The Sicily of Montalbano and much more (ENG)

Hello everyone! We’re publishing this post for the non-Italian readers…We’ve been in Sicily twice and we really love it! If you’d like to discover the places we visited or even what we ate there, well click on this link to continue reading…

We stayed in Sicily for two weeks in August 2013 and for one week in October 2014 to celebrate our recent degrees.

We stayed in an apartment both the first and the second time: in Casuzze, a small village near to Marina di Ragusa and then in Marina di Ragusa, a well-known seaside resort, which is very crowded in August.

A slush with cream, a brioche and a cannolo (a typical Sicilian sweet that is usually filled with ricotta)…And you’ll fall in love with Sicily!

In Marina we ate the best brioches ever: they were made by the Caffè delle Rose, we also appreciated the cannoli filled with goat’s ricotta.

And we can’t forget also the famous arancini (fried rice balls), in particular those filled with Nutella. We bought them in a sort of fast food selling only arancini whose name was Ara' Arancineria.

Slush with cream, cannolo and brioche

Our starting point was the south of Sicily and in order to sightsee a larger part of the island we rent a car from Sicily by car in Catania airport.

With this car we managed to see a great part of Sicily, at least that part which could be easily reached from our apartment, that’s why the north was kept out from our visit.

So let’s start with the places near to Marina di Ragusa. Some of them may sound familiar to those of us who are fond of the Italian TV series “Il Commissario Montalbano”. Visit the website I luoghi de“Il Commissario Montalbano” to get to know more about the part of Sicily shown in the series.

Montalbano’s house is set in Punta Secca, a suburb of Santa Croce Camerina; if you follow the TV series you’ll often see Zingaretti having dinner on his terrace or moving around the beach in front of his house.

Montalbano's house 

Last October we had the honour of attending some shoots of “Il giovane Montalbano”: the entire area was full of camera operators and guards, but also of people coming from the surroundings to see the actors or to obtain an autograph. 

Let's take some shoots 

The beach is pretty and the small village with its lighthouse is really impressive, but sometimes too crowded in August.

Let’s move on…Our favourite beach is set in Sampieri (a suburb of Scicli), near to Fornace Penna, a monument of industrial archeology which is also shown in “Il Commissario Montalbano”.

That’s an enormous beach, not very crowded, a bit isolated, but if you’re looking for calm and tranquillity this is the place for you.   

Sanpieri beach and Fornace Penna 

Ragusa Ibla's duomo 

 Also Ragusa Ibla, a baroque city listed as a UNESCO heritage site, has often appeared in “Il Commissario Montablano”.

If you’re planning a journey to Sicily you should really visit it. Piazza duomo, the place where its cathedral is placed, is lively and always full of people…you’ll find a lot of coffee bar and patisserie where you can taste a good brioche with ice-cream or with a slush, but we should confess that our favourite pastry shop is still Caffè delle rose in Marina di Ragusa.

Go around the narrow street of the centre and its shops, selling Sicilian specialities, but also the jewellery Arte Orafa Iblea: Montalbano bought his wedding rings there, while Jessica bought a pendant with her initials made of Caltagirone’s ceramic.

Obviously, we visited Caltagirone too: the city is famous for its staircase, named Santa Maria del Monte: each of the 142 steps is decorated with different ceramics.

The colourful ceramic on the staircase 

The lights on the staircase 

On 24^th and 25^th July and on 14t^h and 15^th August the staircase is illuminated with white, red and green candles, which are arranged in order to reconstruct an artistic drawing, usually a religious one. 

Believe us: this is a unique sight! If you can, go up the stairs and participate by lighting up the candles yourself.

You won’t loose the sight from Piazza Municipio because the candles take a long time to extinguish.

We took part to this event on the night of 14^th August, afterwards we had an excellent dinner in a restaurant close to the staircase: Il Locandiere.

We came back to Caltagirone also in October 2014. We went shopping in the workshops selling the typical ceramic and then we went to the public park: 10 hectares of vegetation and baroque sculptures

A detail in the park 

Another city to visit is certainly Modica, above all for its chocholate, dark and crumbly, you can find it in a number of types: chilli pepper, walnut, citrus, carob and much more!

If you’d like to take some spectacular photos, then you shouldn’t miss the view of the city from on high, but be aware of the narrow streets! Some navigators would send you in the narrowest roads…Unfortunately we learned it by experience! 

Modica 

But now let’s move furthest.

If you are planning to visit Sicily, then you can’t miss Agrigento’s Valle dei Templi, another UNESCO heritage site: the ticket costs about 10 €, ma the experience is priceless. You would walk through extremely beautiful Greek temples. Go there in the evening, it would be less hot, there would be less people and the atmosphere would be magical.  

A temple in Valle dei Templi 

If you are in the neighborhood in the morning you can go to Scala dei Turchi in Realmonte: a calcareous beach where you could even do a clay mask.

Scala dei Turchi

 If you love Greek and Roman ruins visit Siracusa too: the city is nice and we fell in love with the Greek Theatre. However the Neapolis archeological park offers much more to see…With a cheap ticket you can visit the Greek theatre, the Roman amphitheatre, several caves and the ear of Dyonisius, a limestone cave whose name was given by the Italian painter Caravaggio because of its form which resembles that of an ear and because, according to the legend, it was used by the tyrant to hear the secrets of his captives thanks to the perfect acoustics of the cave,

The park is enormous and rich in vegetation.

the Greek theatre in Siracusa

 And what about mount Etna? If you’re around take a tour through the craters. But take some warm clothes and appropriate shoes with you, especially if you’re thinking of reaching the pick; you can take the cablecar or book a guides tour. We’ve visited only the inferior craters because a sudden downpour didn’t let you go further.

Etna, the volcano

The shops in the surroundings sell a lot of interesting souvenirs, such as objects and jewelry in molten.

Coming back from our trip we stopped at Aci Trezza, a small village made famous by the “Malavoglia” by Verga which offers a spectacular view of the faraglioni (sea stacks) of the Cyclops: eight basaltic rock which, according to the legend, were thrown by Polyphemus to prevent Ulysses from escaping.

Aci Trezza and some of the faraglioni

 Last October we planned to visit Taormina, a well-known seaside resort that is particularly loved by vip, it was also the set of a number of films, we said ourselves: it must be a place to visit.

But we should admit that the Greek Theatre had been a big delusion: the view was beautiful, of course, but that’s nothing in comparison to Siracusa. And it was extremely hot there: there were 30 degrees Celsius in October!

The view from the Greek theatre in Taormina 

On the contrary the castle of Donnafugata surely deserves a visit, a few kilometres from Marina di Ragusa, it had been our last trip in October before leaving.

The castle is actually an aristocratic palace of the 7^th century, it counts more than 120 rooms, 20 of them can be visited by tourists.

These are richly decorated  rooms, but we think that the real masterpiece of the palace is the 8-hectare-wide park, the baron had it filled with artificial caves, a little temple and some jokes: a monk doll assumed to frighten the guests of a chapel set in the deep end of the park and a seat that splashed water on the unfortunate person who set on it.

The centuries-old tree in the castle's park

 Another place we visited last October was Marzamemi, a charachteristic fishermen’s village, you should stop at one of the several restaurant you’ll find there to eat some good fresh fish.

A narrow street in Marzamemi

 Near to Marzamemi we found one of the most beautiful beach in Sicilily: San Lorenzo.

The water is so clear that it resembles the Caribbean sea and the sand is almost white.

We stayed there an afternoon in October at the Lido di San Lorenzo: because of the low season  there was almost nobody, but it was warm despite the wind and we had a bath.

The clear sea of San Lorenzo 

 Not too far you’ll find the beach of Calamosche: a natural oasis that offers a unique sight. 

The water is very clear, that’s why in 2005 the beach was awarded the title of “Most beautiful beach in Italy”.

In order to reach it you should leave your car in the car park of Calamosche and go there by foot.

But pay attention: in August the beach is far too crowded, so if you’d like to go there do it in the morning of choose another period of the year. We went there an afternoon in August and, since the sand beach was packed with people, we stayed on one of the rock promontories that surround the beach and then we had a bath near the sand beach.

The crowded Calamosche 

 And here we are, at the end of our Sicilian travel journal.

Which are the places that will gain the first, the second, and the third place of our own classification?

Here they are:  

And you? Have you ever visited Sicily? Would you suggest us some other places there? We may go on our third holiday in Sicily one day!, 

Ale and Jessy 

P.S. Check out our Instagram account to see more photos