Another week in Sicily

Sicily surprises us every day, the island, the people, the food, the generosity, the kindness, the temperature and the scenery!!  We are still working hard at Villa Ama uncovering a hidden gem.  The amount of ivy bougainvillea and other creepers we have removed now allows us to see what a place this would have been in its day. 

We tend to work in the morning 3-4 hours then head out on an adventure somewhere or nowhere then work again in the evening until it is dark.  Bindi is now quite the local!  He met Carmello in the hardware store who is a local winemaker, he invited us to his house for coffee and tour of his grand old farm that he has built over the last 30 years.  Needless to say, we left with a bottle of wine for our dinner. We then followed him down the hill where he took us to a small butcher shop to buy the best fresh ricotta eva! (or so I thought until we found the next one and the next one)

The next door neighbour Saro and his wife Etneo, and their friend Vera invited us for a typical Sunday lunch at their house, oh boy, what a massive feast. 

Starting with the antipasto of olives, artichokes, salami, and a boulder of Parmigiana Reggiano. Next is what they call primi piatti (first plate) traditional Sicilian pasta with tomato pomodoro, roasted eggplant and dark baked ricotta grated. Secondi piatti normally a meat dish followed by a green salad with olive oil and salt. Did I mention the red wine! we needed an afternoon sleep before we got back out to work in the garden.

Another thing we have discovered is places the locals go and buy cooked dishes for about $5, lasagna, pasta, eggplant, roast meats, vege dishes, all traditional food.  They are only open for a few hours and the locals stream in and the food disappears fast.  Wine is also about $5 for a 2 litre bottle.

We took the afternoon off and went to the beach again today, packed a lunch, water and cold wine and spent a beautiful afternoon at the local beach.  The water is crystal clear, we both commented we have never seen water so clear anywhere in the world we have been so far except maybe Croatia.

A quick trip to the supermarket for a few supplies and this man was watching us load up the bike, he opened his boot and gave us some fresh lemons from his tree.  We were so surprised he then gave us fresh tomatoes and tiny sweet soft persimmons (different to the ones we get at home) Once again we were blown away with the people here, very little English is spoken but between my Portuguese, google translate and Bindi is doing really well with his Italian we are making friends.

We have decided to stay in Sicily for a few more weeks (why wouldn’t we Hehehe)  Tomorrow we will head off on a road trip to San Vito Lo Gapo via Enna the centre of Sicily (tummy button) and Palermo for 3 days before returning back to Piedimonte Etena.