I have been lucky enough to travel around the world, but I
never had the opportunity to visit any of the places my family came from. That list is longer than you may think since
each of my grandparents was born in a different country. When the opportunity to
visit Sicily came up, I was thrilled to be able to cross one of those places
off my list.
The trip was organized by Rebecca Hopkins, whom I had met
while at the
Aspen Food & Wine Classic. She works for
Folio Wines and put
together a trip for me with three of Sicily’s top wine producers,
Valledell’Acate,
Tasca d’Almerita and
Donnafugata. The itinerary had us on eight
planes and in the car quite a bit, but the positive side of that was that I
would get to see a lot of the land my grandfather’s family was from.
It was a rough start to the trip as the cab I ordered didn’t
show up and I came as close as one could get (the plane door about to close) to
missing my plane. Had I been at a larger airport, there probably would have
been no way I would have made it, but I ran onto the plane and took the first
flight, a quick 20 minutes from Champaign to Chicago.
I arrived at O’Hare before my friend Tracy, who was coming
from San Francisco to take the flight to room with me. The flight was full and
there wasn’t an upgrade – or two good seats together – so we separated for the
nine hour flight. Thanks to my status on American Airlines I was able to snag
an exit seat with extra legroom and I enjoyed a few glasses of chardonnay with
a decent plate of cannelloni and watched Julia Roberts in Mirror, Mirror.
After a few hours of sleep, the flight attendant woke me
with yogurt and a croissant before the plane landed in Rome. We only had an
hour to go through security to the other side of the airport for our Alitalia
flight to Palermo and we managed to make it. The flight itself was comfortable
and a quick 45 minutes.
Our driver Nunzio was waiting for us in Palermo airport for
the three and a half hour wild ride through the winding roads of Sicily. We
went past mountains, vineyards, farms and the Mediterranean Sea along the way.
We also stopped for lunch at a gas station/restaurant, where Tracy and on
mistakenly ordered a “cutlet” that we learned was not eggplant as we had thought
(we didn’t learn what it was, and decided we were better off not knowing).
As we got closer to Ragusa, we could see more vineyards as
well as green houses, goat, sheep and olive trees. Our hotel was in Ragusa Ibla
(the older section of Ragusa) and we were staying at the
Locanda Don Serafina Hotel. It reminded me a bit of some of the places I had stayed in Burgundy. It
had that Medieval field, including a very steep staircase in the stone walls
that we needed to take up to our room.
It had been a long 24 hours of travel and we took a little
nap before Francesco Ferreri, owner of Valle dell’Acate Winery, picked us up
and took us downtown for a tour of the city before dinner.
I loved the cobblestone streets and piazza in Ragusa Ibla. I
watched the families and couples strolling and the men conversing on the street
the way I heard my grandfather still did with his family once they were in
Brooklyn.
Francesco took us into a Gelateria where they had made gelato
with wine. I tried the rose and the moscato and enjoyed sampling as we walked
around admiring the buildings and the churches (there 53 Catholic churches in
Ragusa). Then we sat down for some Asti
Spumante and a table full of cheese, olives and other “nibbles.”
Dinner was at Locanda Don Serafino Restaurant, which
actually wasn’t at the hotel since the owners wanted the restaurant in its own
unique location. It was a beautiful building with similar stone construction,
but also had modern touches, like clear Lucite chairs.
Before dinner we went down to see the extensive wine cellar.
I was quite impressed with the selection the restaurant had, but for this night
we were trying Valle dell’Acate wines. We started with Bidis, a blend of Chardonnay
and Insolia. It was buttery and smooth, tasting a bit like vanilla gelato. It
went well with the exclusive extra-virgin olive oil the restaurant had for its
bread, as well as the cherry tomato, goat cheese and buffalo ricotta appetizer.
The next course was rabbit and between my allergy to rabbit
fur and my aversion to eating anything I pet, I passed, but Tracy said it was
very good and worked well with the Il Frappato, a red wine that held the fruit
nose in the flavor, along with just a bit of pepper.
As we got closer to Ragusa, we could see more vineyards as
well as green houses, goat, sheep and olive trees. Our hotel was in Ragusa Ibla
(the older section of Ragusa) and we were staying at the Locanda Don Serafina
Hotel. It reminded me a bit of some of the places I had stayed in Burgundy. It
had that Medieval field, including a very steep staircase in the stone walls
that we needed to take up to our room.
My next course was just superb, a ravioli filled with apple
and Aubergine cream, in a sauce made from raw tomatoes, basil and buffalo mozzarella.
With that I enjoyed the Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico, a blend of Nero d'Avola
and Frappato. After a tender pork sausage stuffed quail, we
had a cheese course, followed by “pre-desserts” (including a buffalo yogurt ad
saffron cream), followed by Carob Crème Brulee and a pistachio semi freddo.
Francesco dropped as back at the hotel about midnight and I
was asleep before my head hit the pillow and I dreamed of day two in Sicily.
