Welcome to Sicily

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.