Sicily is a fascinating place. I really love Roman history and Sicily has a ton of history; surprisingly most of it is Greek, with one spectacular Roman site. The wine also surprised me but we finally found some great stuff.
The best place to start is with the lay of the land and a picture is worth a thousand words ergo the map.
There are 2 airports in Sicily, Palermo and Catania, we flew into Palermo. We toured the whole island plus another small island. We did a counterclockwise route. One important note on the wine front, this was an Extravaganza Wine Trip; that means we did the trip with our friend Dale, who is the biggest wine geek (geek meaning very knowledgeable and very keen) I know . So what makes it an extravaganza? The trip was designed around wine tasting, meaning we didn’t stay in a place that wasn’t wine based except for Palermo and typically we would spend a day sight seeing then a day wine touring and wine for dinner every night.
Palermo is a gritty city. That doesn’t mean dirty or unsafe, just not as pretty as the Eastern part of the Island. The western part of ancient Sicily was controlled by the Carthaginians who didn’t seem to build monuments like the Greeks in the East, therefore no major ancient historical sites. Our primary aim was to get over jetlag in Palermo but we did do some touring and wine drinking. We did a street food tour to get a feel for the place. We primarily went to the 2 markets in town. If you like the frenetic energy of a busy marketplace then you will love the Vucciria market. We got to try the famous spleen sandwich; it tasted as bad as it looks. We find offal awful. We were able to start our wine adventure early by visiting the wine bar Bottega Monteleone, this is a great trick when you are in a city but don’t have time to get out to a winery. We got introduced to Grillo, one of the three great white wines of Sicily. Another delicacy of Sicily we ended up loving was the cannolo (cannoli is the plural form of cannolo). Here’s a few cannoli tips:
- Never buy a pre-filled cannolo, they can get soggy. Go where there are empty tubes and they will fill them on order.
- Don’t get the really sweet filling, only sweetened ricotta. Ask if you aren’t sure. All the restaurants we went to served the ricotta filling.
- Don’t be afraid of a deconstructed cannolo, they simply take broken cookie tubes and scatter them over the ricotta. Same flavor but easier to share.
Next stop is the sea-side town of Trapani. Before you get too excited about the sea side part I need to tell you this is more of a working port city than a beach town. The best part of Trapani was eating out, especially the Busiatta pasta with swordfish (I found the recipe online and its now a part of our meal repertoire).
The reason we stayed in Trapani was for a couple of day trips.
Day 1 – Salt Flats and Erice
The salt flats are large shallow ponds where salt is extracted from the sea water. If you want to see the operation in full swing you have to visit end of August or early September the hottest part of the year; however you would really have to be able to tolerate the heat. It was interesting to visit the little museum to see the history of the flats and the working conditions. In order to get more exercise I bought a couple of pounds of salt to add to my luggage at the beginning of the trip.
Erice is a quaint little town perched on a hill, so great views. It’s so high up you are best to take the cable car up and down. Great place for views, lunch and souvenir shopping.
Day 2 – Wine Touring
Our first day of wine touring was a disappointment. We went to Marsala of fortified wine fame.
The first winery was Florio, a Marsala wine producer. It was an enjoyable tour. The guide was very good and gave us lots of interesting history of the winery. This type of sweet wine is lovely if you are making a veal dish, but I would never drink it straight.
The second winery was Donnafugata, a still wine producer. None of us were fans of their wine, we simply didn’t care for the taste. The dessert wine from Pantelleria was yummy but I have 10 bottles of dessert wine in my cellar and don’t need more.
Our typically modus operandi was to hit a winery or sight as we drove to our next accommodation. On our next leg of the journey we did both. Heading east from Trapani we first hit Selinunte; the only temple in Sicily that you can walk into.
Our winery stop was Mandrarossa near Menfi. By the way all winery visits were pre-booked from Canada before we left. This was a lovely tasting of six wines and a thoughtful food pairing. Didn’t find the wine that blows me away yet. We never get tired of the sight of the Mediterranean sea, which provided a backdrop to both these visits.
Agrigento is home to the Valley of the Temples. There are 4 major temples at this former major Greek settlement as well as interesting city walls. In addition to the temples there is a museum telling the story of the Carthaginians, Greeks and Romans who inhabited this area.
We had a lovely dinner at La Terrazza di Pollon in San Leone; it’s a bit upscale however the associated rooftop bar is more casual and a great place to have a spritz, look at the sea and watch the beautiful people. Our wine tasting day here was a bust. The wine bar I had contacted was closed due to it being a holiday in Italy. The winery I had booked didn’t have a clue who we were and only had sfuzo (the Italian word for fresh wine – this is wine made in the style of a nonno backyard wine) which is only good for cleaning paint brushes.
The next archeological site was the highlight of our sightseeing. Villa Romana del Casale was the villa of a rich Roman who was thought to supply exotic animals for the games in the various amphitheaters throughout the Roman empire. What makes this the highlight is the amazing mosaics. Up until now the largest mosaic we had seen was one pattern on one floor, here there were many rooms as well as hallways covered in them. The artistry and craftsmanship from 2000 years ago blows my mind.
Our next homebase was Ragusa, which is now in the Greek zone (the Greeks colonized the Eastern part of Sicily). The architecture and thus the whole town vibe was pretty. It’s a hillside town, we stayed in the lower part but the upper part has great views back down. We had the best dish of the trip at Manaki; ravioli in a pork ragu and it was spectacular.
We had a full day of tasting planned but no one showed up for our tasting appointment at Vigni de Pettineo. The next winery, Locanda Gulfi, was so good that I bought a bottle of DOCG Cerasualo de Vittoria, 70% Nero D’Avola and 30% Frappato.
On our drive to Siracusa we stopped in at COS winery. Although this wasn’t our favorite winery we did like the vermouth they had and Brenda bought it. I must say I could come addicted to that stuff, the orange with the slight bitterness is the perfect end to a meal.
We found the best wine shop I have ever been to in the world, EVOE in Siracusa. What makes it so top shelf is the owner/manager. This man knows his wine and is passionate about it. He is well stocked in local wines including the best wine we tasted in Sicily, a wine that uses dried grapes to boost the flavour. They also serve simple meals like salad and charcuterie. If you are on a tour of Sicily and can’t get out to the wineries, just visit this place and you will get an overview of what Sicilian wines can offer.
Siracusa has a great Archeological Park dating from the 5th century BC. It was a bit disappointing that we couldn’t get a good look at the theater because they were setting up for a performance. However the stone quarries on site were fascinating.
Next on to Noto. First though was our winery stop, this one was at Zisola and was OK. Noto is a beautiful little town with the highly decorative Baroque style. White Lotus fans will want to get a picture where Daphne and Harper were walking down the steps of a church. I just told you about the best wine shop, now I will tell you about the worst. Any wine bar/store who serves a tainted wine deserves the title of worst. The person working poured us a Hauner wine that was oxidized, as in left on the counter for a week. We know that it was not the wineries fault because we visited that winery and it was one of the best of our trip. However if you like gelato, Café Sicilia is fantastic with some delicious different flavours like mandarin orange.
Now we start the Etna phase of our trip. Our homebase was Castiglione, a cute little town that had a little religious celebration going on. Since volcanic soils are relatively rare this is an area we, especially Dale, wanted to explore. The red wine from Etna is made from primarily Nerello Mascalese (“NM”)with Nerello Capuccio (“NC”) blended in sometimes. The White wine of Etna is Caricante. Due to the focus on this area I will present them in table form.
| Winery | Key Feature | Tasting | Comments |
| Baron di VillaGrande | Views of Mediterranean | Rose, 2 white, 2 red with snacks – VG | |
| Gambino Vini | Food pairing was good | Big commercial tasting | |
| Cottenera | Great caricante | 4 wines | |
| Terrazze dell Etna | Confusing location | VG – 4 wines | Brenda liked the rosso (80% NM & 20%NC) enough to buy it |
| Filippo Grasso | Family Winery so you can talk to the owners | 4 wines with local nibbles | Its neat to do tastings in someone’s kitchen |
| Camperi Tenute | What a feast – so much delicious Sicilian food | 4 wines | The winery is on the Etna Wine railroad. |
A few pro tips. Do not trust google maps in this part of the world – we went down a few cow paths. Castiglione is a hilly town so get an automatic car if your hillside clutch skills are wanting. The best tip however is the gelato shop in the centre of town. We love pistachio gelato and have probably eaten a dozen gallons of the stuff over the years. The best pistachio gelato is made from a local Sicilian variety of pistachios from the Bronte area. They also add in some pieces of nuts in their pistachio and hazelnut gelato for an extra flavour and texture hit.
Next we headed over to Taormina for our White Lotus fix. On the way we visited the Alcantara Gorge. If you are a nature lover who loves waterfalls then you need to see the amazing lava formations that this gorge is carved from.
Taormina is a beautiful town, even prettier than you see on White Lotus. For one thing the Greek Theater is right in town, a 10min walk away from our Airbnb. If you don’t like towns where 90% of the people out at night are visitors and the stores are loaded with fridge magnets then you may want to just pop in to see the theatre then leave.
We took a tour of Mount Etna with Rosario of Sicily Legend. Our primary reason was to avoid driving there, however I strongly recommend you book a tour. Rosario took us to a couple of sites before we started hiking; a lava flow that stopped feet before a town and a lava tube. He is able to explain the type of volcano that Etna is, what happens when it erupts and the bizarre moonscape that is Etna. If you have any interest in volcanos I highly recommend this or another tour.
We took a very interesting detour to Salina one of the Aeolian islands North of Sicily. It was a bit of an adventure getting there and back but we had our most authentic experiences there, so I would say it is worth the effort if you have the time and money. Here is another pro tip, leave the car on Sicily and take the faster catamaran boat instead of the car ferry like we did. Once we got to our place we never used the car. The roads are narrow and windy with a steep fall into the Mediterranean. We figured out the bus schedule online and it worked like a charm. We stayed in a traditional style house (based on outdoor living) with a great view of Stomboli island, an active volcano that was spewing steam.
Our most authentic experience was a cooking class I found on Airbnb. I am a big fan of Airbnb because you can find local people who have cool apartments in areas that locals frequent. Airbnb offers “experiences”, these can be tour companies using multiple platforms for marketing and a local who offers a unique cultural experience. Our first ever experience was learning to row a gondola in Venice. We caught the bus to this little town where we went to Maria and Francesco’s home. They explained that people on the Aeolian island spend most of their time outside. So that is where we cooked, in Maria’s outdoor kitchen. Our first job was to get the wild fennel and an onion from their garden. We boiled the fennel fronds, copped them up, threw them into a pan with the onions and some canned tomatoes and some seasoning and we had a pesto for our pasta. Maria gave us some sundried and crushed capers to dust our pasta with. Maria should go into business making and selling this stuff, its umami in powder form, chefs could do amazing things with this ingredient. I am a bit suspicious of Francesco’s wine because it tasted as good as any commercial white wine that we tried. The problem is homemade wine is rarely as good as bought, and this was very good wine.
Yes they make wine on the island, remember this is a wine extravaganza so we can’t be too far away from a winery. The best winery on the island is Hauner, in fact it would be in the running for best winery in Sicily. The only reason we didn’t buy a bottle is our wine carriers (inflatable bottle containers) were full. We had a curated tasting with nibbles and 4 wines.
The food item that the island is famous for is capers. I knew nothing about these little salt and umami bombs. So we booked a caper tour with Guiseppe. In addition to seeing some beautiful parts of the island we received our caper lesson. Capers are the buds of a flower of a caper bush, which stands about 3 feet high. They have to be processed in salt to prepare and preserve them. If left alone these buds turn into a beautiful pink flower. Once the flower is pollinated it turns into the fruit we know as caperberries, which are also processed in salt. We had a tasting of capers done 5 ways plus sausage and cheese and an orange marmalade that was so good we bought a jar. Guiseppe was easy and interesting to talk to, we learned so much about capers and the island.
One more winery visit to Capofaro. It is a neat location on the NE tip of the island. This winery is where they make Malvasia for this winery group. I am not a big fan of this aromatic grape, if you are then you will be happy.
That was basically the trip, just had to make our way back to the Palermo airport. However that was not the plan. We were supposed to have our winery splurge by staying at Relais Abbazia Santa Anastasia Resort & Winery after getting off Salina. However a storm blew in and delayed our departure several hours. We still had a 1.5 hour drive to get to the winery and it was very late, so we cancelled. This winery required a deposit and we were going to lose the deposit, However I pleaded our case (they knew about the weather) when we got back and they returned the deposit, That is customer service that you don’t see that much anymore.