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Holiday on Sicily

Story by: Maria, Argentina
Published: May 14th 2017



Our second trip to Italiy. We had already been to Rome, so we decided to switch things up this time. Sicily is the largest (and probably nicest) island of the Mediterranean region. The touristic diversity and interesting historical backgrounds are things to admire.

We found out there was an active volcano on the island, and we simply HAD to get up there. It's the most notable landmark in Sicily and the tallest active volcano in the whole continent. The volcano is about 3300m tall, and the view is astonishing on the way up. Plus, we needed to compensate some of those calories we were going to consume during the rest of the trip.

The trek was about 5 hours long. We took the summit craters itinerary, and we didn't regret a single minute of it. The experience is very rewarding, a great way to break the routine. There are Jeep tours as well if climbing isn't your thing.

Etna, Sicily

Sicilia is full of ruins and temples from ancient civilizations and tribes. The history behind each one of them is amazingly rich. Wherever we went, there was an ancient structure. South, east, north, you name it. The carvings along the walls of the caves date back to 8000 BC! To visit such places that are over 10,000 years old was a completely new experience to us.

We visited two Dolmens (Avola and Monte Bubbonia), the Greco-Roman ruins in Taormina, and the ruins of the ancient Temple of Hera. It was a long adventure, but totally worth it. We got to learn about the Sicani, the first inhabitants of the Sicilian island, as well as extinct species originally from Sicilia. The oldest of these species were the Sicilian hippopotamus and the dwarf elephant. Sicily also represented one of the largest granaries of the Roman Empire.

Italian cuisine

If you want to hang with Italians, you better be ready to eat like Italians. We had just about every single kind of pasta and pizza there was on this island. I mean, if you're not tired of pasta by the time you leave Italy, you did something wrong. There are many pizzas, many sauces, and many types of pasta. We just had to go for them all.

We voted on what was the best pasta dish we had. There was a triple tie on the Bolognesa, Arrabiata, and Lasagna. But hey, it wasn't all about pasta. Sicily had some exquisite dishes that were completely healthy. Sicilians don't play around when it comes to fresh vegetables, fruits, and seafood. Lastly, we couldn't leave the island without trying to almighty Sicilian cannoli in its most tradition form. Honestly, the cannoli alone is enough reason to visit Sicily.

We didn't stay in a hotel during this trip. A friend recommended us with relatives of his, as they were renting their vocational home. The hosts were very helpful to us in general; they even showed us how to cook like Italians! (I mean, they tried, we weren't even close to nailing it). It was located on Via Recanati, which luckily for us was kind of close to the beach. Staying at a vocational home was a great experience overall. It was also more affordable than a hotel by far, especially when we're talking about a group. Staying there allowed us to extend our trip by almost a week, which was great. Casually, there was another group of tourists in a vocational home near to us. We got to meet them; they had already been there. In fact, they were the ones who pointed out the most interesting places to visit on the Isle.

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