When we learned that Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli, the chef-couple responsible for one of New York’s hottest restaurants, Don Angie, would be leading a Modern Adventure Tour to Sicily and Naples, we knew we had to go. There were only 20 spots available and they filled up fast. We were fortunate to get in.
Tom’s grandparents came to America from Sicily and Naples, mine from Calabria and Naples, so this was the perfect trip for us to reconnect with our roots. Although we’ve been to Italy many times, we had not been back to Sicily and Naples since 1976. Time to Go!
Because we didn’t want to start the tour with jet lag, we decided to arrive three days in advance and stay in Catania where the tour would begin. We would fly to Rome and change planes for Catania. It turns out that Valentina, the officious resort manager played by Sabrina Impacciatore in the wildly popular HBO series, The White Lotus, was right. When traveling to Sicily, fly through Munich not Rome. She gave that advice to a couple who changed planes in Rome and lost their luggage. We didn’t lose our luggage (as an extra precaution we put Apple air tags in our bags), but we found that the Rome airport was not user friendly, with the gates seemingly miles away from the entrance. We hadn’t received seat assignments for the second leg of our trip, and the gate agent refused to print out our boarding passes, telling us we needed to go back to the airline’s check in counter to get them. In addition to walking all the way back, we would need to go through passport control again. We remained firm and he finally gave us the passes.
After boarding, our plane developed a mechanical issue and we were bussed back to the terminal. We were told “if” the plane was fixed, we would leave in two hours. A few people voiced concerns about repairing the plane. Would it be safe to fly? But the mechanics did their job and we took off at noon for the 90 minute flight.
We kept in touch with our hotel about flight delays and the hotel driver, Massimo, was there to greet us. In the hotel’s reception area, we met the office agent, coincidentally named Valentina, and she checked us in and showed us to our room. Unfortunately, we discovered that our room had stairs, not just a few, but many that made for a winding climb. Since my knee operations (plural!), stairs are not my friends. But since the hotel was fully booked, we had to step carefully for three days.
Cathedrale di Sant’Agata
Our hotel was perfectly located and before dinner we had time to walk around the Piazza del Duomo, dominated by the Cathedrale di Sant’Agata, Saint Agatha, the patron saint of Catania. (More on the cathedral in subsequent stories.)
Appetizers
For dinner that evening, we ventured to Osteria Antica Marina, a short walk from the hotel. In the morning, the restaurant is a fish market so we knew we would enjoy fresh fish. We began with two appetizers, sarde beccafico (breaded and fried sardines), and arancinetti (small rice balls that are stuffed, coated with bread and fried). Each is a traditional Sicilian dish.
Linguine with tuna eggs and greens
Paccheri with Sicilian pesto
We shared two pastas, linguine all uov (linguine with tuna eggs and greens), and paccheri con pesto (Sicilian pesto with basil, almonds, grated pecorino, tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper).
Grilled fish and vegetables
For a main course, we shared an insalata mare which included grilled fish – octopus, tuna, shrimp – along with eggplant and peppers.
Our bottle of wine was an Etna one from the Cottanera vineyard. It was crisp a little minerally. but soft, and went well with our dinner.
Sorbet with Fragolinis
Our dessert was lemon sorbet with fragolinis, small strawberries. After espresso, we walked back to our hotel through piazzas and narrow streets filled with people, eating, drinking, talking and laughing. Catania is truly an Italian city that doesn’t sleep.
Top photo: Colorful umbrellas decorate one of the streets in Catania.
To read Charlene’s other stories from A Tour of Sicily and Naples, go to the Living Around section on Woman Around Town.
