Friday 2 March 2012

From Tuscany to Sicily (June & July)

Better late than never. We figure it's high time to post these pictures from our last two months in Italy even though we left there about 7 months ago.

After a few weeks at Flavia Constans in Umbria, we had a short stay in Ponteginori (a village in Tuscany a quick train ride from Pisa). Most of our work there involved landscaping, with a little olive pruning thrown in one day for a change. Our accommodation was beautiful, but we were only in Tuscany for a couple of weeks and didn't have a chance to see much of it owing to the fact that Amy pulled something in her back and ended up needing time off to recover. And so we headed to Pisa, with its affordable campground / swimming pool. Meals there were usually our own creation but a great place called Cafe Emma was within walking distance from our campsite. The days were mostly sunny, but one afternoon we were hit by a freak storm including enough hail to carpet the ground with ice. Other than this 4-day vacation to Pisa the highlight of our time in Tuscany was a wonderful meal at Il Vecchio Mulino, a restaurant in the town of Saline. Our evening-long dinner consisted of bruschetta, wild boar ravioli, grilled wild mushrooms, and an amazing dish of grilled beef in chocolate / ginger / balsamic sauce. We know we had something for desert, but the rest of the food was so amazing that we've both forgotten what it was.

in this storefront in Pisa, as elsewhere in Italy, the design of pasta
is another excellent opportunity to create beauty
the famous leaning tower
some battered sage leaves from our garden in Tuscany
viva Italia! (swimming at Pisa)
After Amy had a chance to recover her back by the pool, we took a train to Genova and from there an overnight ferry to Palermo. We spent our last month and a half doing very little work and a lot of resting and eating at a restaurant / agriturismo / farm in central Italy called Feudo Tudia. I think we both put some weight on, as most meals had double courses of pasta and meat, many served with this divine creamed pistachio sauce, plus lots of fried or marinated appetizers. We also got treated to some great meals courtesy of the billionaire neighbor, who personally cooked for us the most amazing tuna steaks I've ever eaten. While at Tudia we managed to spend several days in Cefalu, Syracuse, and Palermo. In the end it was painful to leave Sicily. The people were extremely welcoming, the beaches were beautiful, and the food was soooo good.

on the ferry from Genoa to Palermo
a chapel in the Palermo Cathedral
another picture taken in Palermo Cathedral
at Mondello beach (Palermo is just on the other side of that rock)
the cathedral palazzo in Cefalu
in front of Cefalu cathedral you'll find this restaurant
(La Corte dei Golosi)
with the best pizza we tasted in Italy
this is the best pizza we had in Italy:
prawns, asparagus, and fresh tomatoes
sweets for sale in Cefalu
(breakfast that day was ice cream served on a brioche
with whipped cream)
yummy-looking candied mandarins on display in Syracuse
in Syracuse with an arancino - our favorite street food
a couple fish heads at the market in Syracuse
the duomo of Syracuse, built onto the pavement and columns
of the ancient Greek temple of Athena