We leisurely rolled out of bed to enjoy a bit of breakfast served up by the BnB. Fresh farm eggs, slices of mortadella, and lots of espresso to help get our day started. We drove a quick 15 minutes down the mountain and back up another to visit the Valle dei Templi, the Valley of the Temples. The site is home to ancient Greek ruins (real ones this time!) and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We saw the Temple of Concordia (the best preserved Greek ruins in Sicily), the Temple of Hera, the Temple of Heracles, the Temple of Zeus, and others. The entire site was incredible to take in. It was a very hot day and we walked for about 3 hours so we absolutely got our steps in for the day.
Hot and tired, we needed food and quick. So we found ourselves a grocery store and loaded up on tasty treats including fruit, bread, meat, and cheese. We made ourselves sandwiches back at the BnB and enjoyed the view from the porch. We were too tired to explore any more so we stayed the rest of the day in the BnB and relaxed. For dinner, we cooked up our homemade pasta and tried three different sauces we bought at the store: pesto rosso, arrabiata (a spicy tomato sauce), and a creamy walnut and cheese sauce. All were fantastic but the pesto rosso was our favorite. It was a good day and we were ready to hit the road again the next morning.
We had a long drive ahead of us the next day as we journeyed toward the east coast of the island. We made a few stops in between including a stop in Caltagirone to visit the Scalinata di Santa Maria del Monte, a set of world-famous steps similar to the Spanish steps in Rome. The small town was at the top of a mountain and the streets were not designed for cars. We parked right in the town entrance and walked through the narrow stone roads to find this little hidden treasure. It was a quick visit but a nice side quest, nonetheless.
On a silly note, we needed a quick bathroom break before hitting the road again and luckily there was a McDonalds not too far away. We took turns using the bathroom while one of us pretended we were going to order something. But I did find the McDonald food options and names interesting.
Next up was our journey to a restaurant I somehow found scouring through Reddit community pages. It was called Cucina Tipica da Eva e Zio Pippo Marino-Marinello and it literally was the dining room of a farmer's house high in the mountains. We were a bit skeptical when the GPS brought us to the front entrance of a dirt road leading to a small farm house. But soon we saw others were there for lunch as well. The menu was actually quite extensive and we ordered from the husband and his wife made the meals in her kitchen. We ordered spaghetti al ricci de marre, the tagliatelle al pesto siciliano, and the star of the show, the scallopina al limone made from the farmer's own pigs we saw coming into the property. Those guys were delicious! It doesn't get farm to table fresher than that!
After devouring our big meal, we continued on our mountainous winding drive to the east coast town of Syracuse, the oldest city in Sicily as it was the Greek capital of Sicily almost 3,000 years ago. We took in the mountainous scenery and sites before making it back down and entering Syracuse's little island town of Ortigia. There I successfully avoided hitting tourists and narrowly scraping the car against the stone walls in tight corners getting to our hotel. But we made it and celebrated our successful and tiring day of driving with wine and aperol spritzes. And of course we ran into the furry sweet creatures of the island.
This featured blog entry was written by bolanosm from the blog Holy Cannoli: A Sicilian Road Trip.
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