Sicily – An Island Filled with History and Cannoli

Continuing our 2021 travels, we recently returned from a two-week trip to Sicily. We were looking to travel in November and wanted a semi-warm destination, which is how we chose Sicily. We were impressed by the unique elements of Sicily’s history and the opportunity to explore an entire region over an extended period.

This was Jeff’s first opportunity to drive in Italy, and after driving in Ireland, it almost seemed easy. While the Italians have a reputation for being crazy drivers, at least in Sicily, their driving overall was not outrageous – except for the scooters. If you understand that in Italy, each driver is going to do what he or she has to do to get where they are going, you will expect the aggressive moves and you can almost predict what will happen – except for the scooters. And when you need to make a move, you know that the Italians understand that you’re doing what you have to do as well. Jeff did a fabulous job and enjoyed the hilly and switchback roads we encountered in the southeast especially.

As you might expect, the best part of Sicily is the food and wine. We enjoy the pasta so much in Italy that we generally avoid eating pasta elsewhere. Sicilian pasta is delicious with a lot of eggplant (a la Norma) and seafood options. We ate more fish and drank more white wine than expected and it was amazing. Living on the Atlantic side of Spain, we don’t get swordfish, so we really took advantage of the opportunity to eat it. Jeff really enjoyed the shellfish – spaghetti and clams at our first lunch:

And then there’s the pastry. We researched the best cannoli, and it was in a small town called Datillo between Palermo and Trapani (on the west coast). We weren’t disappointed but I’m not sure I’d say it was the absolute best cannoli in my life, but it was the largest for sure:

While in Bologna three years ago we noticed that there was an option to have gelato with brioche, which we found odd and never tried. Why would you eat bread with ice cream? In Sicily we saw the option to have granita with brioche at breakfast, and this time we tried it and it was delicious:

The sweetness of the brioche combines perfectly with the sugary granita. The Sicilians eat a lot of pastry, especially at breakfast. The number of sweet options at breakfast was unreal and the quantity of bakeries to investigate was overwhelming.

Lastly, there are a ton of stray cats in Sicily. Many seemed well-fed and happy (these three were on Ortigia, an island that is part of the city of Siracusa):

As you can tell, it was a delightful trip. We did an entire loop of the island starting on the western side in Trapani, heading south to the amazing Greek ruins in Agrigento, turning inland to enjoy the Baroque hill towns in and around Ragusa, going east to the coastal regions of Siracusa and Catania, spending time on Mount Etna, and finishing up in Palermo. It was a lot of driving – 1000 miles – but it was worth it.

More details to come soon,

Shana & Jeff