Archive | Sicily

Siracusa with Jess & Sarah

August 27, 2012 at 1:23 pm

Jess had already been to Siracusa once on her visit to Sicily but, believe it or not, she liked it enough that she asked to go back! Besides, Sarah hadn’t visited Siracusa yet. As Siracusa is becoming my favorite town to visit on the eastern coast of Sicily, I was totally game.

We wandered through the fruit, vegetable, and fish market first, where Jess bought a purse. Just like all her souvenirs thus far from Sicily, this one was imported from India. Hmmm…

By the time we reached the main piazza of the town, little Lena was getting tuckered out. She found some shade and laid her little head down to rest right in the middle of the piazza.

Definitely time for a 10am gelato break.

Siracusa has a little strip of beach and a pier. Jess and I were so hot and sweaty on our last visit that we jumped off the pier, clothes and all! This time we planned ahead and brought our swimsuits. The water this time of year is like bathwater and, in this group, no one was complaining.

We finally headed back up to the beautiful Duomo Piazza for lunch at my favorite restaurant: The Fox and the Grape. It’s very Italian and pretty much all pizzas, but they’re trying to be modern and trendy (quite successfully), and the combination is totally charming. Also, their four cheese pizza is to die for.

“Mom, I’m so hungry! But I guess I’ll content myself with drinking water from a wine glass until the pizza arrives…”

Ahhh…

And finally: “Sarah, help me do something modern on this” & “We love Italian graffiti because all it [usually] says is, ‘Love!'”

7 :: in Sicily, travel, visitors

Siracusa with Jess & Sarah

August 27, 2012 at 12:23 pm

We wandered through the fruit, vegetable, and fish market first, where Jess bought a purse. Just like all her souvenirs thus far from Sicily, this one was imported from India. Hmmm…

By the time we reached the main piazza of the town, little Lena was getting tuckered out. She found some shade and laid her little head down to rest right in the middle of the piazza.

Definitely time for a 10am gelato break.

“Mom, I’m so hungry! But I guess I’ll content myself with drinking water from a wine glass until the pizza arrives…”

Ahhh…

And finally: “Sarah, help me do something modern on this” & “We love Italian graffiti because all it [usually] says is, ‘Love!'”

6 :: in Sicily, travel, visitors

a hike up Mt Etna, our local volcano

August 22, 2012 at 3:35 pm

This past weekend was Elliott’s last time to adventure around Sicily with his sister before she and Sarah leave on Friday. To make the most of our time together, we went to a beautiful beach in a nature preserve on Saturday and then headed to the slopes of Mt Etna on Sunday.

Do you remember our super eventful, super long hike up Mt Etna last summer? The volcano erupted right as we reached the highest observation point! This was also after we’d been showered with huge chunks of volcanic ash right before we our hike. But today Etna had only lovely vistas for us today… no hot lava or flying ash. Sorry, Jess and Sarah!

We drove up to the southern station on Mt Etna and then parked just beyond all the restaurants and souvenir shops. An unassuming trail veered off to the right from the tiny parking lot, and we followed it for about an hour up undulating trails of soft volcanic ash. After about an hour we reached the edge of a massive lava flow, which is pictured above. Doesn’t it look like Mordor?

Jess and Lena went to explore a nearby atmospheric research station. Then Sarah helped Jess get rid of a worrisome blemish on her shoulder.

Jess and Sarah headed up the volcano a little farther to see a plaque Jess had read about in the guidebook. Along the way they came across a flock of goats grazing on the hillside. Sarah took a stunning photo of them.

We stayed behind to smell the flowers.

Although this hike was a little less eventful than our hike last August, I think we’re more likely to choose this route again. We’ll take you if you come and visit!

4 :: in hiking, Sicily, visitors, weekend

a hike up Mt Etna, our local volcano

August 22, 2012 at 2:35 pm

Jess and Lena went to explore a nearby atmospheric research station. Then Sarah helped Jess get rid of a worrisome blemish on her shoulder.

We stayed behind to smell the flowers.

Although this hike was a little less eventful than our hike last August, I think we’re more likely to choose this route again. We’ll take you if you come and visit!

4 :: in hiking, Sicily, visitors, weekend

a trip to the beach

June 1, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Very, very spontaneously, Elliott and I decided to go away to the beach this past weekend. The decision was made when Elliott was looking at hotels online, and when I asked him why, he said, “For Memorial Day weekend.”

This was Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend.

The hotel he’d found, though, seemed perfect. Glowing reviews on booking.com, lovely pictures of gardens, famously delicious meals in the hotel restaurant, and just 100 feet from the beach.

“Let’s do it!” I said. “You said you wanted a getaway to a white sand beach. We can go tomorrow afternoon and come back Monday.”

And so we did!

Hotel Villamare was fabulous; I think we’ll go back if we can. White sand surrounded a bay of turquoise water, although unfortunately the scenery was marred by a lot of seaweed. (We missed the annual seaweed clean up, which was scheduled for June 1… oops!) We worked around a winters’ worth of seaweed, though, and thoroughly enjoyed sand and sea.

That evening Elliott and I enjoyed a delicious three-course Italian meal in the hotel restaurant. We lingered over our bottle of wine, savoring the cheeses and meats, the fresh pistachio pasta, the fillets of fish. Breakfast the next morning was just as noteworthy, and we got special attention because of little Lena sitting primly in her high chair at our table. The waitress brought us a special dish of almond granita and brioche, a very traditional Sicilian breakfast. We slathered the sorbet (granita) over the sweet bread roll (brioche) and ate up like true Sicilians.

On Monday morning our good friends Josh, Becca, and their kids joined us on the beach, and another friend and her two sons came as well. They all dug a huuuuuge hole, which little Stevie said was for Lena to swim in.

Princess Lena awaited her pool while playing with everyone else’s beach toys and trying a taste of sand.

She loved her handmade pool! She also clearly loved the beach, and her friends, and the sunshine. Now whenever Lena sees a bottle of sunscreen, she asks me to pop off the lid and then carefully dabs her fingertip in it and wipes it on her face. She’s ready for summertime in Sicily, I think!