Sicilian Finale

It had been an incredible week of traveling around Sicily, seeing the countryside and tasting the wine and food, but it was about to come to an end. It was the final day for Tracy and I to enjoy this region and we were ready to take full advantage.

I had been told that the breakfast at Hotel Carmine was wonderful and we were not disappointed, There was quite a selection of cheese, fruit, breads, cakes (loved the Nutella cake), eggs and meat. We certainly filled up our plates.

After breakfast, we around the scenic downtown Marsala. The architecture was very European and the narrow alleyways led to a pedestrian mall filled with stores. I wandered around, picking up a bargain Italian leather pocketbook and a few gifts for family. We then walked back to the hotel and waited for Maria Elena from Donnafugata to pick us up.

The Donnafugata Winery in Marsala was not at all what I expected. It was modern and casual, reminding me of a neighborhood in Southern California. It even had palm trees. The underground cellar was brand new and looked so neat and organized. It is part of a new wing that was opened to the public in 2008.

After the tour, we met back up with Antonio and José for a tasting. I got to have a bit more of what had become one  of my favorite wines of the trip, Anthilia, a blend of grillo, chardonnay and viognier which is filled with lemon and tropical flavors like kiwi. Apparently I’m far from the only one who loves it as it is Donnafugata’s number one seller.

I also had some of the Mille e una Notte, a blend of Nero d'Avola, with small amounts of various varieties that are unnamed. It was deep and dark with a fruit forward palate and a long finish of tobacco and spice.

We bid farewell to all the Donnafugata friends we had made during the week and took off with Maria Elena for a drive to another one of the company’s wineries.

We stopped for lunch in Menfi at a cute outdoor restaurant called Porto Palo. Tracy and Maria Elena enjoyed all the fish on the menu, including fried octopus and raw swordfish.  I had some antipasto and pasta, and a wonderful fudge covered parfiato for dessert. It all went well with a bottle of Donnafugata’s Lighea.

From there we headed to the Donnafugata’s Contessa Entilla, which is actually in the back of a family home. When you come through the courtyard and into the front entrance, all you see is the house, but a door just past the dining room leads to this big winery!

Donnafugata processes their red wines from Marsala at this plant and it was an interesting production line. We walked through the vineyards a bit before heading to Palermo and our final hotel, Quintocanto Hotel & Spa, it was a very unusual place that looked like it had built different sections at different times so it took two different elevators and a number of stairs to get to our rooms.

By the time we made it to our rooms we decided we didn’t want to go back out for dinner. Instead we decided to finish our Sicilian adventure by ordering in pizza and calzone as only the Italians can make it.

The Wonders of Pantelleria

I don’t often see the words “free day” on my schedule, but that’s what Tracy and I had for our first full day in Pantelleria.

Unfortunately, a power failure the night before had us to bed very late and oversleeping, but once we got going we were ready to see what this magnificent island had to offer.

The original plan was to have lunch with the vineyard workers at the Donnafugata Winery where we were staying, but when we didn’t wake up until 12:30, we decided to head straight out to explore, enjoying some coffee and biscotti first.

We took off in our little yellow Fiat Panda to try to find Grotta di Benikula Sauna, a natural sauna within a cave. We drove for about an hour and couldn’t find it, but did manage to see some interesting vineyards, a monastery and ancient ruins. I couldn’t believe all this existed on the Mediterranean Sea, just 20 miles from the African nation of Tanzania.

From that area we drove down to Scauri to look for someplace to eat along the towns of the water. We couldn’t find anything open on Sunday afternoon, but we did find what we had wanted to be our next stop anyway – Lago Specchiod, Venere.

Venus Lake, as it is called, is a beautiful lake filled with aqua water that contains natural mud and spa-like baths. Tracy and I enjoyed frolicking in the mud like two school children before taking turns lying in the bubbly “baths.”

From there we headed to Cala Gadir and walked around taking pictures of the rock formations, including Aroo dell’elefante, Elephant Arc.  We were both really hungry by then and remembered Mimma had told us the previous night about Le Calle in Cala Gadir. There we had some spumante and antipasto and watched the sea as the sun went down.

Before we went back to our little house at the Donnafugata Winery, we stopped at La Portella Pizzeria and picked up a pizza and a calzone, which we enjoyed on the patio with a few bottles of wine (who knew Moscato and pizza went so well together? J).

We had one more day to go on Pantelleria, exploring more vineyards, scenic stops, and learning more about the unique way they make one, as well as seeing where they grow the island’s other big import – capers -- before we would fly back to mainland Sicily and visit more of the wineries of Donnafugata.

Exploring Anna Lanza Cooking School and Tasca D’Almerita

I woke up early in my room at the Tasca D’Almerita Winery. I could hear the workers coming in for the day and it was a good feeling to know I was no longer totally alone in this vast place.

After a little work and a quick shower, my ride to go back to the Anna Lanza Cooking School came to get me for breakfast.

I joined my friend Tracy, who had stayed at the school’s villa, for a breakfast that was as wonderful as I had been told it would be. There was homemade marmalade, created from the fruit in the garden; just baked sweet breads; freshly hatched scrambled eggs; and even homemade yogurt, which I enjoyed with a delectable fig tart.

Ragaleali is a picturesque Sicilian town up on a mountain and the area I was in consisted of acres and acres of land that included the winery and the cooking school.  After breakfast, we walked around for awhile before our tour of the vineyards and winery.  I relaxed in the courtyard too, talking with Jim, one of the cooking school guests. He showed me pictures of some of the things he made during the week he was there, including ricotta gnocchi, the fig tart and yogurt, and some very special sardines.

Beyond the garden are the vineyards and there are 1,200 acres that include 50 different varieties of grapes at Tasca D’Almerita. The most famous are grillo and moscato, but this was also the place that produced the first chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon in Sicily.

The large, modern equipment at the winery helps produce over three million bottles a year.  They are using a natural filtration system and love to try new barrels to experiment with taste (Sicilian chestnut barrels are currently holding some perricone, a red varietal).

After the tour, we did some tasting. My favorite was the Sallier de la Tour Le Bianche, actually made at the Pernice Estate in Monreale. It contains three grapes that are among my favorites – viognier, semillion and sauvignon blanc – for a crispy and mineral-filled blend with lots of lemon, as well as tropical pineapple and kiwi.

We headed back to the cooking school for our final meal in Ragaleali and head chef, owner, and amazing cook Fabrizia Lanza made it a fantastic one. The pasta with ricotta was amazing, with the freshly produced cheese and round circles of macaroni. We also had a delicious sausage and potatoes dish, along with just picked broccoli.

For dessert we had a Moorish Head Cake, filled with light ricotta cream, as well as sesame cookies that reminded me of the way my aunt Mary used to make them.

There wasn’t much time to linger as we had a flight to make from Palermo airport. We barely made it on time to hop the airport boss to the small propeller plane to Pantelleria. The flight was a short half hour, which was good because the plane was rather hot.

We could see the beautiful turquoise water as we landed in this spot, just 20 miles from the African republic of Tanzania. Mimma of Donnafugata Wines, our host for the next few days, was waiting for us along with our Yellow Fiat Panda. Fortunately, Tracy knew how to drive a stick shift because that was our only option and I had only attempted it once when I was a teenager.

Mimma escorted us to our cute little stone house on the property of the Donnafugata winery and vineyards, just down the road from the Mediterranean Sea. After we showered and changed, she took us to La Nicchia, a beautiful restaurant on the other side of the island. It was quite a unique place, with what looked like a simple pizzeria in the front and an elegant dining room in the back, with no ceiling and trees growing among the tables!

We started with the Donnafugata Lighea, a semi-sweet blend of zibibbo (Moscato d'Alessandria). We got to know each other as we nibbled on warm focaccia and an outrageous caponata. For an appetizer, I had Ravioli with Ricotta and Mint, and island specialty, and then a beef filet for a main course. Mimma and Tracy feasted on Gambaroni, the largest crayfish I had ever seen

For dessert, we had a flaky and light cannoli and a glass of 2009 Ben Rye, also made from zibibbo, but sweetened from the addition of dried moscato grapes to the taste of apricot, fig and date.

We were exhausted by the time we got back to the house and did not expect the night and day ahead of us.