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| Funicular at Mt. Etna Going Into the Clouds |
Today was a bright sunny day after four straight overcast ones. I thought I would start by describing the typical Italian breakfasts we have been having. Everything centers on coffee. I usually have a latte macchiato (hot milk with espresso) and Jeanne has her tea, but there are many other options. There are always eggs (scrambled but most frequently hard boiled) and a selection of ham, salami, cheese and bread, brioche, etc. There is also a wide selection of sweets including cannoli, chocolate torts, every kind of cookie imaginable. Sometimes we have seen small sicilian pears, prickly pear, nuts, and even cassatina (a green colored dessert filled with sweet ricotta). Today at the Hilton they made cannoli while you waited and also had coffee granita (water ice) with whipped cream.
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| Drive Down From Mt. Etna Through Lava Fields |
Our day trip today was to Mount Etna and then the Gambino Winery for a wine tasting. It took about 90 minutes to get to Rifugio Sapienza on the south side of Mt. Etna. It was a mostly slow drive through small towns and then winding roads up the side of the mountain. Near the end of the drive you pass through lava fields to reach the parking area. At this point you are pretty much at cloud level. You can go to the top and see the caldera but you have to take a funicular and then off-road vehicles. That part of the trip is quite expensive and since we have already seen active volcanoes in Hawaii we had decided before we left that we would skip the trip up and do some shopping in the resort area (ski lodge in the winter). Within 30 minutes of arriving, the clouds descended on us and we lost sight of the funicular. Not sure what it was like at the top but you certainly couldn't see much. BTW, the temperature had dropped to the low 50s and of course we had forgotten to bring the warm clothes that we packed specifically for this part of the trip. Jeanne bought a nice jacket (and only 15 euro).
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| Wine Tasting |
From the Rifugio (ski lodge) we made our way back down the road we had come up on and drove north along the eastern side of Etna to the Gambino Winery. That area is a popular region for wine, in part because they say the ashes of a volcano produce the great wine. We did just the basic wine tasting but that included 6 tastings and they left the bottles on the table so you really could drink as much as you wanted. They also gave us a hard boiled egg (a traditional welcoming gift they said), bread, olive oil and 4 kinds of cheese. Needless to say we did not need lunch today.
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| Gambine Vineyard Overlooking Giardini-Naxos |
Dinner tonight was at a place near the hotel and it was pretty good. I had Spada Alla Griglia (swordfish, excellent, fresh) and Jeanne had ravioli stuffed with spinach and cheese in a pistachio and pancetta sauce. Please pardon all the food talk in the blog but I read a description of a friend's trip to Sicily and I liked hearing what they ate so I'm including ours.
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