Italy

A Sicilian New Years

Posted by on Dec 31, 2010 in Holidays, Italy, Sicily | 0 comments

A Sicilian New Years

New Years Eve in Sicily was quite an experience.  The night started off a bit rocky.  Many of the restaurants were closed, but my friend Ryan and I had spotted one the day before that we thought might be good to try out (a small, fairly fancy, traditional 3+ course meal type of place).  But, trying to walk to the same place twice

Read More

A Syracuse Saturday

Posted by on Jan 7, 2010 in Italy, Sicily | 0 comments

A Syracuse Saturday

The eastern coast of Sicily is pretty much made for day trips.  Every direction you can possibly go takes you to a small town on the sea.  Our first trip was to Syracuse, a bit south of Catania.  This trip also signaled our first bus adventure.  For all the horror stories I’ve heard about Italian buses – flexible timetables, late arrivals, scary 

Read More

Slow Eating in Sicily

Posted by on Jan 4, 2010 in Food, Italy, Sicily | 1 comment

Slow Eating in Sicily

Time seems to flow in a different dimension in Italy.  Everything goes at a much slower pace (well, except for driving; I’ve seen a lot of impatient honking, speeding down narrow streets around hairpin turns, and weaving in and out of cars and pedestrians.  It’s a bizarre social contradiction).  But in general, people

Read More

A Picture of Catania

Posted by on Jan 2, 2010 in Italy, Sicily | 0 comments

A Picture of Catania

The best way to describe Catania is as a city built for wandering.  It’s a completely walkable city, fairly small and crammed into a very tiny area.  Every block you walk down is full of alleyways so narrow, you can almost stretch out your arms and touch the buildings lining each side of the street.  In fact, it feels

Read More