Tag: 52 Reasons to Love Sicily
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #26. Haute Cuisine … No, Bread
This post was supposed to be about how in Sicily you can find outstanding modern, gourmet cuisine. And you can. I have eaten at some of Sicily’s best haute cuisine restaurants like I Pupi in Bagheria, Bye Bye Blues in Mondello, Ristorante Cortile Arabo in Marzamemi, and others. And yes, these are excellent restaurants with eye-popping…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #23. Beaches and Swimming
There are more than 150 beaches to explore in Sicily… This just scratches the surface. I haven’t even mentioned the islands of Favignana, Lampedusa, Ustica, and Linosa, for example, which offer even more enchantment and wild beauty.
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #21. Castles and Their Stories
Castles and their stories pervade hilltop towns in Sicily. This castle pictured, Il Castello di Caccamo in Palermo Province, presents travelers an especially interesting glimpse into Europe’s medieval past. Scholars think the site has been home to some kind of fortress for millennia, meanwhile, this impenetrable iteration, the largest in Sicily, was built by the…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #20. Outstanding Ancient Art
There are extraordinary pieces of ancient art throughout Sicily–even in the smallest of museums. One example is in the Museo Whitaker of Mozia off of Sicily’s west coast. The world-renowned “Youth of Motya” or “Motya Charioteer” is a mid-5th century BCE statue made of Parian marble. It was uncovered on the Island of Motya (or Mozia) in…
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52 Reasons to Love Sicily | #17. Pasta
So, don’t believe that legend about Marco Polo—the Arabs brought pasta to Sicily way before, and the rest is … your happy stomach! Pasta takes on many forms across the island—both fresh and dried and made with different grains as well. I invite you to join me this Sunday, May 2 for an online busiate…
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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 | #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…