Sicily, I thank you.

Sicily was by far my favorite part of Italy and, for that matter, or Europe. The people, food, and city are simply alive and beautiful. There are no pictures in this blog yet because I failed to steal the files from Berton. Therefore, it is infinitely less skim-friendly and seemingly even more long-winded than my other posts. I advise only the brave to continue :)

Berton and I began our adventure in Catania, a large city on south east coast of Sicily. Our bus from the airport happened to drop us off right outside the daily market, which gave us an awesome introduction to the city. We knew Catania had a sizeable market, but learned from locals that it is considered one of the best, if not the best, markets in the world. The simple amount of stands was incredibly impressive, encompassing multiple blocks. But there was also a great diversity and a high quality of product being sold.

Berton and I decided to make our lunch from the market. We grabbed a sesame bread, which ended up being one of my favorites of Europe, some delicious salami, real mozzarella, and bright red Sicilian tomatoes. We ate our lunch in the Duomo square. Duomo simply means the main Catholic church in Italy. Most cities have one and a pretty square to go along with it, usually with shops, restaurants, and always a few gelato joints. Fun place to people watch and attempt to blend in with the locals!

After lunch, we had about 8 hours to kill before we could head over to our host’s home. One perhaps more complicating factor of coushurfing is organizing the initial meet-up at the host’s residence. We gave our host a call when we got into Catania and learned he was out of town until the evening. However, with reassurance that he would send us his address, Berton and I simply found a hostel to store our bags for the day and began exploring. I don’t know if I was simply ecstatic to finally be in Italy, or if Catania was really as beautiful as I remember. Whatever the case, I’m going to make my reality the later because I have very fond memories of the city.

We stumbled across a beautiful park and then a friendly local who pointed on the map where we could get some good gelato, which was of course our main goal for our first day in Sicily. He sent us to find a really old joint that was obviously really popular with the locals, and for good reason. Gelato was not only good, but reasonably priced with cone-overflowing portions. The only bummer about Catania is that it lacks a beach accessible by foot. Berton and I began walking towards the general direction of the playa, but realized quickly that we weren’t going to be able to walk it. Instead we explored the city streets more and I, of course, began stressing about meeting up with our host that night. After failing to access free interent at McDonalds (warning in Italy you must be an Italian citizen to use the free WiFi there—no idea why), we hunted down an internet cafe. Ottavio, our host, had still failed to email an address, but Berton came up with the idea to just tell him to meet us at the Duomo statue at 8:15, which I thought was risky, but also rather smart.

We put our faith in the meet-up plan and focused on dinner. After a place we looked up online was still closed (didn’t open till 8pm!), a local advised us to go see Igor for Pizza. He kept saying “Igor, Igor” making a shrugging motion and pointing us down the street. When we stumbled across the place, instead of my expectation of a large man Igor at the front, there was a petite and very cute Italian women. They too, had yet to start making pizza yet, Sicilians truly eat the latest of anywhere I’ve been in Europe. She said it would only be a few minutes and proceeded to go yell at some young men in the back kitchen, who could only be her sons, to hurry up. You get to see the whole process of your pizza getting made; the stove oven and workspace are in the front of the shop—so fun! I wouldn’t say it was the best pizza of my life, but you could definitely taste how fresh the ingredients were, probably had been picked up at the market that morning.

As 8:15 rolled around and Berton and I were munching on our pizza in the Duomo square, we finally met our host Ottavio. We found out he was in a bit of a rush to get to his capoeira performance. Capoeira is a form of Brazilian dancing that imitates fighting, but is all about grace, music, community, and connection with nature. He said Berton and I could either tag along and watch, or we could relax at his house. We, of course, opted to join; when else were we going to be taken by a local to his capoeira performance in Sicily?

Funny enough it ended up being practice, not a performance—we had many little misunderstandings with the language barrier, but it was still really fun to watch. Afterward, we went for a drink with the group, giving us a real opportunity to mingle with locals.

The next day, Ottavio had work in the morning, but wanted to show us around in the afternoon. Berton and I were still rather exhausted from Malta, probably the ridiculous day hike of just a couple days before, so we decided to sleep in and make a late lunch from some market purchases. We found more delicious sesame bread, some eggs and ham, zucchini, and red onion. So good—I definitely wouldn’t mind just living in Catania and cooking from the market everyday!

When Ottavio got home, it was decided that Berton and I needed to have some Sicilian sweets. Ottavio treated us to canolli and this strange little green cake called casata, which Berton absolutely loved. If we weren’t sweeted out enough, he then insisted on taking us to try granita. Now, granite, contrary to popular belief, is NOT shaved ice. Even in the north of Italy, they do granita differently than in Sicily and, according to Ottavio, wrong. It instead is a creamier consistency, even though it lacks any dairy. It is iced based, but is incredibly flavorful. Usually you combine two flavors like coffee and almond or chocolate and pistachio and eat it with a brioche—a bready pastry. Now at first I was thrown off by the idea of eating it with a pastry, but once I gave it a try I completely understood. I found it humorous that granita and brioche are actually a common breakfast in Sicily in the summer—so envious! Definitely became one of our favorite treats in Europe.

At this point we were full and a bit tired, but Ottavio was a man of endless energy and insisted he take us to the beach. This time, with a car, the beach was easy to get to and the water was perfect for some swimming! We also got a short capoeira lesson from Ottavio on the beach. After the beach, we went to the train station to pick up one of Ottavio’s friends, a student from Germany who was studying in Sicily, and then all went to Ottavio’s favorite place for dinner. In Catania.

The restaurant was located on a street with tons of BBQ’s billowing with smoke on the sidewalk outside of countless family run restaurants. When we walked into Ottavio’s preferred place, everyone who worked at the restaurant, a big Sicilian family, came to say hello. Even the mom came out of the kitchen in her apron to give Ottavio a kiss on the cheek—such a beautiful community! The food was also just amazing.

First, we began with appetizers whch consisted of seemingly endless options sitting out on a table.. You could have as much as you wanted of whatever you wanted. There was, of course, endless bread and wine and then, the main course, a variety of meats. In Sicily donkey is actually a very popular meat and considered a local specialty, which Ottavio insisted we all try. We also had two different types of bacon wrapped kabobs both filled with copious amounts of cheese and one with whole green onions going straight through. This had to be one of the best meals of my life. Not only was the food superb, but the atmosphere was so spectacular you couldn’t help but feel charmed.

Afterward, we were filled to the brim, remember we had had all those Sicilian sweets that same afternoon—quite the food day. The next morning we were a bit sad that we were leaving. Berton especially seemed to have found a long lost brother in Ottavio. However, we had over a week left in Sicily to look forward to. Our next stop was Syracusa, another beautiful coastal city. The best part of the city is the island of Ortigia. We thought the area was really beautiful, but would probably have stayed longer and enjoyed it a bit more if we had had success finding a place to drop off our bags. After walking around for a few hours, we went to meet our next hosts, a young couple that lived in a small town outside of Syracusa called Solarino.

Alex and Maria were very kind hosts with an awesome house, felt like I was being treated to two nights in a four star hotel. The next day they took Berton and I to their favorite beach in a town called Noto. They definitely took us to a local spot. We went up an unpaved road, over a hill, and came upon this perfect little beach. When we got back that afternoon, Berton and I explored Solarino a bit more and stopped at a gelateria for gelato and brioche; like with granite, they also put gelato in the pastry and it is also unsurprisingly very delicious.

The next morning, we took a train quite a ways up the coast of Sicily to Taormina, an absolutely breathtaking village perched on the side of Monte Tauro. I loved Taormina and our transportation there—it was definitely the same type of train (compartments, fake gold lining everywhere) that you see in the Potter films. I shamelessly took many a picture and pretended I was on my way to Hogwarts.

The first day, we went to the famous Greek theatre of Taormina and then took a lovely hike further up the mountain for an even better look at the town. For dinner, after some research online (necessary since Taormina is a bit touristy), we found an amazing pizzeria, probably one of my favorite pies of Europe. We liked the village so much that we decided to stay another night. The next day, we hiked to another mountain city nearby. Though “nearby” the hike there was super steep. However, our reward was an amazing view of the surrounding mountains and valleys from the very tip of the city. Incredible view for our picnic lunch!

The next day it was time to move on again, this time to another small and quite adorable beach town, Cefalu (pronounced with a “che”, as if chef, sound). I can’t decide if I liked Toarmina or Cefalu more…both were just gorgeous. We didn’t have any hostel options in Cefalu, so we splurged a bit for a beautiful apartment in the hills above the town. We had a fantastic view from a balcony connected to our kitchen window, we felt a bit spoiled. There was a bit of drama which ensued before we entered the apartment, a longer story about waiting 1.5 hours for the owner to show up, but the wait was worth it.

We were set on making dinner in our kitchen that night, but first explored Cefalu and then watched the sunset at the beach; I know rather romantic. I somehow put together a rather delicious chicken soup. I had decided a few cities before to start carrying rice and chicken stock with me for quick dinner. We simply added some mushrooms, onions, and arugula and found ourselves with a pretty yummy dinner.

We bummed around Cefalu the next day, had probably the best sesame baguette I will ever have from this small bakery, where we had found some delicious fig pastries the day before, and then caught a train to Palermo in the early evening. By the time we got to our hostel in Palermo, it was hitting night time. After some minor exploring, we called it a night. The next morning, we wandered back to a random spot we had found the night before that had free public wifi. We spent quite a bit of time there, since we hadn’t had internet access for a few days and had no place to stay that night. We ended up finding a bed and breakfast that was cheaper than some of the hostels we were considering.

Once we got to the place in the afternoon, we were stoked.; it had to be my favorite accommodation of the trip. The B&B was run by a tres gentil man who had fixed the place up with his wife. Super small, only about five rooms, but absolutely adorable. Our room had, as had become a trend in our Sicilian accommodations, a fabulous view. It was also just a treat to have breakfast in the morning waiting for us.

Palermo is the capital of Sicily. We spent our first day exploring the nearby neighborhoods. Our favorite find, having of course to do with food, was a local place serving up delicious and ridiculously cheap grub. Outside the restaurant there was a man making the local specialty, a panini with spleen, lemon, and a bit of cheese, like a professional, furiously making his way through the ridiculous queue. When we went inside the place, we saw his picture, from probably 25 years ago, at the same stand making the same sandwich Berton tried the sandwich and fell in love with it, making it necessary to return later to try out their pasta and other local fare.
The next day was our second to last day together in Sicily, so we decided to spend it at the beach. Definitely not the nicest beach of our trip, a few too many hormonal teenagers flocking about, but it is hard not to enjoy yourself when laying on a beautiful beach in Sicily.

The next morning, it was time to make our last transfer, to Trapani where we would fly out the next morning. At this point, Berton and I were simply fatigued. Once we got into our hostel, I don’t think either of us really had a desire to tour around, but forced ourselves to check out the city a bit. We ended up having dinner in and relaxing. The next morning we had a bus to catch at 5:30am to get Berton to the airport in time to make his flight around seven to Paris. After he departed, I waited a bit for my later flight to Venice to meet up with my family. The family reunion in non-Sicily Italy will be detailed in, as this blog, way too much length in my next installment!