Rick Steves - Rick Steves Sicily

SICILY

Rick Steves & Sarah Murdoch with Alfio Di Mauro

Travel is intensified livingmaximum thrills per minute and one of the last great sources of legal adventure. Travel is freedom. Its recess, and we need it.

I discovered a passion for European travel as a teen and have been sharing it ever sincethrough my tours, public television and radio shows, and travel guidebooks. Over the years, Ive taught thousands of travelers how to best enjoy Europes blockbuster sightsand experience Back Door discoveries that most tourists miss.

Written with my talented co-author, Sarah Murdoch, this book offers you a balanced mix of Sicilys lively cities and cozy towns, from bustling Catania to sleepy Cefal. And its selective: Rather than listing dozens of archaeo-logical sites, we recommend only the best ones. Our self-guided museum tours and city walks give insight into the islands history and todays living, breathing culture.

We advocate traveling simply and smartly. Take advantage of our money- and time-saving tips on sightseeing, transportation, and more. Try local, characteristic alternatives to expensive hotels and restaurants. In many ways, spending more money only builds a thicker wall between you and what you traveled so far to see.

We visit Sicily to experience itto become temporary locals. Thoughtful travel engages us with the world, as we learn to appreciate other cultures and new ways to measure quality of life.

Judging from the positive feedback we receive from readers, this book will help you enjoy a fun, affordable, and rewarding vacationwhether its your first trip or your tenth.

Buon viaggio! Happy travels!

Sicily is a fertile mix of geology and culture. Eruptions from its volcano, a glowing sun, generations of hard work, and wave after wave of civilizations storming through over the centuriesthey all come together here, giving visitors a full-bodied travel experience that engages all the senses.

If Italy is one of the most dramatic, flamboyant places in Europe, Sicily is its distilled and intensified siblingpure passion set in wild beauty. To those who have traveled in other parts of Italy, Sicily may feel similarbut its not the same. The beauty is more rugged, the food is more flavorful, and the highs and lows of human history are more extreme. Coming to this island requires not only patience and a sense of adventure, but a willingness to be open to its seductions.

Sicily floats just off the toe of Italys boot, like a soccer ball about to be kicked. At about 9,900 square miles, the island can be driven end to end in three hoursa journey that traverses a variety of landscapes, climates, and cultures. This is the only place I can think of where you can marvel at a well-preserved Greek temple, wander through Carthaginian ruins, listen to the Arab-influenced sales pitches of market vendors, dine on African couscous, and admire the glittering mosaics of a Norman cathedral...all in a single day.

Western Sicily is home to Palermo, the busy capital. Ringed by mountains and citrus groves, the once-elegant city has a 19th-century center spiced with fragments of Arab and Norman buildings from a thousand years ago. Nearby is the magnificent Norman cathedral at Monreale. Outside Palermo, this region is quiet and untamedand often wet and windywith rolling hills punctuated by jagged mountains and aquamarine waters lapping at windmill-sprinkled salt flats. On the southwest coast is Agrigento, home to an amazing ensemble of cliff-hanging Greek temples.

Twilight Palermo, cradled by mountains; eye-catching ceramics in Erice

Things get drier as you move inland, with rolling fields of wheat. In the islands arid midsection, dusty medieval hill towns crown peaks scattered along dry riverbeds. Burrowed here, in the middle of nowhere, is the ancient, mosaic-rich Villa Romana del Casale.

Sicilys sunny eastern side is dominated by Europes most active volcano, Mount Etna. From her smoking peak, the mountain slopes gently down to the southeast coast. Surrounding Etna are thriving cities (earthy Catania, historic Siracusa, and resorty Taormina), ancient wonders, and a tropical natural beauty. This side of the island bustles with shopping centers, factories, urban sprawl, and traffic. To the south, deep valleys and rolling green hills lead to a sunny coast strewn with ancient artifacts and wide sandy beaches.

Sicilys location at the center of the Mediterranean made it a strategic base for successive waves of long-ago invaderseach conquest leaving a mark on the culture and landscape. And that too has had an effect on Sicilys regional differences.

Typical Italian desserts, such as tiramisu and biscotti, are lightly sweetened and made with little butter. But Sicilian sweets pull out all the stopstheyre packed with calories and sugary goodness.

The difference in desserts stems from 200-plus years of Arab occupation. When the Arabs arrived in 827, they brought date palms, oranges, lemons, almonds, ginger, and most important, sugar. New farming techniques, such as irrigation, made it possible to cultivate these delicacieswhich thrived. Todays Sicilian desserts owe their sweetness to this Arabic heritage.

Most pastries are made with some combination of sugar, almonds, citrus, and ricotta. Every town has a pasticceria crafting the local version of each sweet, and many desserts have funny names and backstories (like the minnuzze, or breasts, of SantAgataa round spongy cake topped with a cherry). Sicilian sweets are eaten any time of day, not just after a meal. A typical breakfast is a sweet one, with cakes, cookies, and pies, all washed down with a cappuccino.

Pasta di mandorla is an almond cookie. Made with almond flour, sugar, and egg whites, this basic recipe comes in many variations, usually named for the shape: little pyramids (tette delle monache, nuns breasts), wavy wafers (foglie da t, tea leaves), or clumps of dough dropped roughly in the pan (brutti e buoni, ugly but good).

Cassata is a classic, colorful, sugar-bomb cake. The simplest