EXPLORING
SICILY PART I
THE
COAST ROAD
PALERMO EAST AND SOUTH TO ERICLEA MINOA
For
our anniversary we traveled to Europe on the Nieuw Amsterdam, a
Holland America cruise ship -- a seventeen day voyage from Fort
Lauderdale landing in Barcelona. See that story by clicking CRUISE.
After a wonderful sea voyage, we spent a few days in Barcelona
and
headed
on to
Sicily,
flying on
Ryan Air
to
Trapani.
Ryan has great prices, but for the initiated it flies out of
airports at least an hour away from any major city. Trade offs
are price and convenience so if you have time constraints, another
more conventional airline might be preferable. If time is not
an issue, Ryan seems to me to be as good as any other airline
these days, discount status or not and there are truly significant
savings.
Neither
of us had a clue what to expect, but in truth we were hunting
great Italian food and whatever surprises Sicily had in store.
The food of course was wonderful and there were lots of great
surprises too. We were almost immediately struck by how civilized
people were, polite, caring, generous and all with a dash of
humor. The island itself is a marvelous combination of the cherished
old and the sometimes tediously new, all surrounded by olive
groves and glorious wheat fields. And
you can never forget Sicily is an island. The sea becomes an integral
part
of your world view while you are there. Enjoy!
Just
inside the small and easy to use Trapani Airport,
we found
the ticket booth for bus transfers to Palermo an hour and a half
away. We had an hour to wait and sat outside excitedly taking
note of everything Sicily. Six fellows nearby were having
a
lunch
of something
round and toasted out of a brown paper bag and each had a beer
or two. Twenty minutes later they took their luggage and headed
inside.
An old fellow straight out of one of the Godfather movies walked
up and down in front of the airport building. I hummed the movie's
theme song. We ate a snack and were filled with anticipation, enough
so that we forgot the time and almost missed our bus. We got to
the stop a little late, but as we would learn folks in Sicily
are very
gracious; they had waited for us.
We arrived in the city, dropped off
a block or so from our hotel. Stassi
had made these hotel arrangements as he often did on the morning
of our
departure from one city for the arrival that afternoon in another.
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Quality
Hotel President
Via Francesco Crispi 230
Palermo, Sicily 90139
Website: Quality
Hotel President.com
The hotel faces the docks and has pleasant rooms and a rooftop restaurant
where they serve a very full (not hot) buffet breakfast traditionally included
in the price in almost all Italian hotels -- ham and cheeses, croissants, muffins,
cereals, coffee, tea and orange juice. Planning ahead and booking on the internet
will usually get you much better prices than simply arriving to find a room
in Italy. |
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In
the morning we left our packed luggage at the hotel and taxied
to the Orto Botanico, Palermo's stellar botanical
garden. It is exquisite! If you would like to see more of it
through my eyes, visit my gardening website at
GreenGardeningCookingCuring.com
Orto
Botanico
Via A. Lincoln, 2B, Palermo
Tel: 091-623-8241-1111
Website: ortobotanico.unipa.it/Benvenuto.html
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 That
afternoon we hopped
a bus to the Palermo airport to pick up our tiny and terrific
Fiat rental car then we headed east on the
north coast slow road ending the day in Cefalu,
a low key resort town with packaged tourism and prices
to match. It is lovely
with a long beach, good restaurants and very attractive and
comfortable hotels. We found ours on the spot
when a fellow came up to our stopped car in the spring traffic
choked road by the beach in front of the hotel. He was
so earnest we decided to give it a try.
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Cefalu
is a traditionally beautiful Sicilian coastal town. It has an
old city filled with chic and expensive shops, it has stylish
bars
and
restaurants
and
lots of charm. If you are coming to Sicily for a week of fun
in the sun, this may be the perfect place! Do be a little
careful with your cash transactions until you become used to
using the Euro.
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Hotel
Riva del Sol
vl. Lungomare G. Giardina, 25
90015 Cefalu (PA)
Tel: 0921-421-230
Website: http://www.rivadelsole.com/de/home/default.html
The
hotel is very stylish. Our room had a balcony view over the old town and the
sea, but the fellow Guiseppi who found us in traffic is its best asset. |
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Leaving Cefalu following the slow coast road west we soon passed
through a quiet town where I saw a sign for bread, pane,
in a salumeria shop. Not only did they have exquisite
bread, but fresh mozzarella and other cheeses, pizza slices and
sandwich meats. Our desires more than met, we were in heaven and
excited about what lay ahead.
Back on the road, we headed for a town called Castel
di Tusa. The author of our guide
book recommended it and told of a landscape architecture
project
that sounded fabulous. It wasn't, but trying to find it was
pleasant enough to keep us entertained. The sculpture park
was said to be laid out along the valley of the Tusa
river descending from the Nebrodi
mountains. Turning
to the right off the coast road to follow the river bed up
into the mountains, we did see one large
landscape sculpture being overcome by weeds. After
that we saw no man made sculptures, but an exquisite natural
mountainous
landscape.
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Castel
de Tusa

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The
Nebrodi Mountains

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Descending
from the hills and back
on the coast road we passed through the pottery town of Santo
Stefano di Camastra and entirely missed
its old town. Needless to say we stopped using our guidebook
and did just fine. Read my review of
the book on Amazon.com by clicking on the link below
www.amazon.com/The-Rough-Guide
This
part of the northeast coast of Sicily is very beautiful.
We were delighted with little towns and spectacular views of
beaches and the sea. As we were early in the season, we
found many hotels still closed, just beginning to
prep for summer. Luckily a fellow we met recommended
a
couple of places down the road. We found Sicilians always to
be exceptionally helpful.
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On
the exquisite Thyrrhenian coast a two lane road snakes along bordered
by cliffs and the sea on one side and mountains on the other. Suddenly
there was a hotel and we pulled in for the night. It was not really
open, but with the usual Sicilian warm welcome they made up a room
for us anyway. We enjoyed the splendid view and later slept like
babies; there really is something to be said for salt air and breathtaking
views. |
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After
a short drive further on this exceptional coastal road we stopped
in Gioiosa Marea, a small beach side town with a much less packaged
feel than Cefalu. Aside from the beach, for us its second best
feature was the gelato shop where they are very generous with whipped
cream. After filling the bottom half of a freshly baked sugar
cone with it, they top it with two big scoops of gelato flavors
of your
choice,
then pile on more cream, topping the whole thing off with a tiny
decorative upside down cone.
The town's third best feature was
the foccaciaria across the street from the hotel. Opening in the
early evening it makes everyone's lives a little more full. This
is a very pleasant town with a long white sandy beach and a town
square perfect for people watching while enjoying a gelato. It's
casual style and grace reminded me of childhood summers on Cape
Cod. |
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Villa
Ridente Club
Strada Statale 113, Contrada Ridente 1
San Giorgio di Gioiosa Marea, 98063, Sicily
Tel: 39 0941 331111
Website: www.vrclub.it
The hotel was built up a slope and had a bar/restaurant across the road and part
way down the cliff accessed by a comfortable tunnel under the road. Our unit
had a huge patio with patio dining furniture and a fabulous view of the sea and
hills
behind the hotel, a bedroom and kitchen/living/dining area. |
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Yachting
Club Mare
Via A. Doria 1
Fraz. San Giorgio
98063 Gioiosa Marea, Sicily
Tel/Fax: 0941-39484
Email:[email protected]
Website: YachtingClubMare.com
Att: Veronica Musarra
This recently
tastefully remodeled hotel is lovely with enough English spoken by staff to
make a stay very comfortable. A delicious breakfast included in the price is
served in the stylish bar overlooking the sea. Try to reserve one of the sea
view rooms on the first floor where you'll have your own outside terrace for
lounging. Their other seaside rooms have balconies.
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We
left Gioiosa Marea drawn on by what wonders lay ahead and we weren't
disappointed. As always we took the slow coast road always keeping
the sea to our left each exclaiming every few minutes while pointing
to something wonderful. It is not hard to see why Sicily has been
so desired for centuries. Along the way we stopped for lunch supplies
at what first appeared to be a well stocked fruit and vegetable
stand. While Stassi shopped I wandered a bit and found a door to
what looked intriguing and it was.
Inside the shop behind the simple
vegetable stand was every kind of cheese and all kinds of preserved
meats, sausages and salamis, wines, the best breads and pastas,
high quality cold foods and canned foods -- the list is too long.
The best part here was the fellow behind the counter who took great
pains to treat us like his long lost and hungry friends. With thinly
sliced prosciutto filled with the softest imaginable ricotta cheese,
we got acquainted. It moved on from there and felt like a festival
of flavors we accidentally stumbled upon.
He is as charming and
as excited about food and flavors as any chef in any country. As
we got to the check out counter another older fellow showed up
speaking almost perfect English. We had been talking about writing
about this place with the other fellow in broken Italian and Spanish,
but the older man had an even better suggestion -- I should write
his
story!
It
was
all
marvelous and we'll stop by there again when we next get to Sicily. |
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Ortofrutta & Salumeria
di Piera Gulli
Via C. Pompea, 26 - Granatari (ME)
Sicily
Tel: 090-327-328
Email: [email protected][email protected]
Ignazio Vadala
Facebook: ezio vadala |
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I
cannot count and I could never name all of the small towns
we enjoyably passed through on the old coast road. One small
city
we do
remember is Messina, the closest and of course
most active crossing point from mainland Italy to Sicily, but
we were headed a bit more
south so we could wake up early and explore the towns along
the circular road around Etna. Next time we're in Sicily, Messina
will be on
the
list.
It is very appealing and has the great energy of a port city.
I
had read about Italian camping before a another trip a few years
ago so we had our antennae up for places along the road. On our
way south we found one called Camping Paradise just
by a sign on the road and we couldn't have been happier. This
was
our first
camping experience in Italy and it was perfect. Campgrounds there
offer every option from tents to cabins and sites often come
with appealing restaurants and modern laundry facilities. |
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Camping
Paradise
Via Nazionale 2, SS114 Km 41
98037 Letojanni (ME) Sicily
Tel: 0942-36306
Owners: Pietro and Vera
Website: www.campingparadise.it
Email: [email protected][email protected]
We had a little bungalow where we could cook and a large outside terrace for
dining. With a huge beautifully maintained pool, a restaurant/pizzeria and a
beach just below the site, this was a great find. As
you can see in the photograph the facilities at the Paradise
were wonderful and everything was meticulously managed. We loved
it! By the way that is our treasured little Fiat in the photograph. |
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Leaving
the campsite the next morning we first planned
to visit Taormina, Sicily's most posh resort
town. We found the road to Taormina and began climbing and then
did lots more climbing
until I was heeling as on a sailboat to keep the car on the road
with my eyes closed squealing with fear. If you have a problem
with edges on precipitous drops, you know exactly what I am talking
about. Taormina is very upscale, but I think enjoyable only for
those with no fear of "edges." As well, the view
of Etna from here makes the volcano seem as harmless
as an ice cream cone. With my eyes closed
we
descended
to the
shoreline road none to soon for me and traveled on.
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 Heading
toward Etna, we passed through a stretch of road with little of
note and were
happy to arrive at Linguaglossa. An appealing small town, its church
enjoys a large plaza shared with a combination gelateria, bar,
pasteleria, ristorante and pizzeria with shaded tables out
front. We got treats to go, but were disappointed
down the road when they came out of the bags. |
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Mt.
Etna

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On
the journey around Etna we passed through lots of little towns.
One still seems most memorable. Compared to many other towns
on this route this one is decidedly modern with a relatively large
non-industrial commercial zone -- warehouse facilities, truck loading
bays, acres
of parking spaces, professional signage, expensively constructed
roads with commercial street lights and chain link fences. BUT,
look at the photographs. All of man's endeavors
are surrounded by black lava. It was disquieting in a profound
way. And even so, there were earth movers busily working to extract
pieces of this black lava landscape bit by bit for some construction
project. |
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Normally
we are pretty spontaneous travelers, but we both were anxious
to see Etna from all sides road and move on.
I should perhaps explain that for ten years we had a home on
the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean where there is a very
active volcano. For each of us, being close to one is very personally
meaningful. To see more just click on this link which will show
you what happened one morning as we were waking:
http://www.montserrat-today.com/May%2020%20Dome%20Collapse.html
Volcanoes
are terrifying in their unpredictability and in the unrecoverable
devastation they can cause. But, they are as fascinating as they
are frightening. With all of our volcano experiences on Montserrat,
we were more than anxious to leave this area safely behind us. |
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We
carried on passing through the very appealing seaside cities
of Catania and Syracuse. In the latter, the old city island was
declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. It is beautiful
and has yet to be manicured which would entirely spoil its authenticity.
With still a few hours of daylight we traveled further, finally
stopping in the small beach side town of Fontane Bianche where
we stayed the night. Fontane Bianche
seemed to be a small town with tired resort hotels near
or on the beach.
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Hotel
Villamare
Via Taormina, 33
Fontane Bianche 96100 Siracusa
Owners: Elisabetta and Lucia
Tel: 0931-791-700
Fax: 0931-791-631
Even by Sicily's standards it seemed expensive and we couldn't imagine who would
stay there at that price unless like us, they'd run out of options. Stassi negotiated
hard with the nice young man who welcomed us. We imagined that he was the owner's
son, an older woman also at the living room desk in the entrance area. There
was a tired garden area in the back, a relatively large restaurant and pool area
and it really was a hotel even though you felt like you were upstairs in someone's
private home. In the entrance area that looked like a large living room, everything
was covered in fabric -- EVERYTHING -- walls and ceiling included!! For us it
didn't work. |
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We
carried on the next day and spotted a beautiful, but apparently
abandoned villa surrounded
by lush fields of fennel. We had seen several of these wonderful
old buildings and I couldn't help but think what they would be
with a little restoration.
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We
stopped by a tiny enclave of activity in Butera after many miles
on a road with scenic views of the sea on one side, olive groves
on
the other. Here we found a castle behind a wall, Castello
di Falconara,
and a dirt road less than spitting distance to the long white
sand beach.
On
the road proper there was a hotel connected to the castle still
closed for the season and on the other side of the dirt road
someone's retirement dream -- hotel
rooms, a large dining room, a banquet area, a pizzeria and
a gelateria and pasticeria. This
proved to be a very popular bus stop on the southern route.
We
moved on to the port town of Licata looking
for the night's accommodations, but along the way we had
seen a beach side hotel
that might have been open. Things were getting
a little tense at the end of a very long day and having arrived
in Licata,
a town without charm, Stassi recommended that we return to
the "might
be open hotel" back in Butera. I thought
that a great idea and as it turned out it was. |
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We
spent three nights there lazing during the days reading books,
enjoying the beach and ocean from our second floor terrace, dining
on pizzas and gelatos from the all purpose eatery by the castle
just two blocks away, gathering shells on the beach in the early
morning. On the second day we joined the other guests in
the hotel restaurant. We were stunned with
the
quality of food and as always happens in Italy also with the quantity.
It was wonderful, start to finish. I will always remember the shrimp
risotto, but then there was also the basil pesto pasta that didn't
have to hide its lack of flavor behind way too much garlic. I sometimes
think that our American obsession with garlic has developed as
the quality of our food has declined, but it can be argued
that American
food
is almost free by European standards. However, I still recall an
old Irish saying of my Grandfather, "You get what you pay
for." The meal continued with thin slices of roasted pork
dressed with a delicately seasoned mushroom gravy and of course
there was dessert and coffee. If the hotel seems too pricey, think
about their campsite, just half a block from the beach, but do
plan on joining in for at least one of these epic meals. |
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Hotel
Degli Angeli
C. da Faino S.S. 115 93011
Marina di Butera CL
Tel: 0934-1930-231
Fax: 0934-1930-245
Email: [email protected]
Traveling west on route SR115 you can find the hotel down a very short road toward
the beach (you can see it from the road), just after seeing the Castel di Falconara
also on your left. |
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 After
three days of lazy luxury, we reluctantly packed up the luggage
and hit the road heading toward Agrigento and
the Valley
of the Temples. Driving into this small city from the
coast road presents a very appealing image. You see the hill top
Greek temples and
remember Athens and you wend your way in to the old city where
parks and chic shops abound. But, driving by the entrance to the
Valley of the Temples seeing the tourist busses and the crowds
put us off and we decided to move on after indulging in a gelato
for the road.
We
parked on a narrow decidedly upscale and stylish street just
across from a gelato shop. While standing there deciding
on our scoop flavors for the day a fellow approached us speaking
English leading us into the interior of the shop where pastries
come when they have gone to heaven. Fresh canolis and some
other unnamed indulgences found their way into our bag. Then
we made
the final flavor decision and walked away with our gelatos
and of course the bag of treats for later. |
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 We
followed the coast road always keeping the sea on the left as we
headed west eventually ending up at Eraclea Minoa another
site of Greek ruins set high on a hill above the beach below. Sicily
must have appealed to the Greeks as much as it does to us for all
of the settlements they built there.
Eraclea
Minoa was the site of a theater, though it was small and in poor
condition compared
to other sites we were to see. Its setting though was truly
exquisite and the absence of crowds made being there a very special
experience. |
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Below
the ruins is Cattolica Eraclea where we found the Eraclea Minoa
Village, a lovely campsite where we had a view of the beach through
the tall stark black trunks of beautiful pine trees along with
a private deck on which to enjoy the cool of the evening. |
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On
our second day there we went in search of a supermarket which sounded
very close by when we got directions. But, as is our talent we
missed the "close by" supermarket and ended up much further
down the road in the hill town of Castelinghi Giocattoli where
some sort of celebration was underway. We drove up a very narrow
winding entrance road to the town, but confronted with cars coming
right at us in the one lane, we backed down and around and tried
another road up, luckily finding a supermarket before the driver
got too hot under the collar. We also wanted to buy two big salad
bowls since we never could resist buying beautiful heads of fresh
lettuce.
We
came out of the little supermarket tossed the bags in the car and
were walking further into town when we bumped into a fellow who
asked in English if he could help. We explained about the bowls
and he said, "Yes, I have a friend, come!" We followed
along walking at a good clip for several blocks and ended having
to cross the main street with racing cars and cycles and scooters.
This always seemed daunting to us, but in the Sicilian manner our
impromptu guide stepped off the curb, without looking, and sauntered
across the street. We followed like little rabbits and reaching
the other side, asked how people aren't killed this way. He had
a quick reply. "Everyone is known and if you run someone over,
you will die." We asked what about us, were we safe too? He
simply shrugged and said, "No one knows you." We finally
arrived at the shop with the unlikely name of Jolly Casa. We thanked
him and took his guest house card which we seem to have lost along
the way. |
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ERACLEA
MINOA VILLAGE
Via Giovanni 23 degrees North 56
CATTOLICA ERACLEA
92100 Agrigento, Sicily
Website: www.eracleaminoavillage.it
Email: [email protected]
Services at the site included a restaurant, a pizzeria, game room and a small
grocery store. On the beach there are three separately owned bar/restaurants. |
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