St. Paul—During the long, cold Minnesota winter, more than three dozen readers and I had the chance to escape to an unexpected tropical paradise—Sicily and Southern Italy.
I had been to Tuscany before, but the beaches, abundant citrus trees, palm trees and agave and prickly pear plants in the southern part of the country were a welcome surprise, even though temperatures weren’t quite swimsuit friendly.
With that climate comes a cornucopia of always-in-season produce, which makes for the amazing food scene we experienced. In addition, the history and archaeology of the region is mind-blowing and picturesque and the people friendly and animated.
Here’s a rundown of what our merry group of travelers did during a magnificent 12-day stay in the region.
Palermo
If you visit just one place in Sicily, I’d argue Palermo should be it. It’s the capital of the island and is full of history, culture, culinary delights, and beauty—and the little bit of grit inherent in any large city.
After settling into our gorgeous, modern hotel with views of the Tyrrhenian Sea, we were treated to a welcome dinner where we got to know each other and our fantastic tour manager Federico Alvarez a little.
The next morning, we met our local tour guide, Roberta, who would be with us for the three days we spent in this city of more than 600,000 people for a walking tour.
We started our tour outside Porta Nuova, a monumental gate built in the 1500s. It is old, but not nearly as old as the city itself, which was founded in the 8th century B.C. by the Phoenicians.
As Roberta would explain many times, the island of Sicily, with its strategic position and abundant landscape, was occupied by 13 nations before becoming part of Italy.
Its architecture and culture definitely reflect this. There’s an all-are-welcome mentality that is built into the fabric of the community.
As for the architecture, it’s a mishmash of all the nations that have occupied the space, with some buildings sporting Norman, Roman, Spanish, and Italian influences. Sandstone is the primary building material for the really old buildings, and erosion and pollution have worn and stained many of them.
The streets of the historic city center are lined with four- or five-story buildings, all of which have iron balconies, usually adorned with gorgeous hanging plants, succulents and flowers.
We walked past many of them, and the (closed at the time, to our dismay) food market that has been in operation since the 1500s, until we reached the Quattro Canti, one of the city’s main intersections, which features a small square with curved facades on all four of its facing buildings.
Just a few steps away is the quirky, wonderful Piazza Pretoria, which is marked by a central fountain full of mostly nude marble statues. The fountain had originally been designed for a palace in Florence, but was purchased by the city’s Senate in 1573 and transported to Palermo, where it was promptly situated outside of what was then a convent.
For that reason, it’s colloquially known as “The Fountain of Shame” because the nuns could see it from their windows.
For lunch, we stopped at a (19th century!) restaurant for some local specialties, including a sheep’s milk ricotta sandwich (delicious), a focaccia pizza of sorts (tasty, just sauce, no cheese) and little bright green marzipan cakes called cassata (too sweet for me). The brave among us ordered the real specialty of the place, a spleen sandwich. It was tasty but had an organ-meat aftertaste that stuck with me a little too long.
Later this day, I was delighted to learn that not only does Sicily take credit for inventing ice cream (gelato), but the island is also known for its pistachios, which meant that my favorite flavor of my favorite Italian dessert would be better here than anywhere else. I sampled it nearly every day, just to make sure.
That night, we ventured into the city after dark to eat a six-course tasting menu for just $58 Euro at Buatta, a lively local restaurant in the historic center. My favorite course was probably a simple slab of smoked tuna, but a square of fried Caciocavallo cheese (yes, a Sicilian cheese curd!) was a close second. We stopped for what became the travelers’ favorite drink—a refreshing limoncello spritz—at a tiny bar across the street before walking back to the hotel.
Cefalu and Farm Visit
Today’s optional excursion landed us in the little resort town of Cefalu, where we were treated to breathtaking views of the bright blue sea, which was especially angry on the day we visited.
The town is known for its 12th Century Norman cathedral, with two soaring towers flanked by picturesque palm trees. The interior is adorned with gorgeous mosaics, most of which were, unfortunately, undergoing restoration and therefore behind scaffolding while we were there.
As we wound our way through the town’s narrow streets, we came across Giuseppe, a produce vendor who drives his little truck overflowing with colorful fruits and vegetables through the streets. Since the shops are on the first floors of the buildings and the residences up a steep set of stairs, traditionally the matron of the house would come out to the calls of the produce vendor, who still calls loudly up and down the street. The resident lowers a basket with money in it, tells the vendor what they want, and the produce and change go into the basket and up to the apartment. Amazing.
When we were set free for lunch and exploring on our own, I made a beeline for a tiny storefront advertising arancini (fried stuffed rice balls) made to order. I watched as one guy rolled the saffron-infused risotto around the fillings (everything from cheese to mushrooms to salami) and the other dropped our order (traditional ham and butter) into the hot oil. These baseball-sized delights were fried twice, resulting in a delightfully crisp texture giving way to an explosion of flavorful, tender rice and salty bits of ham.
We were warned not to eat too much, because we were headed to Case Varisco, a little farm on the outskirts of Palermo. The farm, an agriturismo (meaning you can stay here and even help with chores as part of your vacation), would be offering us a tour and, Federico joked, “a light dinner.”
Our host, the matriarch of the farm, Cinzia, was animated, friendly, and full of stories about how her husband’s family, which has owned the property for generations, lived and worked the land and animals. They even have a little museum of sorts in one of the older houses on the property, where she showed us exactly what life was like on a farm before electricity, running water, and other modern conveniences.
Afterward, a handful of us helped to roll arancini, with Cinzia hilariously making it a race and egging us on. Our “light dinner” included those scrumptious rice balls, but also stewed pumpkin, fresh ricotta, focaccia, bacon-wrapped leeks, eggplant involtini, pork sandwiches, meatballs, risotto, red-sauce pasta, lamb, sausage, pork loin, salad, fruit and recently stuffed (the only way Sicilians eat them) cannoli. Seriously.
We returned to the motor coach stuffed, happy, and maybe a little drunk on farm wine, which was also delicious.
Monreale and Valley of the Temples
On our way out of Palermo, we stopped at Monreale, a little mountain town within the city limits that is known for its absolutely stunning cathedral, every inch of which—60,000 square feet in total—is covered with intricate gold and marble mosaics.
Those mosaics represent whole books of the bible, and Roberta gave us a rundown of which stories were depicted by which mosaics, along with explanations of the politics that went into building this UNESCO World Heritage monument.
We all tried to capture the cathedral’s beauty with our cameras, but really, it’s the kind of place you just have to see in person.
Speaking of which, our afternoon destination was to the southern coast to visit another UNESCO site, Valley of the Temples, a Greek settlement (yes, the Greeks ruled here, too) from the 5th century B.C.
The best-preserved part of the hilltop settlement (yes, “valley” is a misnomer) is the temples, each originally dedicated to its own Greek god. The shockingly intact Temple of Concordia is one of, if not the, best-preserved Greek temples in the world. The structure was turned into a church in the 6th century, which might explain why it has outlasted some of the other temples on the site.
Our local guide Michael gave us a thorough explanation of the construction techniques and massive amounts of slave labor used to make these temples, along with a history of the archaeology required to bring the structures back to life. The site once housed 200,000 Greek immigrants who left their home country because of overcrowding and looked at Sicily as the promised land.
Taormina and Mt. Etna
If you have watched season two of HBO’s hit series “The White Lotus,” you have seen the gorgeous seaside town of Taormina.
The Four Seasons resort where the show was filmed is one of two luxury resorts in the town, and the place definitely feels like a playground for the rich and famous, but one with a stunning Greek amphitheater that boasts views of the constantly active Mt. Etna.
Minnesota son Bob Dylan famously played the amphitheater, which still hosts summer shows, during a particularly fiery eruption in 2001, and legend has it that he spent more time turned around to watch the eruption than he did facing the crowd. Oh, Bob, your quirkiness is known the world over.
The amphitheater is situated at the highest point of the town, and walking down, the way is chock full of souvenir vendors. But once you get into the center of town, there is a sprawling marble-floored piazza overlooking the ocean and a main street full of luxury goods and quaint restaurants.
We had a glass of crisp, local white wine, and a fantastic diavolo pizza in one of those restaurants and watched the fancy people and tourists stroll by while listening to traditional folk music from a street musician.
After, we ate what is hands-down the best pistachio gelato (or any ice cream, period) I have ever tasted, at Nove, a little shop that specializes in the very expensive, very intensely flavored Sicilian pistachio. The store offers gelato that is churning right in front of you, topped with a sprinkling of those bright green nuts and a little piece of pistachio brittle. Had we stayed in this town I would have eaten it twice a day, every day, but our hotel was in Giardini Naxos, across the bay. Probably for the best.
The next day, we took a bus ride to the massive Mt. Etna, winding our way above the treeline, about halfway up the volcano before stopping to meander around a crater.
Along the way, our local guide Emily explained that the volcano gives as good as it gets, covering entire towns sometimes with lava and ash, but infusing the soil with minerals so abundant that agriculture here is as easy as throwing seeds in the ground.
On our final evening on the island of Sicily, many of us chose to attend a dinner in Giardini Naxos featuring local specialties, punctuated by folk music from a lively trio of local musicians. Dinner was tasty and abundant—as we learned is always the case in Sicily—and we were treated to gorgeous views of a lit-up Taormina, with reflections on the water, as we left the restaurant.
Matera and Alberobello
After taking a short ferry ride to the mainland, we drove north through the bottom part of the boot of Italy to land near its heel in Matera.
On the way, we stopped at Masseria Crocco, a mountain winery situated in the Basilicata region. We walked the vineyards, took in the spectacular views, learned about the winemaking process, and—surprise!—had another “light” dinner paired with the winery’s spectacular, but unfortunately not shippable or available in the United States, wines. We particularly enjoyed the Puleggio Bianca, a crisp, minerally and slightly effervescent white—so much so that we made room in our suitcase to bring a bottle home.
Looking at a map, it seemed like a long way to travel to get to Matera, which is seemingly situated in the middle of nowhere and is nowhere near a coast, but this stunning UNESCO settlement, carved into limestone cliffs, is absolutely worth the drive.
We walked up and up and up the winding staircases that constitute “streets” in the city, which afforded us views of the ancient cathedral and dwellings carved into the mountainside across the way. The city has been continuously occupied since the 10th century B.C., which is the paleolithic period for you history (or pre-history, in this case) buffs. It’s the third-longest inhabited city, after Aleppo and Jericho.
We toured a cave home, which was occupied until 1959, when the government was forcing the inhabitants to move to more modern homes—these lacked indoor plumbing and electricity, and residents kept their livestock in the cave homes, too. Needless to say, that was a bit unsanitary and the mortality rate was high.
The city has been used as a backdrop for many films, including Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” and the James Bond thriller “No Time to Die.”
After being set loose for lunch, we found a spot overlooking the city to enjoy some local pastas—including orecchiette with turnip greens—and a fantastic local white wine.
In the afternoon, we took an optional trip to Alberobello to see the town’s whimsical trulli homes, which feature cone-shaped roofs. The town has 1,500 of these homes, and the stone rooftops were built so that the owner could remove a stone and they would quickly collapse, therefore not counting as a home to evade the out-of-town tax assessor from the kingdom of Naples.
Seventeenth-century tax evasion required some innovative thinking!
Sorrento and Positano
After a stop at a buffalo farm to see (and smell, unfortunately) a sustainable cheesemaking operation and have a blessedly actually light lunch, including that delicious cheese, we made our way to the seaside town of Sorrento, which is just across the bay from Naples.
Before we checked into our hotel, though, Federico arranged a stop for us at the local limoncello factory, where they put southern Italy’s abundant lemon crop to work. We sipped spritzes and slushies and some of us stocked up on some of this liquid sunshine to bring home.
We got a quick orientation from Federico so that we would be able to find our way around Sorrento. This included a stop to see how inlaid wood items, for which Sorrento is famous, are made. I was taken with the modern, abstract-art versions of this craft and bought a jewelry box. It wasn’t cheap, but it is a beautiful, heirloom-quality keepsake.
We were on our own for dinner, and although many from our group headed to one of the Michelin-starred restaurants in town, we instead opted to dine at my friend Giuseppe Donato’s restaurant, Storico8. We noshed on an eggplant sandwich made from the best focaccia I have tasted and a gnocchi dish that his son, who was our server, created. His wife is the chef.
Giuseppe was our tour manager in Tuscany. He has since quit the touring business in favor of running the family business in Sorrento’s adorable historic center. His father and his grandfather before him have been business owners, and he belongs to the men’s club in town, which fosters community and helps members who are down on their luck—and has for many generations. The club is in the Sedile Dominova, a 14th-century building with a gorgeous dome and original frescoes that was originally used as a meeting place for aristocracy. It’s also right across the street from Giuseppe’s restaurant.
The next day, it was time to see Italy’s rugged Amalfi Coast. Because of environmental and safety concerns, motorcoaches are no longer allowed to drive the twisty, narrow roads along it, so bigger tours like ours take ferries along the coast.
In theory, this is great, since you get to see this absolutely gorgeous coastline—it’s mostly just giant rocky cliffs meeting the sea—from the water. But on the day we went, the sea was churning, and so was the boat. Most of us sat up top to combat seasickness, though, so we managed. A few of us were even brave enough to order champagne on board.
After about an hour on the boat, we pulled up to Positano, the picture-perfect postcard of a town carved into the seaside cliffs that you have probably seen if you’ve looked at photos of this famous coast.
We were set loose to walk up and up and up the cliffs and through narrow alleys filled with tourists, but also sometimes covered in beautiful overhead lattices from which periwinkle wisteria blooms hang. After wandering nearly to the top, we headed down to the beach and chose a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the sea—La Cambusa Positano.
I was very excited to see that they had zucchini spaghetti on the menu. After seeing the dish on Stanley Tucci’s “Searching for Italy,” I desperately wanted to try it. And the deceptively simple dish, which consists of zucchini that have been fried in oil until brown then left to sit overnight in the refrigerator along with a few kinds of cheese and some butter, was honestly better than I dreamed. Nutty, rich and far exceeding the sum of its parts, I would travel back to Positano just to eat it.
Pompeii and Farewell
We had gone to bed early, because we wanted to be especially alert for one of the highlights of the trip—Pompeii.
This city, famously buried under meters of ashes after a violent eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79, has been thoroughly excavated over the years—some of the first archaeology occurred here in the 1700s. Still, 25 percent of the city, which housed 11,000 people when it was buried, remains underground.
It’s a ticketed park now—we joked that it’s the archaeological Disneyland—that attracts 10,000 visitors a day. But it’s worth wading through the crowds to see the treasures that were preserved when the volcano erupted.
Our local guide Enzo (I highly recommend having a guide to help you find and interpret the most important places in the city) showed us an aristocrat’s palace, including intricate tiles, indoor fountains, mosaics, courtyards, and slave quarters. We saw original frescoes, so beautiful and vibrant it’s impossible to believe they were made 2,000 years ago.
But as food lovers, our favorite spots were the ancient “fast-food” restaurants—marble counters with clay urns that kept soup hot for serving quickly, along with stations for wine and bread service—and the giant brick bread oven that shared space with giant stone mills for grinding the grain.
We visited just a tiny part of the park, and I would love to return and spend a full day there, letting my imagination fill in the ancient Roman people, living and working in this incredibly modern city.
Back in Sorrento, we gathered for a farewell dinner in the center of town at a gorgeous traditional restaurant with citrus gardens outside and abundant plants within. There was plenty of wine, good food, and new friends to toast.
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