We arrived in Sicily on Friday afternoon at Catania airport and hopped in our rental car, a black VW beetle convertible that we have named "Black Betty". Out we sped on the autostrada to the west towards Enna before turning south towards Gela and then west along the sea towards Agrigento. We arrived at our first Sicilian refuge, Mandranova, in the late afternoon and were famished, not having had a bite to eat since before the flight. Fortunately, our hosts brought us out a lovely late lunch of pasta, cheese and salad. While it was all excellent, the lettuce was outstanding, particularly after the long winter of horrid greens in Canada this past year. After lunch we retired to our room for a brief nap and some reading before it was dinner time around 9pm on the grounds of Mandranova.
Mandranova is a working olive farm (with other veg as well) and all their food (well veg anyway) is from the farm to the table. The location is a bit isolated (which we love) except that the highway is close enough that one can hear the traffic, particularly the motorcycles. The food is prepared by the lady of the house, Sylvia, while her husband Guissepe takes care of the bookings etc. Their olive oil is excellent and oddly enough they ship to Toronto ... To Pusateri's to be exact!
After our yummy dinner we watched a little "Game of Thrones" before drifting off to a much needed sleep.
The next day we wolfed down breakfast before heading off to the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento. What a place! Situated on a hilltop it was once a flourishing city but what remains today are the remains of several temples and not much else. But oh what temples they are! The temple of Concord is largely intact, having been converted into a Christian church hundreds of years ago thus sparing it as a source of building materials for the locals. Fortunately it has been restored back to its original form.
The other temples (Hercules and Juno), although not as complete, are just as lovely.
We also visited an ancient garden in a valley just below where the temples are that in antiquity had served as the local tyrant's personal garden before being forgotten about and becoming a wilderness. In the recent past, the Italian government has re-invigorated it and now it hosts all manner of plants such as lemon, orange, fig and olive trees as well as more unusual ones such as persimmon, cumquats and loquats (a fruit previously unknown to us). Quite a peaceful and serene place as its location in the valley shields it from the heat of summer, the cold of winter and the winds. We made it back to Mandranova in the late afternoon and enjoyed another late lunch before relaxing until dinner time. Dinner was once more quite yummy, although perhaps not as awesome as we had hoped for, and the Sicilian wine quenched our thirst.
Our second day was a day of relaxing by the pool at Mandranova until 4pm when it was time for our cooking class with Sylvia. We spent the next three hours slaving in the kitchen preparing fried risotto balls, aubergine lasagna, beef rolls and chocolate semifredo. It was all a bit of a blur and tough to keep the details in mind so fortunately we received written recipe sheets for the meal. We also received Mandranova aprons which we will take home with us. Dinner was excellent, how could it not be as it was homemade; by us!!
For our final day in Mandranova we went on a boat cruise! After first passing through a small local town, where we encountered a gaggle of old Sicilian men, four couples (including us) and Guissepe boarded Guiseppe's power boat and set out for the cruise. We stopped at three locations during the cruise; the middle of nowhere for a dip in the Med, a small island close to shore for more swimming and a quick stroll around its perimeter and a beach that we swam ashore to, strolled upon and when done, we swam back to the boat.
During this time we noshed on a fine lunch of proscuitto, fruit, cheese and pasta (with beer and wine as well). All told an excellent way to spend five hours! Unfortunately, Christos was not prodigious enough with his application of sun screen and managed to burn himself a bit. Ah well, such is the price one pays for a wonderful day in the sun!
We relaxed in the colonnaded lounge and watched the swallows whose nest lay in the rafters fly about as the evening gave way to our usual 9PM dinner.
