Arrivederci Roma! We bid farewell to the glories of mainland Italy.
We flew into the Sicilian city of Catania and headed to the La Plage Resort located inside the Isola Bella Nature Reserve in Taormina. We enjoyed a bungalow with a seaside view for the week.
Determined to relax, we stayed in Taormina on our first day and explored locally. We dined on scrumptious desserts our entire time in Italy, but we particularly enjoyed the Sicilian chocolate mousse made with their locally produced and processed chocolate that used an ancient Aztec preparation method. It was more AMAZING than the yummy gelato!
Today, we relaxed, soaked up some sun, sipped on some local cocktails…and explored the bay area.
Taormina is a beautiful city built into the hillside. To get to the city centre, we took a petrifying ride up the hillside in a cable car to visit the historic town centre.
Later in the day, we headed to the foothills of Mt. Etna (one of the tallest active volcanos in Europe) to a winery recommended by both Anthony and Domenic’s cousin, also Domenic. It was lovely to taste the unique flavors enhanced by the soil’s distinctive minerality due to the volcano ash. Their winery estate cellar was set atop the foothills of Mt. Etna with a gorgeous view of the rolling countryside filled with vineyards. We enjoyed wine tastings paired with meats and cheeses. It was delightful. We shipped wine to the States, of course, and their olive oil which was also worthy of a trip back home.
Our travel to the Gambino Winery provided us with the good fortune of meeting our Uber Driver, Martina - who became an essential part of our Sicilian adventure. The drive to Gambino’s was an experience due to poor GPS coverage that led us to many dead-end roads that were as narrow as the paths in Venice. Still, we had so much fun getting to know Martina that she agreed to be our private driver to Santa Maria di Licodia, Isole, Sicily.
The following day, our goal was to see the birthplace of Dom’s grandmother – she and her parents were born there. Without Martina to translate, we would still be unsure of the following...apparently, as the cemetery filled, those who were laid to rest and were no longer being visited were relocated; unfortunately, there was a fire, and all records were destroyed. It was still very cool to see the place where Dom’s ancestors were born and grew up.
While driving back to Taormina, Martina offered to show us about Catania. We saw a beautiful church. We also saw these colorful umbrellas hanging above…the story is that the city moves them around the area to designate a location for people to gather in a brighter space when gray clouds are hanging overhead.
Beach Day! Sun. Drinks.
People watching. Perfect!
We flew from Catania to Rome, where we lay over for our flight home.
We flew from Rome to Germany and then on to Seattle.
