Sicily Recommendations

I just booked a spur of the moment trip into Catania and leaving Palermo for mid-February.

I did not see any recent threads on Sicily specifically so am calling out for any general, site, food or winery visit recommendations others on the board may have.

Grazie! [cheers.gif]

Some useful info here:

Thanks, Ken.

I had seen that thread, which has been helpful towards identifying Sicilian wineries. I am hoping in this forum to elicit travel recommendations and experiences, including sites, stays, food and actual visit experiences at different wineries, together with any words for the wise.

I will be in Sicily for a week and looking to put together some melange of culture, food, archealogical sites and winery visits, if that helps focus anyone’s recommendations.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Dan

Spend a couple of days in Palermo, try and see Selinunte, Agrigento and if you can go to the Aeolian Islands. They are just gorgeous and you can visit wineries in both Salina and Lipari

My wife’s family (half) are from Sicily so we drove most of the island in rental car to see as much as possible, fun time.

We stayed at the Kafara outside Palermo, really like it and can’t beat the views. Palermo, not so much… had some mob killings right before we got there so it was “somber”.
http://www.kafarahotel.it/

You going to Mt Edna? that was a fun drive, neat walking on the lava fields, and good vino around that area.

Taormina is near there and is amazing, really amazing. Great food but CROWDED, very popular place. But you have to go.

Great town on the top of a mountain, nice old castle, etc. Way over to the west.

We visited the ruins in Argrigento, they’re nice. we day tripped down there from Palermo, best part was getting lost in the country side villages.

Hit this place too, amazing tile work.

Some other UNESCO world heritage sites

I was the only blonde haired person I saw in Sicily the entire time we were there. We’d be in these tiny towns off the beaten path and they’d STARE at me like I was from another planet. My wife on the other hand would have people speaking to her in Italian/Sicilian.

Thanks, Ricardo. I am definitely planning on Agrigento and Selinunte. Is it typical to reach out to wineries and make appointments in advance, and is there a charge/purchase expectation?

Brig, thanks for all the recommendations. Villa Romana Casale might be the site I’m most excited to visit and I’m looking hard at Erice too.

Any other thoughts from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Dan

Have you traveled in Italy before? I ask because my wife and I had traveled through Tuscany the summer before and visited several hill towns. For that reason, places like Erice and Taormina were really underwhelming. Erice is also quite a detour while Taormina is sort of a combo hill town/shopping mall but with beaches and wineries close by. It’s also a short drive fom there to Savoca where several scenes from The Godfather were shot. That was fun for me, ymmv. So, Taormina is well situated as a busy, commercialized, expensive hub for day drips elsewhere. Be forewarned also, that you take shuttles and pay stiff fees to enjoy the beaches around Taormina.

So, Taormina is not for everyone. People seem to either love it or like us, are underwhelmed.

We actually enjoyed Palermo more, along with Selenunte, Agrigento, and our visit to COS winery was an incredible highlight. Highly recommend reading Palmento. We stopped in Scoglitti, just as the author did, on our way to COS, and ate at the same seafood restaurant. Loved it! The owner is also the fisherman who supplies the incredibly fresh fish.

Best wine/food experiences were in Palermo, Sciacca, Scoglitti, COS Winery, and Taormina.

I’ll get you the names/addresses if you’re interested.

Another great experience was driving up a steep drive just outside of Sciacca and out a long dirt road to eat the freshest ricotta we’ve ever had. Incredible! The producers make it, sell it all in 24 hours or else feed it to their Hogs. They are incredibly eccentric. We arrived at 10am to find it was closed for the day. However, the owner still took us in, fed us his incredible ricotta, served us wine, gave us a tour, sang to us, and didn’t charge us a penny. A real memory.

Thanks, Rob. I am definitely planning to stay at/visit COS. so great to hear that recommendation. I am not sure on Taormorina, but am definitely looking for a base to explore Mt Etna and an area winery or two. I wasn’t thinking much of beach visits, as I’ll be there next month and am hoping the offseason will tamp down some of the crowd issues in the cities.

I will order the Palmento book today and would greatly appreciate any name/addresses of places you might recommend. Any wineries in particulr other than COS? I am trying to figure whether I need to set up appointments and whether and which wineries welcome general visitors.

I appreciate the help!

Dan

It’ll take me a little time to locate and condense my travel notes, but I will get back to this thread with more information. I don’t beleve you need to give a Sicilian winery more than a few days notice, but it never hurts to make sure. In the meantime, anything you can share about your general travel and touring preferences will help.

SOme restaurant suggestions:
in Palermo try Piccolo Napoli, only open at lunch great seafood.
Also in Sicily you can find two restaurants that are considered among the best in the country, link below:

In general though Sicilian food is fantastic and it’s almost impossible to get a bad meal. The only real tourist trap in Sicily could be Taormina, other than that you are good pretty much anywhere. Street food is good as well, if you like spleen sandwich…

Do need to worry about crime while there. A common target is your luggage, while you’re in your car driving! In traffic or at a stop light they’ll just walk up, open your back door or trunk and take everything. Even while riding in a cab, nothing is off limits.

Two guys on a motorcycle tried us but I locked the car doors when I saw him coming towards us at an intersection in Catania. That place is not nice anyway.

Actually I never worry about crime down there, except in Catania or Palermo, as I do in major cities anywhere though. Smaller towns or villages are totally safe

One point I will make is that I don’t have much patience for a lot of winery visits, so this definitely colors the way I do my wine/food touring.

I love to drink regional wines, but I prefer to dink them in restaurants with local food.

In Sicily, I didn’t feel that any other winery vist was going to top the visit to COS.

Short story about COS is that our GPS went haywire, sending us on several wild goose chases. So, we arrived at COS at the end of the day. We only made reservations for a tour/tasting that morning. When we arrived, they told us they were about to close, but would be happy to give us a tasting.

Or…

We could come back the next day and have a tour, tasting, and lunch.

We came back the next day and had such a wonderful time that when we looked at our watches, we couldn’t believe we’d been there for four hours - the time just flew by!

Definitely arrange to have the lunch/tasting!

We sampled a number of wonderful Etna Rossos, but not at the wineries.

In Taormina, we had another stroke of great luck.

We decided to eat at a restaurant called Nero Da Avola.

The owner saw my copy of Palmento and started chatting with us about wine, food, Sicilian culture…and when he found out we were interested in Etna wine, he began opening bottles and only charging us by the glass so we could taste several examples. Incredible.

The food was also excellent. Incredibly fresh local ingredients.

If you go to Taormina and use it as a hub for exploring the area, definitely try this restaurant and check out the wine list. If you can get the owner to your table, it becomes even more interesting. He seems to like to circulate, responding to people who are interested.

Another wonderful memory.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I am booked visiting the Passopisciaro winery and am setting up a stay with COS. I will look to take advantage of everyone’s recommendations and will report back to the group.

Dan

Can someone post more info on COS? We are flying into Catania July 1st for a few days, then heading to Noto, but would like to know more about COS>
thanks

Don’t go to Messina. Compared to the mainland, Messina was incredibly dirty. Literally dog shit on the sidewalks. It had a seedy, seaport town feel. We felt very out of place.

You’d find similar places with the dog shit description not only in Messina, but in some neighborhoods in other towns like Catania, Palermo, Siracusa, Agrigento, etc. But I wouldn’t characterize the whole city as seedy, and dog shit in some neighborhoods should not deter one from enjoying the rest of the cities. Definitely a seaport town, though.

Besides, going to Messina wouldn’t matter as Gary said they’re driving down to Noto, which is the complete opposite of driving up to Messina.

We’ve driven from Catanaia/Siracusa going towards the southwest and passed by COS and Occhipinti wineries near Vittoria. Note that after Noto, Vittoria is 1-and-1/2 hours drive away to the west. Many small dusty roads. Hence, it’ll either be a day trip or a planned stop along the way should you continue driving on to, say, Agrigento and on to Palermo.

My wife and I visited Sicily for the first time this Spring for 5 days (been to Italy many times before). Flew into Catania and picked up rental car and spent first 2 nights in Taromina. Drove the third day to Romana de Casale to see Roman tiles and on to Agrigento for Greek ruins where we spent the night. Next 2 nights in Palermo stopping in Erice on the way. Connecting flights both ways through Paris where we spent 2 nights before heading home. Wanted 1 more day in Sicily to visit Siracusa, but couldn’t fit it in. Very enjoyable trip with easy driving other than rush hour traffic in Palermo and trying to find rental car return. Some highlights: All day tour of Mt Etna and environs with a small group of 8 people (none Americans, but us) and a great tour guide who was a college trained volcanologist. Included in the tour, lunch at a vineyard agriturismo with a wine tasting. If you are in Taromina, I suggest eating at Restaurant Nero d’ Avola (same name as the grape). This was suggested to me by a part owner of a famous wine shop in NYC (nameless) who spends 3 months a year in Italy. Best meal of the trip, including Paris (where we ate at David Toutains and Daniel Rose’s Bistro Chez la Vielle) which my wife and I have been to over 20 times. Very casual, reasonable and great service and food. Small, so reservations suggested. If you are staying in Taromina with a car, I suggest a hotel with parking in or very near town. Finding parking in Taromina is almost impossible. Our hotel was halfway between the beaches and the elevated portion of the city. At 71, a bit strenuous a walk up for me so we drove up and spent an hour finding a place to park. The second night the tour guide dropped us off in town and after dinner and walking the town we took an easy walk back down to our hotel. I did not feel unsafe anywhere in Sicily. Rented compact car from Auto Europe for 5 days with unlimited mileage and no drop off fee for $250 US which was very reasonable. Last highlight were the people we met; very warm and friendly, and particularly the young man on his motorcycle who I followed in Palermo to my rental car return.

In Noto go to Caffe’ Sicilia, you probably already know that…