November 30, 2009

So, today began just like the last couple days at Villa Cefala…just the two of us.  We had our last breakfast, which was kindly set out for us by the maid (who also checked us out of the villa and served as our cashier for our purchases), the only other person on the property besides Diandra and I (did we mention that this place is pretty big?).  It consisted of fresh pastries, sesame rolls, Sicilian prosciutto, caciotta cheese, homemade strawberry jam, fresh squeezed orange juice (from the villa’s orange trees) and cappuccino.

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After breakfast, we packed up the car and headed toward Palermo for lunch.  We ended up eating at the smallest trattoria called Vini del Paradiso.  There was about 10 seats, two grandmothers cooking in the back, and no one spoke English….a common trend thus far.  There was no menu…in fact, we’ve only seen a menu once in the time we’ve been here. ..pretty awesome.  The vibe in this restaurant was a Iittle different than other places we’ve been so far in that they weren’t very welcoming…they could tell we were a little out of our element, but didn’t really help us too much.

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I communicated the best I could with the man and young woman waiting tables in front (there was one other table of locals dining across from us).  The slightly intimidating man approached our table and greeted us with “Spaghetti?”  So, I responded, “Si, per favore.”  We ended up ordering two different spaghetti dishes…one with fresh sardines, fennel, currants, pine nuts and bread crumbs, and the other with mixed seafood in a marinara sauce.  Both were delicious and perfectly balanced.

The specialty of this trattoria was definitely seafood, and for the second course, we were able to pick our fish from a small selection on display, so I chose some beautiful red mullet to be grilled.  They were simply grilled and served with some lemon and olive oil…simple and tasty.  We finished with a dessert (the only one they had) of cassata, a traditional Sicilian cake of sweetened ricotta and candied fruits…a little too sweet for me, but Dee liked it.

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We left Palermo after one last crazy car derby and started heading toward Scopello, a small town in northwest Sicily, where we would be staying next.  This was a very scenic drive all along the northern coast of Sicily.  It seems like everywhere you turn, there is a picture waiting.  We drove through a small town just before Scopello called Castellamare del Golfo, and chose to take some back roads to Scopello since they seemed more interesting than the highway.  This turned out to be the most scenic drive we could have imagined.  The road was small and windy (which I’m learning is the norm here), but it led us through the most picturesque mountain area I have ever seen.

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The only problem was that our Garmin GPS found the exact address that we were trying to get to in Scopello in another city called Vita…so that’s where it took us, and that’s where we went…even though it was in the complete opposite direction from where we were trying to go.  I’m not sure many other Americans have been to this town (if any), but the drive there was amazing.  At one point, there was a man hearding goats through the street…I’ve been stuck in traffic for many reasons, but goats are not one of them…we have pictures!!

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We finally figured out that Vita was not where we were trying to go, and reprogrammed our trusty GPS to take us towards Scopello.  I can’t believe that some of these roads are even on a GPS!  We finally made it to Scopello, a very quaint, but beautiful seaside village (it’s too small to call a town).  It is the home of 45 people, and apparently shuts down during the winter season.  There didn’t seem to be any sign of life when we arrived, except for three dogs that tried to jump in our car.  We found our guest house, and were greeted by its owner who surprisingly spoke excellent English…the first person we have met since we’ve been here that speaks English.  Pensione Tranchina as it’s called is a very comfortable, clean, and nicely decorated guest house.  We actually felt like we were in someone’s home.

They started a fire in the living room where they burned their own olive branches.  Our room has a balcony where you can see where they grow their fruit and olives.  Is this place for real? And,it has internet- believe it or not! We headed down for dinner at 7:30pm where we found a nice table set up just for us.  Our dinner menu was: 1. Casareccia pasta with pesto alla trapanese (garlic, fresh tomatoes, basil, almonds, olive oil)  2. Grilled swordfish with lemon, olive oil, and oregano. A side of sautéed bietole (wild green they foraged nearby) 3. Prickly Pear (this fruit grows on a cactus!), dark chocolate covered almonds. We also had a bottle of DOC insolia wine from Erice.

This family is very proud of the olive oil that the served with our meal.  They should be, as it came from their very own olive trees.  It was pressed not even one week ago.  Most of what was served for dinner had an element of their olive oil in it, which really added to the great flavors of their dishes.  The best way to describe this meal, as well as many other Sicilian meals is this: Surprising Simplicity.

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Tomorrow : to Erice and Trapani.

Would you like to see more photos from our trip?

Click here: Photo’s from Sicily!