It has been a while since I blogged last and therefore it will not be a surprise to state that much has happened meantime. Not least, my latest Sicily trip for as some may recollect it's not my first time there, though this venture was significantly different. Call it the savage lure of fiery Etna, or elegantly huddling Taormina, very possibly the yummiest grub this side of earth and how everything coalesced, but this time I was thrilled to the bone and would return in a wink. Hint hint: Anybody willing to sponsor me I'd emphatically oblige :)
Best way to start is from the beginning and the best way to begin is to hail a quick early morning sky-ride which before 30 minutes are out will see you landed across the channel, well before 0800 hours to inhale the crisp morning Sicilian air before the malevolent sun strikes with its renowned burn. So, there and then at their little international airport you could opt right on for a bibita rinfrescante (refreshing drink) or a coffee that would make your heart sing, given that, their water is simply superb.
Hop quick now with me onto the coach for an ample hour's jaunt from Catania to Mount Etna and envisage the most active and tallest volcano in Europe surging surly and more into view with its spare remnant ice-scapes from winter just gone, knowing that the heaving brute could at any moment decide to terminate life as we know it well beyond its immediate vicinity. It looms majestically, crazing the clouds and once hauled up in a cable car (funicular) above the receding landscape beneath, you start to realise its latent powers. Landed, you are struck by its moonscape characteristics, the gritty yet light masses of solidified lava, the raging red bowels of inner unchained earth frozen in its tracks after having vented its crimson fury and turned it into all hues of dark. Nature at its most terrible and finest, life destroying, creatory and earth enriching, the dichotomies of seeming cyclic eternity which always were not and always shall not be.
On top of this aeoned hunkered giant grounded in magmatic might, churning its depths red raw alive, ready to erupt in a blink, I felt perched, enraptured, uplifted.
Unmissable and unforgettable especially the cratera.
And how cool is that, huh, to steal oneself away from such a stilling presence to find oneself as if in the arms of a lover as dashing as La Isola Bella di Taormina, the essence of Sicilian seaside chic, a mountain topping, baize coloured, blue kissed treat?
You'd think perhaps that in Sicily this is where it's at and you could easily be forgiven for it, but anybody who has ever been would be not at all amiss to point you to the ultimate delight of Sicilian life. The gusto of their mouthwatering food, its genuineness, its creativity and deep scents, distinctive tastes that yet once eaten and imbibed sits so lightly on the stomach and leaves the head unfettered to any passing swoon, another mark of Sicilian culinary genius. They are masters of pastry and swordfish and much else besides which they serve briskly, hawk-eyed, unceremoniously, short and to the point, or, just as you would have it. So good is the fare that you make an instantaneous mental note of it to remember in your next prayers to mention to the good Lord to ensure that way up high above, He stuffs his kitchens with the best Sicilian chefs and produce the famed trinacrian island genius effortlessly dispenses to its ardent admirers of whom I consider myself one.
La Sicilia - Ma che brava che sei !!! Am in love all over again with the fuzz rising on my nape.
So be there, get ye going and see for yourselves and savour and meditate, then savour again and then just let me know :)
Xoxo,
JhinkyG
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