Falling in love with Sicily

I’ll admit I wasn’t initially completely enamored with Sicily. We were here for about three weeks before embarking on our five-week USA land tour. We returned afterwards for a little over a week before we took off again to Ireland. This time we were treated to the company of our daughter, Laura, as she came back with us. 

Maybe it was due to some superficial things such as the fact that Sicily saw a lot of rain while we were gone and everything turned beautifully deep green. Or how it looked like there was a big trash clean up before the holidays so it looked tidier. Or maybe I was seeing Sicily afresh through Laura’s eyes. Whatever it was, the place started to speak to me in ways it hadn’t yet. 

As we drove from the east coast to the south coast and then later to the northwest coast, I couldn’t get enough of the beautiful green rolling hills, the green and rocky mountains, and the literally infinite fields and groves. It is citrus season so the orange trees were exploding with color. Grape vines were past their harvest so were dried up and purple. Olive groves, especially, speak to me and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s their orderly organization in rows, tidy shape, and unique silvery green leaves. Or the fact that amazing olive oil comes from them. I just find them so calm, cool, and peaceful. Maybe I was an olive tree in a former life. 🙂 I love the reality of “farm to table” that you can see and experience everywhere here. (They don’t have to call it that here as it’s quite the norm.) I have always had a fascination with all things cooking, baking, food, and nutrition related, so viewing live agriculture makes me happy. It’s likely one thing I have always loved about Northern California too. 

Having just come from cold and rainy California (or Cleveland, as the case may be), we were gratefully soaking up the sunshine. The winter climate here is fantastic so far with highs around 65 degrees F (about 18 degrees C). The peaceful marina with its glass-like large harbor and beautiful sunsets are great for the soul. The people are friendly everywhere and the laid-back lifestyle doesn’t allow much space for stress. Laura was definitely living like a local and taking the whole riposa concept very seriously with many restorative afternoon naps. December seems a great time to visit Sicily as it’s not hot and not crowded.

While Laura was here, we took some chill days, some work days, and some touristy days. During the chill days, Laura got to experience our simple lifestyle – walks on the pier or around town or to the beach, shopping at the supermarket, and sampling our local gelato and two known restaurants. We were also quite sociable and she got to meet our marina community at a couple of happy hours, the Sunday BBQ, and multiple World Cup watching sessions at the marina bar. It was very fun to watch the largest soccer / football event with such an international crowd! Laura also got to try her hand at the game of Mölkky while at the BBQ. Of course she would come in second place. And she had a small world experience – would you believe that one of the American gentlemen who has lived in Licata for at least seven years now had spent time at her university in Cleveland back in the 1960s?!

Chill days in Licata…

As far as being tourists, we spent a night each in Catania and Palermo. Catania had a beautiful, festive Christmas market that we loved. Palermo was great fun and we got to do a walking tour this time to learn more about its really interesting history. I think Laura’s favorite thing was seeing the Valley of Temples in Agrigento. We had a beautiful day for it, and you’ll have to suffer through some more photos of it. It’s still stunning. A new site for all of us was Villa Romana del Casale, an amazing and really impressive 4th century Roman palace that was excavated in the 1900s. It has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it contains one of the largest and richest collections of Roman mosaics in the world. UNESCO says it is “indisputably one of the largest and most luxurious villas anywhere in the Roman world.”

Catania…

Valley of the Temples…

Villa Romana del Casala…

Palermo…

Finally, we went for a wine tasting at Quignones winery, just a fifteen minute drive north of Licata. The generous and kind owner, Alfredo, spent 3.5 hours with just the three of us showing us around his farm and winery, sharing tastings of his wines, oils, and foods, and just chatting with us to answer lots of questions we had. His family has been in Licata for around 500 years, so it was very fun to get to chat with such a local. We learned from Alfredo that the mafia is not nearly as big as it used to be in Licata (or Sicily in general). It’s now down to the younger generations and mostly what is seen is petty crime. Licata was in its prime with much wealth here in the 50 years leading up to WWI due to heavy sulfur mining. It was one of the largest sources for sulfur until after the war – the US discovered an easier and cheaper way to extract it, so Sicily’s market dried up. We also finally discovered the mystery of why all the fields around Licata (and nowhere else that we’ve seen in Sicily) are covered up with white plastic hoops. We had many guesses, but it turns out they are just to act as greenhouses. Due to what they grow in this area, they can get two harvests per year instead of just one. I did find some beautiful zucchini in the market the other day which I wouldn’t expect in the winter. It seems like next to nothing isn’t grown on this island. And what you eat tastes like it just came off the farm. Ok, sorry, I’m back to the food again…

We all went to Ireland for a wonderful Christmas, then Conor and I returned on our own after New Years. We landed in Palermo and were met with a cloudless blue sky, warm sunshine, a calm blue sea on one side and dramatic mountains on the other side. We were also quickly reminded that stop signs are optional. What’s not to love?!

*Thanks to Laura for sharing some of her photos!