversation with him was in Italian, so I had a friend who is from Padova and was an Italian teacher get on the phone to confirm that he's said waht I thought he'd said. She confirmed. Then, when I was in Palermo, I called two days before going to confirm again and top tell hiom what train I'd be taking. He DID pick me up at the train station in Capo d'Orlando just as planned. But it turns out that he'd really overcommitted himself. There was no way he could offer full-day excursions for all three days. And because it was a lot more than a little stroll to town (S. Salavatore) from the agriturismo, I was more or less stranded when there (though, as I said, it was very nice). One day I tagged along while he went to some conference re green tourism in some nice hill town town (I think San Marco) where I was able to walk around a few hours while he was in the meeting. We were supposed to go to Tortorici after lunch, but instead I had to wait about four hours. That's why it was dark when we got there. A friend of his unlocked the little folk culture museum for us. It looked like a pleasant and possibly interesting town, and I think I'd like to see it in day light some time. The next day, instead of returning to Palermo as planned in the morning, I stayed until much later, and he gave me a nice mini tour of Galati Mamertino, Frazzano, and Longi. At least while waiting around I got to see cheese being made.

The funicular didn't go to the top. Here's what it looks like nowdays...

http://www.pbase.com/image/16146681

Our first night in Taormina we ate a tiny restaurant outside under a lemon tree. The meal was simply amazing, including the meatball baked in lemon leaves. It was one of our best meals in Italy and it was like $35 for the 4 of us with lots of wine.

For me, the best part of Sicily was the smell of jasmine.

We made a ground veal wrapped in lemon leaves dish in my cooking class near Taormina. I have the recipe somewhere. What I don't have is lemon leaves!

When I was in Sicily in May, what I smelled most was citrus blossoms--that scent they call "zagara." The smells were different in November.

The smell of the flowers, that's definitely a memory. That island is practically all orange and yellow in April and May.

cmt - There must be some places to get lemon leaves, maybe a florist. The Barefoot Condessa (Ina Garten?) on Food Network always talks about using them to decorate plates and stuff.

Now I'm on a search for lemon leaves.

Ooh no, I wouldn't cook with lemon leaves from a florist! They'd probably have some toxic preservatives or pesticides or growth retardants or antidesiccants or something like that on them. You need to get ones sold for culinary use.

If you live in FL or California you should be able to get them.

I know that kaffir lime leaves are sometimes sold in asain groceries, but I think they are much more pungent than regular lemon leaves, or at least different.

I know...plant some lemon seeds! You can grow a little house plant. It will never mature enough to bear fruit, but a lemon leaf is a lemon leaf. when I was a child, I had lemon or orange or grapefruit trees in post, which my father had encouraged me to plant for fun. (I don't know what they were because I'd plant a bunch of pits and only a few would germinante long after I tucked them into the soil.)

CMT: Unfortunately, there is no hotel in Tortorici. There are just a group of houses for rent in the outskirts of town. My plan right now is to go in the summer of 2005, because of my uncles school schedule.

I went to that museum too. My cousin called the towns tourism guy and he came over and unlocked it for us. And he took us to the foundry where they have been casting bells for a few hundred years. We walked all over visiting churches and just wandering. So I am really looking forward to returning and spending more time in the area. I was thinking the thing to do would be to stay in Capo d'Orlando and rent a car since there is more activity at night in Capo d'Orlando so it would be an easier location for dinner, etc. But that could change with time.

You never know, we may be related in some distant way. I found a distant cousin on the internet last summer and we have talked a couple times to compare notes on our trips to Tortorici. My grandfather was from Tortorici but we also have some relatives in Bronte (I found their businesses website- which is my last name- and contacted them) and Capo d'Orlando now according to the cousin I met last summer in Tortorici.

If you are there next summer at the same time we will have to meet and compare info.

I never travel in summer (used to in my 20s when I was a teacher), but I'd love to hear about your experience next summer.

I was amazed how easy it is to get to S. Salvatore di Fitalia from Capo d'Orlando now that there's a perfectly good modern road. But I think it's worth having the experience of staying right there--if not in the town of Tortorici, then at least in an agriturismo on the outskirts. Some of the free print publications, and possibly the website, of the Nebrodi Mts. park list lodging in the parklands. You could stay in one of these places, and have a more of a feel for the local area. If you can't find the list online or can't find where to order the booklets, I can try to find the ones I picked up in 2000. The place where I stay will not be listed, becaue it is technically not within the borders of the part. The name is La Vedetta dei Nebrodi. (If you do decide to go there, deal with them by phone, and don't expect replies to letters.) You can have just breakfast there or also have lunch and supper. You would be eating exactly what the owners are eating in their family--simple meals from pure ingredients. They make their own cheeses and bread and jams, and raise their own nuts and lamb and goat, and also oranges on a different property that is not os high up and is warmer. The woods and fields have an endless supply of wild greens, and they always have loads of wild mushrooms on hand, so if you like porcini, you may get your fill. That whole area is full of nut trees, especially hazelnuts.

I stayed in Capo d'Orlando one night before going to S. Salvatore in 2000. It was too early for beach season, but I think it's a beach resort for Sicilians and maybe for some mainland Italians. It's a medium-busy provincial town and commercial center, and now that there are modern roads, I think more people are able to live in their little home towns and commute to jobs in Capo d'Orlando. There's a park where the town comes out for the evening passeggiata. You're right that it is easy to find restaurants there. I had three meals there: a very good, not expensive meal of seafood and vegetables somewhere across from the beach, a very good pizza, and a so-so lunch at my hotel when I first arrived.

Capo d'Orlando is fine and convenient. But I just think you'd get more into the whole mood and rhythm of the Nebrodi hilltowns if you stay in the boondocks instead of in a busy little commercial town.

If you're in that are, you should definitely try to visit Tindari, which is right near Patti, along the coast, east of Capo d'Orlando. Don't miss the archeological site there. You might want to read up un the history and significance of the black madonna in south Italian/Sicilian religious and folk culture before you go to the cathedral (I didn't, unfortunately). I wonder whether Patti itself is interesting to visit.

Bronte is near Etna?

I just found that La Vedetta has a website. This is something new. Here's the url: http://www.vedettadeinebrodi.it/ They have e-mail, but I don't know whether they reply to it. NO English spoken there.

I found my Parco dei Nebrodi hotel list.

In Bronte:
Parco dell'Etna
C. da Borgonuovo
tel. 681907


in San Fratello (to the west of Tortorici, a little more distant than Capo d'Orlando, must seems like a very nice town to stay in, I think):

Albergo Monte Soro
Via Roma 23
tel. 794120
(postal code 0941)

There are also hotels within the parklands listed in: Caronia, Cerami, Cesarò, Mistretta, Randazzo, Sant'Agata Militello, Santo Stefano di Camastra.

You're probably right that Capo d'orlando is the most practical choice.

Good morning, Bella Sicilia1.1. the pasta con sarde in Palermo...2. The dolce thruout the island..3. Cefalu and its duomo. 4.Siracusa, its Ortigia,
and for some unknown reason, the Fonte Aretusa...5.Segusta, Selinunte, and the Villa at Pza. Armerina..6. its music and again its food.....
Richard of LaGrange Park, Il..

Another question ... has anyone been to Polizzi Generosa, Petralia Sottana, or Gangi? We will be staying in an agritourismo near Gangi for four days in October and would love to know which towns in that area you found the most interesting, friendly and accessible by car. Thank you. Your responses are so helpful.

Will anyone post about some other small towns and less visited parts of Sicily?

Does anyone have favorite books/novels that center around Sicily that I could recommend to my husband for reading before we go there? Thanks!

You can try any of the many works by Pirandello, Verga, or Sciascia or other well known Sicilian writers. For something lighter, there are mysteries by Camilleri. For light, but informative, nonfiction reading there's On Persephone's Isle by M.T. Simeti (an American living in Sicily), and for food history there's Pomp and Sustenance by the same writer..

Thanks CMT for the suggestions. The hubs does NO planning for our trips but does like to read novels/nonfiction about the place on the plane or when we get back.This allows him to suddenly become the "authority" on the place!Ah, the games we play..............

I had a fabulous meal in the tiny beach town of Porto Paolo, west of Agrigento. It's really a hidden gem. The entire West Coast of Sicily is much less touristed and really facinating. Too many details to put down here, but if you would like to see my photos and travelogue, please go to http://www.wired2theworld.com