Category: 52 Reasons
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #16. Fantastic Feasts and Festivals
And then of course, there are annual and biannual commemorations for deities and patron saints throughout the region that include everything from making ritual breads for Saint Joseph and Saint Blaze and decorating the streets with linens and flowers for the Pentecost, for just two examples, to processions for feasts recognizing Easter, the Madonna, Christ,…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #15. Joyful Folk Art
Such wagons where used for centuries to transport goods throughout the island. Drivers were known for their melismatic songs, which were often employed to entertain each other at rest stops and to stay awake while traveling during the night, when it was cooler to protect the fish, fruit, vegetables or other such perishable goods they…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #14. Sublime Wine
With 485 wineries and 8000 grape growers across a diversity of soils and climates, it is a leader in Italy that in recent years has focused on making very high quality wines. Plan ahead and make an appointment for a tasting and vineyard tour. You may even want to stay at a winery–there are many…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #13. Catania, Sicily’s Second City
There are dozens of outstanding restaurants (Catania is known for its culture of eating horse meat and famous for its recipe Pasta alla Norma.), an imposing castle (Ursino, now a museum hosting world-class exhibitions and a collection of ancient art), and a thriving live music scene. For me, touring the city’s World War II 1943…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #11. Fresh Cannoli
So, since we can’t travel to Sicily to partake in the glories of #11, join me online next Sunday, April 25 at noon Eastern for a cannoli making workshop during which I will teach you how to make this Sicilian delight along with history, legends, and culinary secrets. Let me take you there through your…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #9. Pinch-me Moments At Valley Of The Temples
At the end of the 6th century CE, it was consecrated by the Christian Church — an effort to clean it of pagan demons — in the name of Saints Peter and Paul, transforming the sacred structure into a Byzantine-style basilica. In the mid-18th century, all signs of the church were removed in order to…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #8. Modica Chocolate
Employing a method and recipe that still exists today, the chefs used a mortar and pestle to ground the beans into a paste. They then heated the paste to 45 degrees centigrade, a temperature at which the cocoa doesn’t completely become a liquid. At this point, they mix by hand the warm paste together with…
