Summer in Sicily, actually August in Sicily – ‘won’t that be rather hot?’ Everyone said, ‘I hope so.’ I replied.
We were there during the ‘Lucifer’ heatwave in the Mediterranean but Sicily is so perfect for a beach holiday that it enhanced our stay, if anything.
A two centre beach holiday is what the travel agent advised and I followed the advice but was a bit uncertain why you would spend 6 nights in a little town 45 minutes west of Palermo, to then move for the second half of the holiday to a beach town 45 minutes east of Palermo. Because they are so different, I had been told. And they were.
Castellammare del Golfo was our first stay- an old bustling little town on the sea with a couple of gorgeous small beaches in the centre and then a spectacular long strip of beach just outside town.
As well as the beach, Castellammare is a town with many facets. There was the very attractive port with its Moorish castle, the scene of the great passeggiata every evening, with plenty of good restaurants to choose from, there was the more municipal area above that with pretty gardens and a bustling street which hosted another serious passeggiata every evening, again with great restaurants and then there was the ancient square above the port with its open market place and more fabulous restaurants to chose from.
Food featured big in our holiday and we only had fantastic meals. The pasta speciality of Castellammare is ‘busiate’ a long curly pasta, which is peculiar to that small area and the traditional ways to serve it are ‘alla norma’ (with aubergine), or con le sarde which is with sardines – both equally moorish and we ordered them every day. Ricotta is abundant in many forms, from the freshest you have ever tasted to ricotta salata which is almost as hard as Parmesan and grated liberally into pasta alla norma. Ricotta is the filling for the sweet canoli which is a Sicilian sweet resembling a filled brandy snap. we had to have one of those most days as well as several ‘arancini’ , fried rice cakes in breadcrumbs which are filled with either mozzarella and ham or ragu sauce. This was where my children discovered ‘granita’ for the first time-the original grown up version of slush puppy made most often with local lemons, but also available in other flavours such as locally grown almonds – we had at least two of those every day. And of course the ice cream, usually eaten on the passeggiata after dinner, chosen from many of the street stalls selling the most extensive flavours we had ever come across such as Kinder and English trifle.
Our traditional Sicilian hotel, the Punta Nord Est, was perched on the cliffs between the town and the very long stretch of sandy beach. The sea views from the rooms were spectacular and the rooms very comfortable and our terrace was the scene of many an evening card game over a glass of beer as the sun went down. Very informed Sicilian ladies were always on hand at reception to share their wealth of knowledge of the area with us, including a cracking recommendation for a restaurant for dinner each night. They really could not have been more helpful. We spent some days lounging around the pretty hotel pool, interspersed with a trip down through a tunnel to the hotel’s private beach, or ambling down to the very attractive main beach which was a distinctly Sicilian family affair, many generations grouped together sharing abundant picnics under umbrellas, pedalos and banana rides for hire, and always some scene of local interest to watch.
One day we hired a boat and took it along the coastline of the Lo Zingaro National park which lies north out from Castellamare- it was a perfect day, chugging up the coast, nipping into several of the many bays, dropping the anchor and going swimming and snorkelling until we felt we had exhausted that bay and it was time to try the next one. The scenery of the Zingaro is truly beautiful and unspoiled and the boat offered us a unique perspective on it.
We also went sightseeing, to the grandiose temple of Segesta, just a 25 minute drive away. It was the most perfect Greek temple we had ever seen, causing us to linger in awe before taking the bus up to the ruined city above with its well preserved amphitheatre offering extensive views over the countryside and off to the sea.
Erice, the perfectly preserved medieval town, was another fascinating visit. The whole town was a museum in itself and there were many churches to dip into on our amble round the narrow streets, granita in hand.
Monreale, the Norman cathedral on the outskirts of Palermo, built to rival the cathedral of Palermo, with its detailed wall to wall gold mosaics, was the most stunning interior I had ever come across. We were fortunate to be with our friend, the author of How to Read a Church, and so had the most enlightening of explanations and narrative on the subject of the mosaics covering the Old Testament.
The days flew by with our mixture of seaside chilling, sightseeing and serious eating and it felt a real wrench to move on, but we did as we suspected there was even more to discover – and so we found ourselves in the equally charming town of Cefalu (see blog).
by TMS