Holy Cannoli: A Sicilian Road Trip

For our last full day in Taormina, Christina and I were heading out to learn Sicilian cooking from a professional chef. We walked down to the rendezvous point where other participants were already waiting for our host, Chef Mimmo, to arrive. Chef Mimmo arrived in his casual attire as we were first going shopping for ingredients at the local market. Mimmo gave a quick rundown of how to choose the best ingredients for each of the dishes we were going to make. As we were standing there listening, locals from town were pushing through our crowd to browse the morning's selection, in the corner a mother was taking a break from selling produce and breastfed her baby, and a elderly nun approached the meat counter to pick out some fish. It was a lively scene and a nice glimpse of real life off the touristy path.

Chef Mimmo then lead us to vans that were to take us down to his beach side restaurant. When we arrived, tables were set up for our lesson with bowls, pasta making tools, and ingredients. We put on our aprons and got to work. We started with making our pasta dough. Chef Mimmo's mother was going around checking on our progress, sometimes taking over kneading the dough to the right consistency. Once that part was done, we let the dough rest while we all went to the outdoor patio to enjoy some wine.

After our wine break, we went back to work. Chef Mimmo demonstrated how to make a variety of pasta shapes and we were sent off to try some of our own. After our pasta was made, Mimmo's mother came and collected it all. We then started cutting veggies for the Sicilian version of ratatouille. Then we made a swordfish roll with garlic, olive oil, and oregano. We signed our names on our fish paper so they knew whose was whose after broiling the fish in the oven.

We all sat down outside, poured more glasses of wine, and enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Even with amateur hands at work, the food was superb. We enjoyed our conversations with folks and it was just a very happy and chill vibe eating our pasta by the beach. This was definitely one of the highlights of our grand trip.

Still full from devouring our late lunch, as the entire experience took about 5 hours, we were not really hungry for dinner. So instead, we went out for drinks with a couple of friends we met at the cooking class and enjoyed our last evening in Taormina together.

The next day, we packed up and headed toward our final Sicilian stop, a sleepy beach town called Aspra. I figured for our last full day in Sicily, we could just relax and do nothing but sit around and look at the water. And that is exactly what we did. For lunch we made mortadella and cheese sandwiches and for dinner we made pasta in our AirBnB. Luckily there was a grocery store just down the block where we could get these goodies plus some wine. Aside from my luggage getting lost and the crazy drivers on the road, this was a fun and memorable trip that I am glad I got to enjoy with Christina. I look forward to our next adventure.

One of the most anticipated activities on this trip had arrived, the Godfather tour! A film that I have seen countless times and it never gets old. With the exception of the third film in the series, the Godfather movies are ultimate classics and I was excited to see all the filming locations. However, somebody had never seen the movies and I tried showing her before we left but we never got past the first 45 minutes of the first one. I think the severed horse head in the bed was too much for her. So before the tour I gave Christina a quick synopsis and explained the significance of each of the locations we were about to see.

After filling ourselves with eggs, espresso, mozzarella, and chocolate cake (Sicilian hotel breakfasts are strange but tasty), we walked down to the end of the promenade to meet our pickup driver, Francisco. This older man in his 60s came out with a little piece of paper with my name on it. I pointed out my name and then he loaded us up into the van with another couple. Along the way we picked up two more couples and we were enjoying Italian oldies music blasting from the radio.

All was fine until the lady next to me in her charming Irish accent asked me what tour we were going to. I had assumed we were all going on the Godfather tour and so I stated that. The shock in her eyes when she realized she and her husband got on the wrong van! She immediately tried getting the attention of the driver who was possibly hard of hearing. But luckily one of the passengers sitting next to him spoke Italian and conveyed the lady's revelation to the driver. But at that point we had arrived at our rendezvous point to meet the other van driven by the owner of the tour company, Marcelo. Francisco was on the phone with Marcelo explaining that he picked up the wrong passengers and you could hear the furious yelling over the phone while Francisco was pacing back and forth by the van. The rest of us walked over to the lookout platform to take in the beautiful views of the beach while they sorted things out. This was the same beach seen in the show White Lotus.

So finally Marcello shows up in the other van with his passengers and an all out dramatic Italian argument ensued! Marcelo, a short stout bald man, with a deep and angry voice just let Francisco have it. I felt bad for Francisco but he hit back with his own boisterous Italian anger. Hand gestures were being thrown left and right. Strange but there is something fun about watching an incredibly animated argument with so much wild use of the arms and hands conveying that anger in a very beautiful language. After their exchange, Marcelo then turned his attention on the couple who got on the wrong bus and started yelling at them and blaming them. Now that wasn't cool because the lady so sweet. Apparently, the mix up happened because the person that was actually supposed to be picked up had the exact same name and since Francisco was hard of hearing and didn't speak a lick of English, he didn't hear the couple ask him if that was the van taking them to the port for their ferry ride to the Aeolian Islands. Francisco had just nodded and they took that as confirmation. Unfortunately, at that point, they were never going to make it to the ferry on time and had no choice but to return to Taormina and come up with other plans. Defeated, they got back in the van and Francisco drove them back while the rest of us gathered around Marcelo for his introduction to the tour.

Marcelo started the tour by talking about Mario Puzo writing the Godfather and all the Sicilian influences he incorporated into the book. We also learned that Mario Puzo wrote the the first Superman movie starring Christopher Reeve as well as the Godfather himself, Marlon Brando. Although Marcelo clearly had anger issues, he also turned out to be a pretty entertaining story teller. So with an initial taste of what was to come, we all loaded back into the vans and headed to our first destination, Bar Vitelli.

We visited a quaint village called Savoca high atop a mountain. There on a small road was Bar Vitelli, the bar where Michael Corleone was chilling with his buddies when a beautiful girl named Apollonia walked by. In the movie, she was the bar owner's daughter and Michael asked if he could come over to dinner to meet her. Of course he asked this as his buddies surrounded the bar owner while wearing their rifles. So we took a tour of the bar checking out the movie memorabilia inside. The place was an absolute tourist trap for sure when we saw that a single Aperol Spritz was 16 euro when normally we had been paying no more than 5 euro but it was still awesome to do just once. So we sat there just taking in the moment.

Our next stop was a 15 minute walk up a steep hill to the church were Michael married Apollonia. On the way up, we saw plants growing out of the rocks and concrete and learned they were caper plants! Capers come from the flower buds of these plants. Fascinating. Once up at the church, Marcelo reminded us that in the marriage scene, the actual wedding took place outside the church entrance because at the time the Mafia and the Catholic Church had an agreement to keep their business separate. At least that is what Marcelo said and it sounded more interesting than something practical like the church being too small for the camera crew and actors.

On the way back to the vans, Marcello yelled out at everyone to quickly come down to where an older woman was sweeping her front stoop. He introduced her as one of the actors in the Godfather wedding scene. She was a very joyful person and was probably saying something about the movie but we didn't understand a single word. But she seemed like a lovely woman and it was an honor to meet her. After a few more pictures around the town and some souvenir shopping, we loaded back up into the vans to our next destination to visit the Chiesa di Maria S. Annunziata e Assunta located in another small town, Forza d'Agro.

Now, Chiesa di Maria S. Annunziata e Assunta is the church which showed up in both the first and second movies and is the famous scene where a young Vito Corleone was smuggled past mafia hitmen while hidden inside a basket on a donkey. Marcelo showed us exactly where the camera was stationed and for a huge movie fan like me, it was a momentous experience. There were many other things he showed us but these were the absolute highlights and even Christina had a great time seeing the sites and hearing the stories. Maybe Christina was impressed with my Godfather movie knowledge when Marcelo asked folks to answer some trivia questions....at least I hope.

We returned from the tour late in the afternoon and we were ready for food! So I found a great little bar with wine and appetizers before going for the main course, pizza! Everything was delicious and my lovely Christina looked beautiful walking down the streets of Taormina. I think I rocked my new Italian shirt as well.

Ortigia was the first super touristy town we had visited so far. With its labyrinth of stone paths and limited vehicle activity, it was a perfect place to walk in leisure while eating and drinking everything in site. Our first morning, we enjoyed some fun in the sun during our boat cruise around the small island. We boarded a small boat with 7 other people and our guide took us to some of the large caves in the side of Syracuse's seaside cliffs and showed us spectacular views around the bay.

We had skipped breakfast in order to not miss our early morning boat tour and so we were starving. With my superior restaurant searching abilities, I found this little hidden cafe called Irma la Dolce with amazing food including one of the most life-altering homemade hot chocolates I've ever had. It was thick as molasses and exploded with dark chocolatey goodness. I threw in a shot of espresso for a kick and topped it off with freshly made whipped cream. It even came with cookies!

We burned off the calories exploring all the hidden corridors, meeting more street cats, and doing some epic shopping. The shopping was pretty remarkable as I bought myself some legit Italian made shirts and Christina acquired a few things herself. That is pretty much all we did. Walk, shop, eat, drink, repeat.

Our last dinner was at a seafood restaurant Christina found and I know I keep saying this but it was freaking delicious. I would have to say it was the best seafood I have ever had. And I'm comparing that to the culinary perfection we once had in Santorini, Greece where I ate an incredible grilled squid. But this place in Ortigia won the title for best seafood overall. We ordered squid, seafood pasta, and pan-fried swordfish washing it all down with a bottle of Sicilian white wine. A beautiful street cat kept walking past me hoping I would drop a few bites for him. Lucky for him, I'm a messy eater so there were plenty of treats that fell to the floor for the little dude. The dinner was the best way to end our quick trip in Ortigia and fuel up for our journey to Mt. Etna the next day.

The next day, we grabbed breakfast pastries, packed up the car and headed toward Mt. Etna, Sicily's resident volcano and the largest in all of Italy. We drove up more winding roads to the starting point of the cable car lift on the south side of the volcano. The price was a bit steep at 78 euros a person but it was absolutely worth it. The cable car lifted us up 2,500 meters (about 8,000 ft) to a base station then we hopped onto an off-roading mega bus that drove us up another 500 meters. So we were about 10,000 ft up the very active volcano walking on rocks that were spewed out less than a year ago in its last eruption. It was a bit freaky thinking about how the heck we were going to get down if this thing decided to get angry and release lava or toxic gasses, but I did a good job keeping those dark thoughts at bay. We walked around one of the large craters where lava once spewed out and our guide told us some factoids about the volcano. But I was even more impressed with the guide's ability to switch from Italian, to English, to French, and to German multiple times as he spoke with different tourists.

After our 45 minute tour, we loaded back onto the bus and returned to the base station where we enjoyed a little snacky snack in the cafe. We sat there eating our paninis and chips while taking in the spectacular view of the entire Sicilian east coast. It was simply Wow.

We then made our cable car journey back down to the parking lot, explored a little more in the area, then jumped back in the car for our next fun activity, wine tasting. We booked a wine tour at a vineyard, Cantina del Malandrino, situated along the eastern slope of Mt. Etna. Getting there was absolutely the scariest driving experience up to that point in our trip. Again, no surprise the roads were narrow and winding but the cars coming in opposite directions clearly didn't care to use their breaks. They were so confident they wouldn't scrape the side of my car as they barreled on past us. We eventually made it to the entrance of the vineyard and were welcomed by the host and her partner as well as their many cats and dogs.

The host sat down with us and regaled us with the story of her vineyard startup adventure. She was an architect and her partner an engineer and they decided to buy an abandoned vineyard just for fun. It turned out to be more work than they thought but ended up loving it. We tasted in total 7 of their wines and they all had a slight bit of fizziness. Maybe it was from being 100% organic but the first wine we tasted was pretty much kombucha. We were given a nice tour of the place and learned about the old ways wine was made in the building including seeing the room that would be filled with grapes and people would step on them. The juices would flow down to stone drains as the floor was slanted. Of course they don't do it that way anymore and that room was the dining room where we enjoyed a pretty remarkable assortment of cheeses, meats, and other treats. That cheese....my gosh. I think the whole room heard the noises I made when I bit into that first chunk. Usually Christina would be embarrassed of my extra animated reactions but she was busy having her own moment of indulgent bliss with the ricotta cheese. The fresh ricotta was astonishing and tasted like no other ricotta we've ever had. It was freshly made that day for it came from a neighbor's sheep farm. I know I sound like a broken record, but this place became the best wine tasting experience I ever had both for the actual wine and the food. I told the guy this and he was very honored. They were such a kind couple and I will certainly be leaving them a great review. We wanted to stay a bit longer to try more wine but it was getting dark. The 2 hour wine tour turned into a 4 hour tour and I was worried about the winding roads at night. So we bid our friends farewell and drove over to the most famous town in Sicily, Taormina.

We leisurely rolled out of bed to enjoy a bit of breakfast served up by the BnB. Fresh farm eggs, slices of mortadella, and lots of espresso to help get our day started. We drove a quick 15 minutes down the mountain and back up another to visit the Valle dei Templi, the Valley of the Temples. The site is home to ancient Greek ruins (real ones this time!) and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We saw the Temple of Concordia (the best preserved Greek ruins in Sicily), the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Heracles, the Temple of Zeus, and others. The entire site was incredible to take in. It was a very hot day and we walked for about 3 hours so we absolutely got our steps in for the day.

Hot and tired, we needed food and quick. So we found ourselves a grocery store and loaded up on tasty treats including fruit, bread, meat, and cheese. We made ourselves sandwiches back at the BnB and enjoyed the view from the porch. We were too tired to explore any more so we stayed the rest of the day in the BnB and relaxed. For dinner, we cooked up our homemade pasta and tried three different sauces we bought at the store: pesto rosso, arrabiata (a spicy tomato sauce), and a creamy walnut and cheese sauce. All were fantastic but the pesto rosso was our favorite. It was a good day and we were ready to hit the road again the next morning.

We had a long drive ahead of us the next day as we journeyed toward the east coast of the island. We made a few stops in between including a stop in Caltagirone to visit the Scalinata di Santa Maria del Monte, a set of world-famous steps similar to the Spanish steps in Rome. The small town was at the top of a mountain and the streets were not designed for cars. We parked right in the town entrance and walked through the narrow stone roads to find this little hidden treasure. It was a quick visit but a nice side quest, nonetheless.

On a silly note, we needed a quick bathroom break before hitting the road again and luckily there was a McDonalds not too far away. We took turns using the bathroom while one of us pretended we were going to order something. But I did find the McDonald food options and names interesting.

Next up was our journey to a restaurant I somehow found scouring through Reddit community pages. It was called Cucina Tipica da Eva e Zio Pippo Marino-Marinello and it literally was the dining room of a farmer's house high in the mountains. We were a bit skeptical when the GPS brought us to the front entrance of a dirt road leading to a small farm house. But soon we saw others were there for lunch as well. The menu was actually quite extensive and we ordered from the husband and his wife made the meals in her kitchen. We ordered spaghetti al ricci de marre, the tagliatelle al pesto siciliano, and the star of the show, the scallopina al limone made from the farmer's own pigs we saw coming into the property. Those guys were delicious! It doesn't get farm to table fresher than that!

After devouring our big meal, we continued on our mountainous winding drive to the east coast town of Syracuse, the oldest city in Sicily as it was the Greek capital of Sicily almost 3,000 years ago. We took in the mountainous scenery and sites before making it back down and entering Syracuse's little island town of Ortigia. There I successfully avoided hitting tourists and narrowly scraping the car against the stone walls in tight corners getting to our hotel. But we made it and celebrated our successful and tiring day of driving with wine and aperol spritzes. And of course we ran into the furry sweet creatures of the island.

We made our way out of San Vito lo Capo early in the morning as we had a long day and drive ahead of us. We fueled up with some sugar packed pastries from the local bakery and we were off to our first stop in Trapani, the Salt Mine Museum. Yup, Sicily has been mining salt from the ocean for nearly 3,000 years. It's still a thriving industry and we were excited to check out the salt pans where the sea water sits for months allowing the sun to evaporate the water and leave behind the purest salt money can buy. We saw one of the old windmills used in the salt production but of course everything is now electric.

Our next stop was the town of Selinunte to visit Greek ruins. That's right! The Greeks ruled Sicily for 500 years before the Romans took over. I was pretty excited to visit the archeological park but unfortunately it was a bit of a let down. Primarily because the "ruins" were not actually real. They were all reproductions as remnants of the real stuff were at a museum in Palermo. Go figure. But silver lining, the reproductions were still interesting to see and the views from the park were quite a wonder.

Our visit to the park was significantly shorter than I had planned so we had plenty of time to kill before our pasta making lesson later. So of course, we searched for lunch first. I found a local joint with great reviews nearby and we ate some freshly made arancini and a strange but tasty concoction of fried chickpea fritters called panele. Christina wasn't a fan of the fritters but I happily destroyed them.

I had booked us an AirBnB experience that took place on a small farm near Selinunte. We were welcomed by a young guy and his mom as we pulled into the driveway. They led us to the kitchen where a table was prepped with bowls and ingredients for the pasta making. Since we were a bit early and there was another couple to join us, we waited out in her beautiful garden rehydrating with water and wine. When the other couple arrived, the host gave us our cooking smocks and we washed our hands. We gathered around the table and watched the mom demonstrate each of the pasta making steps while her son translated. We first made the dough from eggs and semolina flour. The mom helped us knead our dough as we were all failing a bit. But while we let our dough rest, our hosts led us back to the garden table and brought us wine and snacks to enjoy. The other couple was very friendly. They were from Holland and immediately asked us about US politics when we said we were from the United States. They apparently had watched the debate the other night and were absolutely enamored with Kamala Harris and disgusted by Trump. They had great questions particularly about healthcare and energy so of course I was happy to share my thoughts. Just as the conversation got good, our hosts called us back in to begin the pasta making.

We made seven different types of pasta using a variety of methods: gnocchi, penne, rigatoni, busiate (the local specialty), farfalle, pappardelle, and tagliatelle. After all was completed, the mom showed us the proper way to cook fresh pasta and then we sat down to eat our creations. I could identify some of my "Frankenstein's monster" pasta pieces I made but they were still good despite the misshapen results. The hosts packed up the rest of our uncooked pasta for us to take home with us. Luckily, our next BnB had a kitchen so we could actually cook it. It was a really fun and educating experience.

Our next stop was our BnB located in the hills of Agrigento about 2 hours away so we hit the road. Although, not before getting lost as my GPS could not figure out where we were for while. Eventually, we were back on track and checked into a beautiful BnB located high on a mountain top grove of olive trees.