“I’ve seen that sign for Castiglione before, did we bicycle here on our first trip?”
“No clue,” David responded. “Pretty sure we were somewhere else.”
30 minutes later…
“Vizzini. I swear we’ve been here,” I said.
20 minutes later…
“Those windmills look familiar.”
“You’ve traveled too much, everything is starting to look the same,” George commented.
“Yeah, thanks smartass, but those look really familiar.”
Arriving at the hotel…
David said, “Yep, we’ve been here. I recognize the pavers in the lawn.”
“We seriously booked the same hotel without remembering? When were we here last?”
“No clue,” he said.
Castello Camemi
Over happy hour that night at the lovely Castello Camemi, in the middle of the countryside near Castiglione and Vizzini in south central Sicily, I found old photos uploaded to Shutterfly. Not only did we stay in the same hotel, but we had the exact same room. From 2012.
Idiots. With etch-a sketch brains.
Well, that’s why we started our blog posts.
Obviously, we liked Sicily enough to return. The first time here was a bit of a quick, hard-core bicycle trip that had us leaving each little town saying, “I wish we could have stayed here longer.” Ten years makes a big difference in how we travel. We’re a bit calmer now (if that’s possible) without needing to move every 10 seconds. Let’s call it “seeing the same thing through more-seasoned eyes.” That’s more gentle than etch-a-sketch brains.
Why Sicily is memorable
It’s a bit more rugged than mainland Italy, filled with charming towns and sweeping landscapes. From the entire eastern side of the island, Mount Etna taunts you from a distance almost wherever you are. The food is also quite a bit different with a focus on fresh seafood, as well as many North African influences (Tunisia is just a boat ride away from the western coast).
When you’re off the beaten path (the best way to see Sicily), the cows and the goats rule the road, in that order. When you come upon a herd of either marching down the road, which happened to us once or twice a day, they always have the right of way, leaving you to stop and enjoy the countryside while being moo-ed at for getting in their way.
The towns of Sicily
Our favorite smaller towns were Ragusa, Siracusa, Cefalu and Taormina, if you’re good at tourist dodging. For bigger towns, even though Catania has an incredible morning fish market, it’s only worth a one-night stay, if that.
Palermo is quite different than other Italian towns. It’s a bit rougher, dirtier, busier. It is worth a few days, especially if you pair it with a trip to Monreale and/or Cefalu. Stay outside of town on the water and walk into town to make the stay more appealing. Our favorite hotel was Villa Igiea.
In Ragusa, which is a lovely little town when the daytime tourists go away, we loved staying right in the center, in a simple, boutique style hotel, a.d. 1768 Boutique Hotel.
Siracusa is also very busy by day, especially when the dreaded cruise ships arrive (forget global warming, I truly believe cruise ships are destroying our planet). By night, it’s magical. We loved the location of Grand Hotel Des Strangers.
Palermo
Regusa
Siracusa
Don’t bother with the Neapolis Archaeological Park, unless you’ve never seen ancient Greek or Roman ruins. They usually have it set up for a concert, which diminishes the significance, and it’s crowded ALWAYS. Do walk by Temple di Apollo in the middle of the city, and make sure to hit the morning market near there.
Taormina doesn’t have cruise ships, but it has the White Lotus effect (unbeknownst to us at the time). In fact, we stayed at the San Domenico hotel in Taormina, which has its own destination status due to the HBO White Lotus series season two.
In Taormina, the Teatro Antico is worth a visit, but go right when they open. There is also a great hike up to Chiesa Madonna della Rocco and Castello Taormina that gives an incredible view of the city, not to be missed.
We opted to only do day trips to Noto because I think it stands for notoriously touristy. Beautiful town, but we liked the others a bit better.
Temple di Apollo
Taormina
Taormina
The Tourist Dodging Strategy
Early mornings, evenings and side streets. If you see someone holding a flag, run in the other direction.
Go to the family run trattorias and taverns on small side streets. Ask the concierge for restaurants recommendations, sure, but make sure to also ask the local servers where they hang out and where the locals go.
Mount Etna
Since she was taunting us all week, we had to visit the mountaintop. It’s worth it. There are hikes for all levels of fitness, so don’t let her intimidate you.
Now that I’ve documented that we were in fact in Sicily, and we did visit these places, I can refer to it when we’ve forgotten we’ve been to Sicily, in another 10 years probably.
Restaurant Highlights
Per city (many more great ones, but we had our best experiences here):
- Palermo: Osteria dei Vespri
- Ragusa: Cucina e Vino Osteria, Ai Lumi, I Banchi
- Siracusa: Chiodo
- Taormina: Aranciara, Casa Ciampoli
Chiodo
Aranciara
Casa Ciampoli
