To reach Torre di Mezzo we first took a bus from Agrigento to Gela. Hanged in the train station for 40 minutes and took a train to Vittoria. When we exited the station we had to pass a narrow corridor which was full of old men playing cards. The moment we entered the place was filled with dead silence. I guess they don't have 3 blondes passing by too often. From the station our host Gaetano picked us up, made a city tour in Vittoria by car (showed the 2 sights of the city :D) and we drove to Scoglitti where we ate an arancina with parmigiana inside. It was incredible! The place where to buy it is named "Tinghino". If something ever brings you this small city near the seaside, we totally recommend to eat there. Also, the lovely lady working there gave us a gift, some local sweet pastries called cassatelle. YUM! After the small aperitivo we drove to his house in Torre di Mezzo, took a shower and went to a barbecue party at his friend's house. We ate loads of meat that night. DAY 5 Next morning we spent time on the beach. It was the first time we swam in Sicily. Torre di Mezzo is a tiny village next to the seaside, they have a small beach there. It is a quiet city, perfect for relaxing after some crazy days in big cities. In the afternoon we went to Modica with Gaetano, he was so kind to drove us there and make a city tour. One of the most memorable moments of Sicily happened in Modica, in a pastry shop named Antica Dolceria Bonajuto. We bought cannoli and went to food heaven. Modica is known for it's chocolate. Luckily we found a shop with free tasting samples. To our taste it was a bit sugary. The city tour ended with a cute sunset in Cava d'Aliga. And then it was time to say good bye to Gaetano and meet our new host Mattia. He took us to a family dinner party. It was really nice there. The chef cooked pansiccia (pane + salsiccia, a super clever name). We had nice conversations with the families and were playing games with the kids and since Sofi has a lot of experience of teaching children English in Caprarica, she tought them some English. In particular the song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes". DAY 6 Next day we had a plan to explore Ragusa, but it was Sunday, and the only bus that left for Catania was at 12.00, so we decided to take the bus instead. At that moment we still didn't have a place to stay, so we started sending requests on couchsurfing page. Luckily after 30 minutes we found a nice guy who said that his friend was available to host us in Nicolosi, a town near Catania. When we arrived to Catania we found Raimondo on couchsurfing hangout, and met him in the centre. He knew a lot about the city and made us a very informative city tour. We really recommend using the CS hangout when you are planning to explore a city you don't know. We have done it also before, it saves a lot of time, is more informative and you can meet really nice and helpful locals. In the afternoon we were picked up by car and taken to Nicolosi, to meet our new host Salvatore. He had planned a dinnerparty with his friends for that evening, so we ordered pizza and had a nice, relaxing evening. DAY 7 At first we were quite disappointed that we didn't find a host in Catania, because Nicolosi is a small town, nothing much to do there. But, we didn't realise how lucky we actually were, because it is a town next to the volcano Etna. So in the morning we took a bus to the volcano. The price to go up there is 80€, of course we didn't have this kind of money to pay. But a friend of our host told us a path we could take for free to see a valley of magma. Before the beginning of the path, there was one food truck. They made incredible panini there. For 6€ we got a huge panino which was enough for 3 persons. It was filled with loads of different types of cheese, meat proucts and vegetables. They were all local products. The workers were from Nicolosi and they were super nice. We also got some delicious pistachhio cake as a present. Before departing we asked them if they could store our packbags, because it would have been terrible to carry them all the way up. They kindly said "no problem!". Just before starting our journey Tairi hurt her finger really bad, there was a lot of blood and it didn't seem to stop. The waitress was giving nurse services too. For the next 15 minutes we were fighting with the blood, that was escaping from the finger. Here is a picture of the activity for stopping the blood. The name of the place on Etna is Valle del Bove and it's incredible. The colours of the landscape were so beautiful. It takes around 40 minutes to walk up there, of course it depends on how slow you are. We had medium level of slowlyness. In the evening we took a bus to Catania and started looking for a host for our last night. That was a little complicated, it's hard to find a host last minute, specially when you are in three. But thanks to CS we finally at 22.00 found the new host, Pietro. We were actually only supposed to meet him. When he saw us with the back packs, he understood that we were without accommodation. It was a little shock, but he made some phone calls and after 10 minutes said: "okay let's go, I have a house for you!". He drove us to his family house a little bit out of Catania, invited his friends and we had a nice evening with a perfect view from the balcony. DAY 8 We left the house quite early, because we wanted to reach Siracusa. After a rich breakfast we took the bus. Catania has a really nice bus system, you can buy round trips for a really good price. You can buy them to all the closest cool tourist attraction cities. Siracusa's highlight is the old town, Ortiga, that is on a peninsula. The city is nice, it reminded us of Gallipoli. It was a very hot day and we were with the back bags, so we were just hanging on the stairs, on the beach and went swimming too. The day passed quickly and in the evening we said good bye to Panna, who took a flight to Budapest and we went to eat a kebab in Catania. That 2.50€ super delicious kebab was a perfect end to our trip in Sicily.
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When we arrived in Trapani we had a walk in the small city. It's cozy but there is not much to see. The amazing places you should visit in that area are more in the north, at the seaside, but sadly we didn't have enough time. But, we ate a tasty arancina in a place called U Cartasu, definitely recommend this place, the best ragu arancina so far. Then we found a park which was a bit like a zoo. There were peacocks, turtles, parrots, bunnies and guinea pigs. Oh, and we took a gelato from Panna & Co, that's a really good gelateria. Panna & Company (Tairi) We had to be in Marsala in the evening, so we walked to the road to try hitchhiking. We were standing next to a gas station where the workers were cheering for us and observing the process, but at the same time repeating that pretty much noone is going to Marsala from there. Since we had an hour before the next train, we decided to try anyway. After one hour we realized that we failed again. Most of the people didn't even stop, they were just waving from the car. And the one's who did, wanted money (30€, train ticket was 3€) or were heading to Palermo. So we took a train to Moiza-Birgi (before Marsala) because our host, Gianni, picked us up from there. And what happened next is indescribable. We changed our clothes to swimsuits and walked to an island called Isola Lunga. Long time ago there was some factory and now its not allowed to go there. This place is used to produce salt from the sea. The salt has a pinkish shade that colors the sea also. By the way, there is only one way to get there (unless you have a boat), a walk through the sea. It's about 200m from the shore and the sea is quite shallow. This was the most beautiful place we had ever been to. We arrived about 7pm and the sunset made the scenery even more magic. There are "salt hills", Tairi felt a bit like she was in Estonia, because it seemed like the snow. We made snow (salt) angels and a snow (salt) war. We felt like we were on another planet or we died and this was the heaven. We are really thankful to Gianni because without him would have never been there. After this incredible sunset we went to Gianni's house in Marsala. He and his friends offered us a great selection of local wines & Panna cooked a delicious hungarian dinner. After filling our stomachs with pizza, lecsó and the best liquids of Marsala, we danced pizzica and salsa on the terrace. The hungarians in action DAY 3 In the morning we went to see Marsala. It is a quite small but very cute city. We had a nice cappuccino next to a fountain. It was really hot outside and after a small tour we went to relax in the house. After lunch we took a bus to Agrigento. Our host, Alberto, picked us up and took us to Valle di Templi. The ticket is 5€ if you are under the age of 25. So they asked for our documents. When they checked Tairi's ID card the first question was: where are you from? Estonia. When hearing this answer the worker left to check some papers, came back after a minute and said, ok, you're good to go. That was a strange moment, that it didn't even come to our mind to ask what happened. But later we heard, that to get the discount you need to be from a European country. So probably she went to check the map to refresh her memory about Europe. In the Valle di Templi we met with some other couchsurfers, who were also staying with our host. We had a nice time sharing travel experiences with them. The place itself was amazing. We arrived by the time of sunset, the best time to visit the valley, because firstly, it was not so hot anymore and secondly, the light from the sunset coloured the place so beautifully. When it got really dark our other host, Ignazio (because actually we got 2 hosts on couchsurfing for that night, but anyway they were friends who were hosting in the same house), picked us up and took us home. We ate a lot of delicious pizza, had funny conversations about couchsurfing experiences and later went to a bar on the beach. There were not so many people, but we had a lot of fun dancing to the DJ's Spotify playlist, even though he didn't have premium and we had to listen to the advertisements all the time. In the end of the party he started to play Sud Sound System and pizzica. So it ended up to be a very traditional Salento night. DAY 4 After a long adventurous night we woke up at 11.00. The plan was to go to Scala dei Turchi, but we soon understood that we were far from the city. Alberto had left to Palermo and Ignazio said he could take us to the center in the afternoon by the time we had the bus. So with bleeding hearts we had to forget about visiting the incredible seaside. That was a relaxing morning. We ate pizza leftovers for breakfast, walked around the neighborhood and enjoyed some gelato. Also, we started to plan our trip to our next host Gaetano, who we had to reach on a beach in the middle of nowhere, a beautiful calm place called Torre di Mezzo... |
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