Sicily

While shooting our first collection, we discovered some great places and want to share them with you here as inspiration for future journeys. We want to expand this blog with even more destinations in the future - so it's worth coming back again.

Palermo

Our journey began in Palermo, where we booked accommodation near the Botanical Gardens. The garden is a perfect balance to the hustle and bustle of the city and definitely worth a visit.

One of our favourite places was Palazzo Butera. A beautiful old palazzo close to Palermo's harbour that was bought and extensively renovated by the Valsecchi couple in 2016. It has now been open to the public for four years and exhibits the couple's art collection. The architecture alone makes it a must-visit.

On Sunday, we took the opportunity to stroll around the beautiful flea market at the Giardino Garibaldi, which takes place there every weekend morning.

What Palermo definitely doesn't lack are lively bars and great restaurants. Here is a selection of places that we liked:

01 OJDÅ - great for drinks/Aperitivo
02 dal Barone - for natural wine
03 AjaMola - very good fish restaurant
04 Bar del Corso - for the best Café
05 Osteria Ballarò - for date night dinner
06 I Segreti del Chiostro - best Cornetti
07 Bisso Bistrot - great for lunch
08 Osteria Mangia e Bevi - local lunch spot
09 Mercato Ballaro - for the Sicily feeling

The very South

After three nights in Palermo, we took a rental car and drove on towards Noto, where we also stayed for three nights. We actually liked this corner of Sicily the best and would spend at least a week just there on our next visit. Our accommodation was beautifully situated in the countryside near Scicli and was the perfect starting point for visiting the baroque towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa.

Here are a few of our favourite spots in this region:

Noto
01 Café Sicilia - great coffee and cornetto
02 Campisi Conserve - great for getting some gifts
03 Panificcio Maidda - great pastries
04 Archivio Gallery and Boutique - for gorgeous (!) italian silk clothes

Surrounding
01 Gelati Divini - special Gelateria in Ragusa
02 Chiesa di San Giacomo Apostolo - church with beautiful garden
03 Supermercato Voi - in Donnalucata great for regional food
04 Blue Moon - Gelateria in Donnalucata

From there, we travelled to the very west of Sicily for our final stop. On the way we visited the unique Scala del Turchi beach and the amphitheatre in Agrigento. A wonderful stop for lunch here was the Osteria Expanificio restaurant in Agrigento.

Erice & Scopello

By coincidence, we discovered a small B&B in Erice, which had only opened a year earlier. Mother and son run the Casa Cattauro. It has three guest rooms, each with a bathroom, and probably the most beautiful terrace we have ever seen. Here Francesca prepares breakfast for you every morning at the time of your choice, and you can enjoy the view. In this small medieval town high up on a mountain above Trapani, which tourists usually only visit for a day trip. However, as we were staying here overnight, we were able to explore the area with its great beaches during the day against the flow of the crowds. In the evening, we enjoyed exploring the quiet & charming town and tried out each of the five restaurants.

Here are our favourite destinations in Erice & the surrounding area:

Erice
01 Casa Cattauro - stay here
02 Gelateria Liparoti - try the Pistaccio icecream
03 Pasticceria Maria Grammatico
04 Osteria di Venere
05 Domus Blanca Bar
06 Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista

Surrounding
01 Pasticceria La Rinascente - Trapani
02 Caletta di Bue Marina - our favourit beach
03 Tonnara di Scopello
04 Scopello Market
05 Solea Azienda Agricola - for lunch, dinner & groceries