A Sicilian Adventure!

Back in March when we visited Bletchley Park and had our indoor skydiving adventure, I had an epiphany. The eight of us were sitting around a large table at a restaurant, discussing the wine we had chosen, when a lightbulb went off in my head… "You know," I said, "I know a couple who started a wine school in Sicily…" I turned to Bill and he instantly said, "YES!" I proposed to the group a trip to Sicily to visit their wine school and see what all Sicily had to offer.  

First volcano sighting! 

Everyone unanimously agreed almost the minute the idea had come to mind, so I went home and started planning. The island of Sicily has a still active volcano, Mount Etna, and one of Bill's bucket list items is to see hot lava with his own eyes. Therefore, aside from spending one day with the wine school, I also booked us a private all-day 4X4 excursion up the volcano. In the upcoming blog posts, I will outline our day at the wine school, our trek up the volcano, our day sightseeing in Taormina, and a few other tidbits.  

The Mediterranean Sea

In this blog post, I've grouped a bunch of random shots that didn't really fit into the other posts.

Gorgeous coastline

It was really, really, really hot down by the ocean, but much cooler up on the volcano.

Swim deck on the Med

We rented a six-bedroom house with a pool that came with a great outdoor dining area. Too bad there were so many mosquitos! 

Dining al fresco (humans and mosquitos)

On several of the nights we made our own dinners from food we had purchased at local markets. The food was really, really good! All local, seasonal, freshly caught, picked, or harvested. And we had the best fresh ricotta EVER, hands down! 

Brook and Dan grill up some fish

I have no idea what little village we were in in the picture below, but at the end of our day learning about volcanos on Mount Etna we tried to find some granita, a Sicilian dish that is similar to sorbet. Much to Roberto the volcanologist's, dismay, the shop was all out of granita for the day, but we did see this amazing little church.  

A lovely church somewhere in Sicily

We promised Roberto that we would find some granita for breakfast the next day. And true to our word, we did, and it was delicious! They had almond, strawberry, and lemon granita, and we paired ours with brioche and cafe, which is the traditional Summer Sicilian breakfast.  

Breakfast!

My friend Regine has since re-created the almond granita at home, and it is pretty darned tasty. I may just have to try to make some in the near future as well! 

Almond granita and brioche - where have you been all my life?!

Stay tuned for more Sicilian blog posts coming over the next few weeks!