A Sicilian Adventure
Our group of intrepid travelers began our journey with a box of pasta as you may remember from last week on formidable Mt. Etna. Our guides Anna and Gio (more on them later) took us on their inaugural Sicilian adventure with their new company Giretto and we lived like locals for a week. We descended the volcano as it gurgled and grumbled and visited a sparkling wine winery for lunch and then one of my all time favorite producers, Salvo Foti for wine and more snacks. Our first full day in Sicily was a success, but just getting started. What follows are a few of the highlights from our adventure.
DAY 2
The next day we visited the beautiful baroque town of Modica for a chocolate class and seminar. As you may recall we has a class where we made Modica style chocolate last year at Etto and we also stock some at the market. We also had another feast featuring Sicilian street food and ate so much that we decided to walk it off by climbing to the top of the town.
|
 |
DAY 3
Siracusa or Syracuse as it's also known is a place with so much history it's staggering. There are Greek, Roman and Arabic ruins and influence in construction from many other cultures also.
The interior of the island is filled with beautiful piazzas, statues and artisanal shops. We watched an ancient puppet show in a multigenerational workshop. The outside of the island offers magnificent sea views in what is a sailor's paradise. Oritiga would be our home base for the next few days giving us time to soak in this magnificent place between excursions.
DAY 4
Our first excursion outside the island was a Sicilian truffle hunt with champion truffle dogs. Actually one was a champion (Gina) and the other (Alba) was a champion in training, but she tried hard. Truffles have only been a recent discovery in Sicily as recounted by our guides.
 |
 |
I can tell you that not only do they exist, but they are delicious. Several years ago Stephy and I went on a truffle hunt in Alba in northern Italy, but as soon as we found a truffle it went right in the guys pocket never to be seen again. These truffles were abundant and also were what we ate for lunch at a little distillery out in the mountains with a couple cocktails. We actually found two varieties of truffles both white and black ones which we gobbled down on crostini with some local olive oil. Talk about a simple luxury.
DAY 5
As our adventure continued the next day as we made pasta out in the countryside with a family that grows heirloom organic Sicilian wheat....and I made a friend. We learned to make a variety of different pasta shapes by hand - a couple folks said this was on their bucket list. I guess I live my bucket list pretty much every day. Lunch was a country style affair featuring what else - lots of pasta. My new friend, the patriarch of the family made about a dozen toasts followed by a chug of wine - none of us could keep up. This was truly a one of a kind, special experience, even though we seemed to be racking them up by the day.
 |
 |
 |
 |
DAY 6
The next day we visited a nature preserve famous for pink flamingos and a couple more wineries. The top event however was, Gio (famous photographer extraordinaire - more on that later) did some photo portraits of all of the guests and couples on this trip both in the vineyard and along the rocky coast before our farewell dinner in the beautiful fishing village of Marzamemi.
 |
 |
 |
 |
The best part of this trip were our amazing hosts Anna and Gio. Most of the group had never visited Sicily before, but left feeling like locals looking forward to their next visit. Gio and Anna both lived on the Central Coast in Templeton and San Luis Obispo and now spend most of their time now living in Sicily. If you'd like to join them for an adventure of a lifetime just respond to this email or click below. Sadly, I will not be on the October trip, but phone some friends and make your own adventure with them. The dates are October 6-12th and flights are pretty reasonable right now.
