If you are hankering for a European tourist destination, you should consider the island of Sicily, a region of southern Italy. Depending on your interests, this beautiful area can be an ideal vacation spot. You can get classic Italian food, and wash it down with fine local wine. And parts of Sicily haven’t yet been discovered by tourists. This short article presents western Sicily. A companion article presents eastern Sicily; another presents Sicily’s capital, Palermo.

Monteale is a city of some thirty thousand southwest of Palermo. It is best known for its Norman Cathedral built between 1174 and 1185, arguably the finest example of Norman architecture in all Sicily. Its interior contains well over an acre of gold mosaics.

The town of Erice, population under thirty thousand, sits approximately half a mile above sea level. You’ll love its two castles, Pepoli Castle which dates from Saracen (Arabic) times and Venus Castle which dates from Norman times. Capo San Vito is a cape about twenty five miles (forty kilometers) northeast of Erice. It claims to have the most beautiful beach in all of Italy.

The city of Marsala whose population is approximately eighty thousand, was the major Carthaginian base in Sicily during its wars against Greece and Rome. Today Marsala brings to mind the wine much loved by the British (and others) for well over two hundred years. Make sure to see the Baglio Anselmi Archeological Museum.

We end our tour of western Sicily at Agrigento, historic city and site of Valle dei Templi (Valley of the Temples) arguably the finest Greek ruins outside of Greece. Each temple in the Valle dei Templi is unique. Prepare your trip carefully, summers in this part of the world are very, very hot, and while you don’t want to get sick, you don’t want to rush through the site which contains several buildings worth visiting.

While it hasn’t exactly taken over, organic food has made major inroads in Sicily. Of all Italy’s regions only the neighboring island of Sardinia produces more organic food. Make sure to see our companion article I Love Touring Italy – Western Sicily for a sample menu and more information on Sicilian wines as well as an in-depth examination of the area’s tourist attractions. You may be surprised to learn that only slightly more than fifty percent of Sicilian wine is red. There are many Sicilian wines without the DOC classification, sometimes by choice.

Thanksgiving table. Recipe and more in the next days? And, furthermore, as I am Italian, I would ask to all of you from America when, ehm, Thanksgiving is…

04.11.09 - Apples. Is it true that apples stave off Alzheimer’s disease, protect against colon cancer and prevent high blood pressure? Recipes with them…

28.08.09 Do you like icecreams? And how? Which flavours? Let’s try the icecream with white chocolate or almonds… And food with rice? Ice cream makers.

Vanilla icecream, Vanilla Toffee Crunch and Chunky Monkey

Vanilla Bean, Strawberries & Cream, Double Chocolate, Mango & Passion Fruit Madness, Lemon Meringue, Cappuccino and Sticky Toffee Fudge

Mango & Banana Smoothie, Banana & Strawberry Smoothie, Frozen Yogurt, Cappuccino and Chocolate Icecream

- – -

Texas and turkey burgers. Texas burgers and photos… Do you like turkey burgers, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables? How do you cook them? Fried turkey, butter and cheese on the potatoes and butter on the mixed veggies? Too “fat” recipe?

- Spicy Beans with Turkey Sausage

- – -

I thought to share with you a traditional Sicilian plate, the “cuccia” that is eaten on December, 13. I found this website in English that publishes a recipe – or a second and third one. How to make cuccia is also explained in another page or even this one from a religious point of view. If you like to try it, you can also log on this yellow-coloured page. I will ask my mother if I should add anything – a comment or anything else – about the recipes and these pages. Besides, here there is a website of Faith Willinger, who should be a journalist who deals with food… General food….

In Liguria, Piedmont and Tuscany. Chickpea flour and olive oil – or even onions and black pepper or sage – and… you can cook the farinata almost as in Liguria, Piedmont and Tuscany… And, besides, is it called a pancake or a cake? Please also be aware how “biblioteca comunale” and “farinata” are written and how your “merenda” tastes…

- Your favourite travel destination (please vote)

- Which is your best song? (please vote)

Opera, an European browser, and Mozilla, Linux and Apple

Spreadthesign, the sign language dictionary. European Commission – Education & Training

Friday December 12, 2008

updated on Thursday November 24, 2009

calogeromira.wordpress.com – e-mail

Does this search engine save watts/hour?

Image by puffodrax via Flickr

La giunta guidata da Loiero ha aderito alla manifestazione del 19 dicembre contro i lavori per il Ponte sullo stretto. L’assessore all’Urbanistica Tripodi: «Meglio riqualificare e mettere in sicurezza il territorio».

Su proposta dell’assessore all’Urbanistica Michelangelo Tripodi, la giunta regionale ha deciso di aderire alla manifestazione, che si svolgerà il 19 dicembre prossimo a Villa San Giovanni, per dire no alla costruzione del ponte sullo stretto di Messina. La scelta – è scritto in una nota dell’ufficio stampa della giunta regionale – fa seguito alla decisione assunta recentemente di presentare ricorso alla Corte Costituzionale per sollevare il conflitto di attribuzioni nei confronti del Governo in merito al progetto varato dal Cipe per l’avvio del cantiere per la cosiddetta “variante di Cannitello”.

Da La nuova ecologia la notizia qui…

Lynette and Colin Wilson in their Orchard

First Drop Olive Oil

In this travelogue on Voices from the North, Lynette Wilson chronicles a recent journey to the traditional olive groves of Sicily. Lynette and her husband, Colin, are the proprietors of Hihi Olive Estate. They press their own oil and regularly win awards for their oil which is produced for the domestic New Zealand market and for export under the First Drop label.

The interview can be heard here: 

http://www.odeo.com/episodes/25449944-Lynette-wilson-For-the-Love-of-Olives

Related post: http://insearchofsimplicity.com/2009/11/20/living-the-dream-pablo-neruda-and-ode-to-olive-oil/

 
Click Below to:

Subscribe to In Search of Simplicity by Email

John Haines is the author of In Search of Simplicity: A True Story that Changes Lives, a startlingly poignant and inspiring real-life endorsement of the power of thought, belief and synchronicity in one’s life. 

Writing about Sicily has very much enlarged my knowledge on wines. I have always been a wine lover. Which is why the Marsala wine itself may be the culprit for my plane ticket to Sicily. One day.

Its colour is similar to Nederburg Shiraz and it seems to have the same velvety texture. What is equally wonderful about Sicily is that its inhabitants massively focus on their crafts. Pottery is one of the island’s greatest surprises and so is chocolate production based on a 400 year old tradition.

The cuisine is..well, words are not enough. This is a world of imperial tastes. And you can find out even more about it by reading my writings on Sicily’s magnificence.

Getting ready for today’s Norman Rockwell Christmas Sessions-

Here are two families from last week’s Rockwell Christmas Sessions

 

 

  What families have in common around the world is that they are the place where people learn who they are and how to be that way.
–Jean Illsley Clarke

 LAST DATE: November 28th for the Rockwell Christmas Sessions

Still booking sessions. Sessions are limited so call now.

 

  

 

 

 

HOLIDAY APPOINTMENT SCHEDULE: 

Indoor & Outdoor Sessions for the rest of 2009 are available but limited- last session available is Dec. 16th.  Book now.

NEW SESSIONS for 2010 will begin again after Jan. 25th. 

 

Troy Pierce (M_NUS) Live @ Capannone ,Sicily

Mirror

Mirror

Mirror

Rise and Shine.  It’s 6:30 AM.  We stumble from the Pizza house to the kitchen in the main house.  We eat biscotti (more like cheap cookies), toast with butter and jelly, and yogurt.  Delicious yogurt in Italy!  Ellie says as we walk into the kitchen, “We go on old time today for work.”  And she walks out to the grove to continue picking where we stopped the day before. 

More available on MyGenX Travel

einfach mal den grauen Tagen entfliehen und gleichzeitig auch ein tolles Weihnachtsgeschenk haben…
ein Kurzurlaub auf Sizilien, ab in die Sonne und den Stress daheim lassen, entspannen und die Feiertage nutzen um mal was anderes zu sehen. Sonne, 19 Grad (im Schatten ), ein schwebender Duft von frisch geroesteten Marronen, ueberall bunte, flackernde Weihnachtsbeleuchtung (auf Sizilien steht nie etwas still) und ganz viele, kitschig-geschmueckte Kunsttannenbaeume und die Palmen an den Strassen in leuchtende Weihnachtsbaeume verwandelt ..
-so etwa sieht es auf Sizilien aus, wenn es auf Weihnachten zugeht. Sizilien ist zu jeder Jahreszeit eine Reise wert und in der Nebensaison ist es auch sehr guenstig
Sizilien Ferienwohnung in Terrasini nahe dem Flughafen Palermo

New post about our trip on http://mygenx.wordpress.com/mygenx-travel/  (scroll down to “New Olive Pickers are Slow”)

Excerpt:  New Olive Pickers are Slow:  Racogliere is the Italian word which means to pick. 

“Today we pick,” says the Sicilian sprite all business like.  Libby and I step in line from the breakfast table and follow Eleanora “Ellie” to the olive grove.  The Di Salvo farm is a small to mid-size olive farm for Sicily—3600 trees.  This is our first day.  Lib and I pick ten trees.  The rest of the crew consisting of Laura, Ellie’s sister (28), Christopher (a Brit), Matt from Brooklyn and Ellie, who seems to have a fever and it is for picking more olives faster!

Gioiosa Marea, in the province of Messina, is a seaside resort on the Tyrrhenian coast in front of the Aeolian Islands. It was founded after the 1783 earthquake and the famine of the following year, that obliged the inhabitants of Gioiosa Guardia, located on Mount Meliuso, to abandon their village and build a new one on the coast. In the souvenir of their old village, but also to distinguish the new one from it, they decided to call it Gioiosa Marea. Still today there are some underpasses that connect the two villages (and that soldiers covered to reach the coast) and, on the mount, the site with the ruins of Gioiosa Guardia, from where one can enjoy a breathtaking view.

Gioiosa Marea is really worth visiting: it offers it tourists some wonderful beaches, a fabulous sea and unforgettable sunset with the sun that plunges and then goes out into the sea. You absolutely have to visit the granitic stronghold of Capo Calavà, about 3km from the village centre, where some important tourist facilities are found.

Several and varied accommodation facilities are available. In particular we point out the offer of Gioiosa Marea holiday houses: Gioiosa Marea city center apartments, such as Apartment Roma (on the second floor and with a wide terrace), and Gioiosa Marea Sicily houses by the sea, such as Apartment Ilaria (which is only 10m from the beach); smaller and more discreet apartments, such as the 4 beds houses in Gioiosa Marea Sicily (for example Apartment Lucrezia, which is ideal couples with young children) or biggest houses, such as the 8 beds villas in Gioiosa Marea Sicily, among which we point out the splendid Villa Calavà, a two-floor house with all the comforts.

Sicily has a great variety of attractions, the most numerous in Italy. It is famous for its artistic and archaeological sites, for its outstanding food, wine and for the beauty of its beaches. The less advertised and explored areas are the inner ones, the mountainous ones – just thinking about the Monti Nebrodi, the Madonie and the Etna – hilly sceneries, somewhere cultivated valleys and valuable villages.

To fully experience nature and enjoy its typical products, the ideal solution is to choose a Sicily farm house, many of them achieved by retrieving old buildings. Piazza Armerina, in the Province of Enna, is situated in one of the most fascinating places in Sicily, in terms of nature and art as well. The hotels are very few, but there is a stunning holiday farm, the Gigliotto, built in 1300 in a former monastery located on a hill and surrounded by an estate of over 300 hectares of fertile farmland.

The holiday farm is located in an area surrounded by a scenery of authentic beauty. It is characterized by gentle hills where olive trees, almond trees, vineyards, and a few hazelnuts are cultivated. These valuable rural housing structures made of stones are perfectly integrated into the landscape as to witness the flourishing agriculture of the past.

Not far away there’s the town of Piazza Armerina, located partly on a hill (Armerina hill) expanding to the south-east as well. It is a very elegant city with a charming and interesting old town worth a one or two days visit. The Cathedral stands on top of the hill and its majestic dome can be seen from miles. There’s an astonished scenery around here. The area around Via Monte is the most picturesque and crossed by many narrow streets. Not to be missed, there are also the ruins of the Aragonese Castle. In the area, 5 km far, there’s also the Villa Romana del Casale with magnificent polychrome mosaics covering the floors.

On 13th and 14th August do not miss the traditional medieval Norman Palio.

Sicily has a great variety of attractions, the most numerous in Italy. It is famous for its artistic and archaeological sites, for its outstanding food, wine and for the beauty of its beaches. The less advertised and explored areas are the inner ones, the mountainous ones – just thinking about the Monti Nebrodi, the Madonie and the Etna – hilly sceneries, somewhere cultivated valleys and valuable villages.

To fully experience nature and enjoy its typical products, the ideal solution is to choose a Sicily farm house, many of them achieved by retrieving old buildings. Piazza Armerina, in the Province of Enna, is situated in one of the most fascinating places in Sicily, in terms of nature and art as well. The hotels are very few, but there is a stunning holiday farm, the Gigliotto, built in 1300 in a former monastery located on a hill and surrounded by an estate of over 300 hectares of fertile farmland.

The holiday farm is located in an area surrounded by a scenery of authentic beauty. It is characterized by gentle hills where olive trees, almond trees, vineyards, and a few hazelnuts are cultivated. These valuable rural housing structures made of stones are perfectly integrated into the landscape as to witness the flourishing agriculture of the past.

Not far away there’s the town of Piazza Armerina, located partly on a hill (Armerina hill) expanding to the south-east as well. It is a very elegant city with a charming and interesting old town worth a one or two days visit. The Cathedral stands on top of the hill and its majestic dome can be seen from miles. There’s an astonished scenery around here. The area around Via Monte is the most picturesque and crossed by many narrow streets. Not to be missed, there are also the ruins of the Aragonese Castle. In the area, 5 km far, there’s also the Villa Romana del Casale with magnificent polychrome mosaics covering the floors.

On 13th and 14th August do not miss the traditional medieval Norman Palio.

The Pulses Festival will take place on January 3rd of next year in Gagliano Castelferrato, in the province of Enna.

For those who are going to celebrate the New Year’s Day in a Sicily hotel or in any other accommodation facilities, this is a very good occasion also to spend a good time also in the following days.

This festival, which is dedicated to the tastes and the typical local products of Sicily, will celebrate three kinds of pulses (chickpeas, lentils and beans), traditionally cooked with pigskin in big saucepans called “quadaruni”.

For this festival great quantities of pulses are eaten so a huge organizational effort is needed and numerous people are involved.

Besides pulses, other typical Sicilian products can be tasted, such as white cassatelle with almonds, gnucchitti of cooked wine produced from prickly pear juice, porchetta, cold meats and salami, oil and jams.

New post on GenX Travel page.  (scroll down on the page to see the latest travel journal entry)

you look like narnia.

Ulla und Gino Ihre Gastgeber in Sizilien

“Weihnachten kommt immer so plötzlich”: Wer die Suche nach Geschenken zu spät beginnt, hat solche Ausreden schnell zur Hand. Dann noch eine Last-Minute-Reise zu bekommen, war in der Vergangenheit oft schwierig. Denn Reisen über Weihnachten und Neujahr werden häufig langfristig im Voraus gebucht, so dass es in vielen Hotels schon im November hieß “über die Feiertage ist nichts mehr zu haben”.
Deshalb warum nicht nach Sizilien und in einer Ferienwohnung die Weihnachtsfeiertage fern vom Stress verbringen.
Sizilien zur Weihnachtszeit…
Weihnachten ist auf Sizilien wie in den meisten Teilen der Welt ein ganz grosser Höhepunkt im Jahr. Die streng gläubigen Sizilianer feiern Weihnachten und die Geburt Christi auf eine sehr traditionelle Art und Weise. Auf Sizilien ist es Brauch an den Feiertagen sogenannte Presepe (Krippen) zu bauen und in manchen Doerfen gibt es auch lebendige Krippen.
Es dreht sich wie bei fast allen Dingen sehr sehr viel um die mit den Festtagen verbundenen Gaumenfreuden. Sicherlich nimmt man die Weihnachtsstimmung mit dem milden Klima und dem Meer vor der Haustür etwas anders wahr als man das von Deutschland her kennt.
Ferienwohnung in Terrasini nahe Palermo

Domenico Raccuglia