Taste & Travel: Sicily

Last weekend we went to Sicily. It was a long weekend because of President's Day and I took that Friday off so we had 4 days to explore the beautiful island of Sicily. We flew in to Palermo at a ridiculously early hour of the morning. We rented a car and started driving east. (The car we ended up with was a convertible - not what I wanted...I was imagining a small little Italian car, but oh well.)

We started driving on the motorway but it was rather uneventful. After about an hour, we decided to explore the small town of Cefalu. We parked and walked to the beach. It was a cold and windy day, but we still walked in the sand. As we sat and ate snacks, we could see the dark wall of rain clouds approaching. We decided to get back in the car and drive along the coast instead of the motorway. Even though we drove really fast but the rain cloud caught up with us. We drove along the coast for a while and it was really pretty. It was a lot of fun for Bill to drive on the curvy roads too.

After more driving, we ended up in Taormina, on the east coast of Sicily. We used a GPS to find our hotel and it worked surprisingly well. We navigated narrow streets and arrived at our hotel. We spent the afternoon walking around Taormina and finding a cute (empty) restaurant for dinner.

The next day, we were picked up in the morning for a guided tour of the area and a trip up to Mt. Etna - an active volcano. Our guide drove us around and enlightened us before heading up to the volcano. It was a long trip because it was snowing and we drove VERY slowly. At the top, we got out and explored a few of the craters in the snow. Yup, it was snowing on the volcano...I'm glad we were prepared with warm clothes! I was surprised to find a ski lift and a bunch of skiers up there too. It really was beautiful. We also visited a winery and we tasted flavored honey and olive oil (very delicious). After driving down to the coast and to an overlook outside Taormina, our tour was over. We spent the afternoon walking around the ruins of an old Greek amphitheater.

For dinner (it was Valentine's Day after all) we tried to go to a slightly fancy restaurant...but they didn't have room for us. It was kind of funny - we walked in and asked to be seated and they looked around their nearly empty dining room and told us they didn't have room. We think it was because we were under-dressed. But, it didn't matter...we wandered around and found Ristorante Mamma Rosa...which turned out to be excellent. Bill raved about his swordfish!

The following day, we left Taormina and headed down the east coast to Siracusa...we didn't stay long though because we had to make across the island that day. We got out and walked around for a few minutes and then we went to McDonald's. Yup - we can't seem to go on vacation without visiting McD's. It was quick and tasty. We continued driving across the middle of the island on our way to Agrigento. It was some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen in Italy so far. We drove through green, rolling hills with snow-capped peaks in the distance - very pretty!

We arrived in Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples. Here, there are a bunch of old ruins and temples from when the Greeks inhabited the island. We wandered around the ruins for a while and then went to our hotel. For dinner, we walked down to the coast to find a good seafood restaurant. Unfortunately, San Leone is a summer, beach town and it is completely dead in the winter. Practically nothing was open and it was all a bit creepy. Anyway, we found a small restaurant and ate an OK meal...nothing spectacular.

The next day, our last in Sicily, we slept in and took our time driving back up to Palermo. We drove through more of the beautiful countryside and even stopped by the ocean again, just to see it before leaving. We made it back to the airport in time to eat lunch and catch our flight. It was a fun trip to Sicily and we enjoyed seeing the sights. We are glad we took the time to visit Italy's southern island! I'm sure it is very different in the summer, when the sun is oppressive and the beaches are crowded, but we enjoyed our time very much!

pretty rainbow