from Sicily to Sydney

We had some delicious and unique food in Sicily!  Here's a smattering of food highlights.  lampuga (head and all) with sweet & sour onions clams with fava bean puree Eric loves fish, and he ate it often enough and in many different forms to make up for my lack of enthusiasm.  One of his favorite dishes was pasta con le sarde -- pasta and chunks of sardines tossed with white wine, anchovies, wild fennel, pine nuts and raisins, then topped with toasted bread crumbs.  This is Sicily on a plate -- tasting of the sea, with salty, sweet and savory flavors in perfect balance (if you ask him, not me). fried anchovies at the Ortigia fish maket local meats, cheeses, jam, olives & veggies We had some amazing products from the land as well -- rich ricotta with honey, sheep cheese with peppercorns, cured meats, tender lamb, buttery potatoes, spicy olives, and the sweetest sundried tomatoes.  At this time of year, eggplants, tomatoes and p...

We ended our Sicilian road trip with 6 mellow days at a farmhouse near Marsala, on the west side of Sicily.   The sunsets were stunning, the driving was slightly more sane, and we were both thrilled to slow down.  sunset over Trapani salt flats The 20 miles of coastline between Marsala and Trapani are peppered with salt flats (see what I did there?!).  The conditions for salt harvesting are ideal here -- breezy yet sunny weather, and shallow, smooth seabeds.  Believe it or not, the Museo del Sale (salt museum) was fascinating.  Salt harvesting is a complex and labor-intensive process.  Once harvested, the piles of salt are covered with terracotta tiles and left to dry for a year.  freshly harvested salt We were surprised to learn that most Marsala wine is nothing like the sticky sweet wine that we know as Marsala.  Here's the scoop --  John Woodhouse, a merchant from England, visited Marsala in 1773 and tried the local ...

On our travels across southern and western Sicily we've seen many Greek temples, and the Greek presence in Sicily is hard to understate.  The Greeks colonized Sicily starting around 700BC.  On the east side, Sircusa (Syracuse to you and me) was once the most powerful city in the Greek world, eclipising even Athens in its power and status.  On the south is Agrigento.  At one point it, Siracusa, and Athens were the 3 most powerful cities.  So there are plenty of Greek ruins here and some say the best ruins are in Sicily. To save you the Odyessy of slogging through countless photos of Peggy or me in front of a pile of old rocks I've organized them into 5 categories: The intact The reconstructed The rubble pile The incomplete How did they build that? The intact The most impressive temples that have remained intact for over 2,000 years are in Argigento in the Valley of the Temples.  We were here after our visit to the Roman mosaics that Peggy pr...

After our week on Malta & Gozo we flew back to Sicily to pick up a rental car and begin our trek south and west.  Heaven help us!  Even the employee who handed Eric the keys said, "Sicilians are very bad drivers." How reassuring was that?! With Eric behind the wheel and me navigating, we headed towards Ragusa.   The drive was incredibly scenic, with rolling hills, lush forests, and more than a few white-knuckle moments on narrow mountain roads.  We also passed prickly pear cactus orchards.  Wait, what?!  We've seen plants here and there, eaten prickly pear fruit and sampled cactus liqueur, but we were still surprised to see row after row of these giant cacti ready for harvest. Ragusa is one of many towns leveled by the 1693 earthquake which wiped out homes and 2000-year-old architectural treasures in one blow. After the quake, residents built a new town in the hills above ancient Ragusa. Over time, they also replaced and restored sites in ...

The country of Malta is made up of 3 islands, with Malta being the largest (but it's still pretty darn small), followed by Gozo, then tiny Comino.  Before heading to Gozo, we spent 4 days on Malta. Malta was full of surprises with quiet coves, great food and layers of history that boggled the mind.  The temples on Malta and Gozo are the oldest freestanding structures in the world, predating Stonehenge by 6 centuries, and the Egyptian pyramids by 1000+ years.   Built circa 3600BC, the neolithic temples are scattered around the islands. The temples were interesting, but the Hypogeum was the highlight for us.  The Hypogeum was used for burial and storage, built to mirror the look and feel of a temple BUT underground. Many of the walls were painted with red ochre spirals or other patterns. The site was abandoned and lay undisturbed for several thousand years until 1902, when workers attempting to dig cisterns for a new housing development fell through the r...