Sicily
Palermo
We have thought about visiting Sicily for a while but it hadn't worked out until this spring break. Due to limited flights from Dublin, we first went to Palermo for 1.5 days. We landed (very) late on Saturday night and after finding some take away pizza and a couple groceries, we got to bed pretty late. But, the streets were still very active in our area! Everyone was out walking around and restaurants were still serving food, drinks, and desserts. We believe it had something to do with the night before Easter. On Sunday we weren't quite sure how much would be open. But, many restaurants and cafes were open. No retail or big markets were open, but most mini marts were open. I started off with a walk out to the water, walking by the yacht club. It wasn't that great a view due to the docks and breakwater. On my way back I stopped (ie was convinced) to stop for some street food. The Vucciria market was inviting and lively and had tables out for eating the street food. I had an aperol spritz and arancini. I got back to the apartment and people were about ready to head out for a walk, using Rick Steves walking tour. We started at the San Domenico church and piazza. Scaffolding was blocking any view of the church. We headed next to Vucciria market where I had just been. We did some street shopping and tried a strawberry spritz (not as good). We made it to Via Vittorio Emanuele, a big pedestrian street. We ventured off tour and started walking toward the water. We came across Cagliostro bakery and gelato. We stopped in for dessert first and a Illy espresso. They had "Illy decaf" cups that were cool and offered to buy one but they said no. We continued toward the water and there was a small market at Garibaldi gardens. I decided I would walk out to the water to see if there was a view. There was a small childrens park that was closed but next to it was a little restaurant with a walkway to the water. There was a bit of a view so everyone joined me there. We sat for a bit and skipped some stones. We went back on Vittorio Emanuele street to find some lunch. We ended up at Cagliostro restaurant. We had good food and service here. I liked the mortadella and pistachio with cheese pizza.
After lunch we picked our tour back up and walked by Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi. Not much to see but the piazza was used by a focaccia restaurant. Next we walked by the modern art gallery which had a courtyard we could go in and see. Next door was the Church of Sant'Anna la Misericordia. It was closed but we sat at the piazza for a couple minutes. Then we walked to Bellini piazza, which has a theatre and 3 churches. The church of Monastero di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria, Church of Saint Cataldo, and Church of Saint Mary 'dell'Ammiraglio'. We just walked around the outside of these. We then walked up to the four corners intersection. Each facade here is unique with statues and there is usually some music being played, drink carts, and lots of people. We did some window shopping and strolling around the area. We also found some just mediocre gelato from a place that has probably purchased their google ratings. After a bit of a rest at the apartment we started a search for dinner. Kacey found Maccio Restaurant Osteria Alcolica. This place was hard to get a seat but ended up with tasty lasagna and really good carbonara. After dinner we grabbed a couple cannoli from Pastari foods. We walked by the lit-up Massimo theatre on the way back after dinner. Via Maqueda was again busy with lots of people and vendors.
The next morning we got packed up and checked out and dropped our bags for storage while we walked around. We first stopped at Cappadonia Gelati, where they make a Sicilian traditional brioche con gelato. It was a pleasant change and I liked it. We continued walking toward the cathedral. We walked around the outside gardens and took in the views. There was several different tour and walk options available for purchase, and we saw people walking around on top of the cathedral. We walked a bit further toward the observatory and art museum but didn't go in. For lunch Kacey and I got focaccia sandwiches from Focacceria dei Mercanti. Other people ate some food from the Ancient Saint Francis Focaccia Shop, in the piazza of the church we had seen the previous day. I also got my first Amaro Averna, something called a Sicilian Mule. It was now time to head to the train station to catch our 3 hour train ride to Catania.
Catania
We arrived in Catania around 6:30 and we had a 15 minute walk to our apartment. We had a nice view of Mt Etna on the train ride in. We found La Locandolina right around the corner from our apartment. It was cozy and inviting and the food was good. There wasn't a lot open at this time but Don Peppinu gelato was open and busy. It was pretty good with interesting flavors.
The next morning we set out on a simple walking tour of Catania we found, with no big rush to the day, allowing for some easy-going enjoyment. We started at Piazza Vincenzo Bellini. Then on our walk west to Via Etna we stopped in Rematto Artigiano, a leather and wood-worker shop. Once at Via Etna we headed north toward Roman amphitheater ruins. We were starting to get views of Mt Etna along this street, which was nice. We then walked through a market hoping for some food vendors, but it was all clothing and stuff, and then a little bit of vegetables and fish. So we went back toward Via Etna looking for a place for lunch. After a bit of searching we found Trattoria Il Mare. This was really good with great stuff all around, especially my carbonara. After lunch we walked down to the cathedral and enjoyed the sunny day. We got some more gelato from Don Peppinu and also checked out the Fontana dell’Amenano (fountain). We then walked through the small Pacini garden while heading toward the caste. The Ursino Castle is closed but I walked around it. It has a massive moat that is now a pathway. After a little more shopping and buying of sweets we checked out the Greek - Roman theatre. We paid the entrance here and walked around inside a while. After a brief rest at the apartment, we went back to the restaurant from the night before. I got cavallo and it was really good.
The next day was our tour of Mt Etna. While the details of the trip were not super smooth on the day, we had great views and great weather. We rode a Unimog up part of the way (as the chair lifts were not yet operational for the year) and a snowcat up the rest of the way to a high peak. There was still a considerable amount of snow on top, but the peaks were all melted from the heat of the volcano. We even sat in the rocks a bit as it warms you up! The lunch they provided after was sit down at a restaurant, but it was nothing great. After many delays along the way, we got back to the apartment by 6 or so. Due to late lunch we weren't super hungry so we got some take-away pasta for kids that wanted food and we did some snacks and gelato too.
The next morning we caught our 9am train to LaMezia with great views of Mt Etna once more from the train. From Messina, the train is shunted on to a ferry and we traveled the straight on the boat! It was a neat experience. Once put back together, we had to wait a while at the station before completing our journey to LaMezia. We arrived by 1:30pm and grabbed our taxi straight away to head the 25 minutes to Catanzaro (the train connection would have been a mess, taxi was much quicker).
Catanzaro
We wanted to visit Catanzaro as Kacey's great grandfather was born there and migrated around 1903 to America. We wanted to just be in the town and maybe find some information at the state archives.
We arrived at our apartment near Catanzaro Old Town by 2:30. Even though we ate a little on the ferry, people wanted lunch. So I got some groceries while everyone else ate some late lunch. After that we walked the old town just a bit and got some soft serve gelato. It was different, but we were craving real gelato after that. We also tried a brasilena, which is an Italian coffee soda. Soon after we ended up by the southern viewpoint. It was a great view! We made our way back to the apartment to start thinking about dinner. I saw Vecchia Catanzaro early during our walk and between the look and the reviews I thought it would be a good choice. I got the Catanzaro dish morzello, which is a spicy soup mix of a lot of things. I finished the meal off with Vecchio Amaro del Capo, a Calabrian liqour sipped cold after a meal (and we got a shot glass too).
The next day we started walking toward the state archives but took a detour on the way to visit the US Catanzaro FC merchandise shop to get some gear for papaw! We ended up with something for everyone, it was a good visit. We then headed to the state archive building, not really knowing what to expect (other than that they were supposed to be open). We eventually found someone and asked about family records (translating in Italian, they spoke no english). They told us to follow then down to another building next door and they explained in Italian, to a room of 4 or so people, that we were looking for records. We gave them a name and a date and they proceeded to bring out a massive book. It had military records, which we didn't know he was in the military. This document had a lot of physical details. We also were able to have them get a book with details on his parents and grandparents! We took loads of notes and pictures of translations. It was an incredible experience. For fun after, they got out some 500 year old parchment for the kids to see, and we also saw the display cases with old city embossing stamps.
After the excitement of the morning, we started looking for lunch. We found L' Intervallo Pizzeria Rosticceria. We got a started of fried gnocchi which was tasty. Colin got a Italian looking burger that was good. The pizza was pretty good too. After lunch we wanted good gelato so we went to Gelateria Amedeo Centro. They were very inviting and the flavors were interesting. They also had frozen mini cones that were dipped in different toppings. Liana got the pistachio and liked it. We went to the apartment for a rest after. Kacey and her parents then taxied down to another region of town to explore a couple churches. Before dinner we walked to the Il Cavatore fountain and did some window shopping. We also stopped in Church of Saint John Baptist for a few minutes as it was open. On our way to look for dinner we also stopped by a church that may have been the baptismal church of Kacey's great-great grandpa Fransecso, Chiesa di Santa Maria de Plateis in Sant'Anna. For dinner we found Ristorante Trattoria Ceravolo and we enjoyed our time and food here. The next morning we had to check out before our taxi, but we were allowed to store our bags at the apartment. We went out for some lunch but struggled to find something open at 11:30 to eat. We ended up at Harri's Bar Di Chiricò Simona, which was a cafe where they warm up items made that morning, and they had enough seating to make it work. It was actually good and we were able to order a few different things.
