Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Sicily Food Tour: Scoglitti, Palermo, and More

Episode Date: January 29, 2022

Imagine this: It’s summer and you’re relaxing on a white sandy beach in Sicily surrounded by culinary delights. Let’s make this dream come true! I’m joined by Carmel Ruggeri, the Italian-Australian who founded Sicilian Food Tours. Her family comes from Scoglitti, a hidden gem of a seaside town that I definitely want to visit the next time I’m on the island. In this episode, Carmel will tell us about the Sicilian foods we need to try and where to go to find the best. Plus, she’ll give us a fantastic itinerary for Sicily if you’re the type of traveler who likes to get off the beaten path — and I know you are.Enjoy!sarahmikutel.comHello! I'm your host, Sarah Mikutel. But the real question is, who are you? Where are you now and where do you want to be? Can I help you get there?Visit sarahmikutel.com to learn how we can work together to help you achieve more peace, happiness, and positive transformation in your life.Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to Live Without Borders, a travel and wellness show for expats, the expat curious, and globally minded citizens of the world. We are the travelers, the culturally curious, the experiences and not things kind of people. And we know that freedom is about more than getting on a plane. It's about becoming the most heroic versions of ourselves, which is why on this podcast you will hear insider travel secrets, inspiring expat stories, and advice on how to live abroad. but you will also hear episodes that will help give you the clarity, focus, and skills you need to create a life that will set your soul on fire. I am your host, Sarah Micatel, a certified clarity coach trained in the Enneagram, and I first moved abroad on my own at age 18, and I have been permanently enjoying life in Europe since 2010. If you are ready to make some big moves in your life

and want my help moving from someday to seize the day, visit live without borderspodcast.com. Are you the type of person who enjoys fantastic food and white sandy beaches? Well, if you are and I definitely am, then you are going to love this episode. My guest today is going to tell us about a hidden gem of a seaside town that I definitely plan on visiting the next time I'm in Sicily. I am joined by Carmel Ruggieri, the Italian Australian who founded Sicilian food tours. So of course, he's going to tell us all about the foods that we need to try when we are in Sicily and where to find the best. Plus, she is going to give us a fantastic itinerary for Sicily if you are the type of traveler who likes to get off the beaten path, and I know you are. So, enjoy the episode. Welcome, Carmel.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. You were born in Australia, I believe, to Sicilian parents. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Sydney, Australia, and went back to Sicily many, many times growing up. And my teen years and as an adult many, many times. So what brought your parents to Sydney? My father's brothers migrated to Australia and obviously told him, you know, come to Australia where you can work here and make money and a better future for your family. So he came out and his brothers brought him out to Sydney and got some work and then he brought mum out with my brother Tony who was born already in Sicily. And then the three of us,

There's four of us in total. So there three of us were born in Australia. Yeah, as years went on. They were eventually going to go back but stayed here forever, which is, you know, fantastic. I think I've had the best of both lives, lives being able to staying in both countries in Italy and in Australia. So I find myself to be very lucky in that sense.

Did you grow up speaking Sicilian in your house? Yes. Yeah, yeah, we spent the dialect. And so then when you went to school, it was pretty hard because you'd learn the proper Italian. He'd always get in trouble for speaking or saying the wrong words. And then when I went to Italy growing up, I started to pick up proper Italian, which was obviously very helpful. And over the years, I'd sort of gotten better and better at it. You were learning Italian in Australia?

Yeah, so at school, we were probably in an area in a community where Italian obviously was taught at most of the schools. So we were taught it at school. Plus, obviously, at home, I spoke the dialect. But, you know, as I got older, I was more interested in actually learning proper Italian. So I went to Italian school. So, yeah, it was a bit still really difficult when I first went to Italy in my sort of 20s.

I still had that real rough dialect. And then as the years went by, like now I go there and they look at me and they go, where are you from? they're not really sure. They can hear there's some sort of, you know, strange accent and they try to work out, you know, where it is I come from. But yeah, I can get away sometimes of being a local. A beautiful mix. Yeah, I was surprised at how different Sicilian was from Italian when I first visited Sicily. I didn't grow up speaking Italian. That sounds amazing. I wish my school did teach Italian. I learned it as an adult. And yeah, when I got to Sicily, I was like, what are you saying? What's going

on here. So yeah, so I can appreciate, you know, having to, having to learn Italian, how that would be different, very different. A lot of them don't really speak the dialect anymore, unless we're speaking amongst ourselves in the small villages, but the big cities, most of them speak proper Italian. You know, you'll go to some regions and they're speaking a really strict dialect and I can't even understand it sometimes. It gets like, wow, but most of it, you know, I pick up, you know, pretty much everything. So you said that you grew up visiting Sicily a lot. Do you remember what your first trip was? I went when I was little probably. I would have been three and then I went when I was seven. But I think I remember more of it when I was about 12, sort of from 12 years

old onwards. I just remember staying in my grandfather's house, which was like two rooms, big, you know, cement, concrete house. And just, yeah, it had two rooms and a bathroom. And there was like 15 of us in there. You know, did everyone just slept on the floor and you just ate pasta every day? And we were always at the farm in tomatoes and, you know, eggplants and picking fruit. And we were just, it was always, it was like food fest from when I was, you know, as long as I can remember as a kid, it was always related to food and barbecues, you know,

at the farm. It was, yeah, always surrounded by food. But, yeah, then obviously, as I got old during my 20s, I started to go back. year after year after year. Tell me about your family's hometown. What was the place like that you kept going back to? So Scolieti is a little fishing village. It's on the southeast corner of Sicily.

That whole south coast is like white sandy beaches. It's like beautiful. To me, it's heaven, obviously, I'm biased. Look, I just love it. I think I love obviously the fact that I know everybody in the town. So, you know, it's filled, it's got, what, 2,000 people in the winter months and 70,000, you know, in summer. It goes crazy in the summer.

Look, I love it in May and June. It's still everybody, this town hasn't filled up yet, but you can still have an appreciation for, you know, all the great bars and the food places to eat and the restaurants and obviously the beach, just that lifestyle, you know, waking up in the morning, heading to the bar, getting your brio chingranita and gelato for breakfast and heading to the beach and then coming back and having your pasta,

having a siesta in the afternoon, back to the bar for, you know, Teffredo. This is the stuff that I love about Skoliath. It's that real, you know, experience of a seaside, you know, a holiday, which I, you know, have been very fortunate enough to experience time and time and time again. Yeah, that place sounds amazing. I mean, you can't go wrong with the white sandy beach. It's just got amazing places to eat as well. Like, they're just extraordinary.

I could run a tour just like, for a very long. three days in my hometown. That's how much fun it is. It's pretty good. Well, tell us a few things in your hometown. Where should we go to eat? Is there anything else that you like to do besides go to the beach? Yeah, look, Bar Riviera has got like the best gelato. So there's a, they make a strawberry gelato, which is out of this world. I've had friends that have come from, you know, different countries and have had gelato there four times in one day. There's a restaurant I go to called the Contonero, and it's a seafood restaurant, and they do like 15 to 25 courses. And it's all like, you know, all your crudo first, so maybe six courses of your raw fish.

And then you'll have, like, you know, octopus salad or you'll have swordfish. And then you'll have a pasta with swordfish, pasta con sard de, mudiga, which is pasta with sardines and breadcrumbs. You know, it's just this ongoing feast of, like, food. And we get to course, you know, 12, and everyone's like, I've had enough. and I'm like, we haven't even started yet. You know, Dolce Day is a bar, I hang out, like day and night, day and night. And they do donkey burgers. They do the most amazing, you know, panini.

It's, or, these are all the places. I go to one place called Moriale. You can, you order the scace, which is a local, you're probably going to ask me this after our local food, but I'm stepping ahead of here. But Muriela basically has sell scace, Cassetti and Narancini by the kilo. And so these are, this is one of those. stores, which is phenomenal in Sicily, you go there and everybody, you know, you pass that one on to everyone and everyone goes there and visits. It's just like the most amazing food.

And I do take my tours there. So basically, they just sell three things. Arancini, which is the rice balls, the Casatendi, which is a half moon-shaped ricotta raviolo, and it's deep-fried, and scace. Skatea is a raguzana specialty, which has got fillings like sauce. and ricotta, it will have a filling like Pamidiana, which is red crumbs, pangratato, pecorino, an eggplant, or could have like broccoli and raisins in it. So it's got that, you know, Agradolchia, sweet and sour thing, which obviously Sicily is very famous for, with that influence that we get from the Arabs. So it's, yeah, this scotchia is amazing. And like over there, if you spend like 20 euro and you'll get like 10 in a tray, it's just the most,

amazing dish. You can eat it as a street food as well. It's like a pocket full of goodness and you just have that as your lunch, you know, one little piece if you want. I never buy one, of course. Yeah, take it to the beach. Exactly right. And with a beer, of course, you've got to have your beer with that. So Scoliti sounds like a little hidden jam. I haven't heard about it before. Is it mostly Italian to go there on holiday? Who's hanging out there? So look, Skoliti, most of that coastline, have you heard of the show called Montalbano? Yeah. Yeah, okay.

So the detective show, famous Italian show, Punta Seki is the next town away, just, you know, close to us. So that whole area is white sandy beaches and they're all beach homes. So people only come there for the summer. Most of them are coming from within Sicily or within Italy. Come, you know, look, do we get a lot of tourists? Yeah, we do. but probably more so Italians that are coming at the moment. Look, I wish that it was, they were getting more tourists from around the world. Sometimes I would do wish that for them,

obviously, because it'd be great for them. But then in the same token, I think I like the fact that it's not that known as yet. But yeah, it's a great little place to spend the summer. That's for sure. Yeah, I looked at the map and you are, I think, like a two and a half hour drive from where my family is from, which is like directly across, it's a little town called Tuzon, in Messina, also a seaside town, but like totally opposite direction. And those beaches are more like stone beaches. So closer to Chafaloo. But I definitely want to check your family's hometown out the next time I'm in Sicily. And you actually do food tours there, I believe, and you own a company called Sicilian food tour. So how did that get started? I was in restaurants and people kept on asking me

about when are you taking us at Sicily, when you're taking us to Sicily. And it sort of, you know, became a bit of a joke. And then a friend of mine that lived in Australia, I ran tours in Asia. And she said, you know, look, why don't you do it? I think you should do it. And I have a beautiful friend of mine, one of my best mates, Gina Malicia, who's a famous photographer. She's also Sicilian. So we just started, you know, joking and mucking about, hey, let's do a tour together. And so our first tour was in 2013. We did a joint photography and food tour. So we had a real great mix of people. We had about 21 people come on this tour and the two of us like, they're laughing our heads off going, what are we doing? And honestly, it ended up being one of

the best experiences of my life. We had some people that would take off with her and go and take photos. People would come with me and, you know, go to the chocolate factory and hear about, you know, how they make chocolate or go to the canoli store or, you know, all the photographers would come along to the events that we had like at the farm, tomato farm. It was just like jam, packed and I did it for it. I did a 10 day tour that year. Never did a 10 day one again. It was like it was way too much. We collapsed at the end of it. But from there on we just sort of went, okay, this is a lot of fun. And just I kept on doing them year after year after year. And here we are like, you know, obviously 10 years on. So it's been, it's been, yeah, almost 10

years. But yeah, it's been amazing, an amazing journey. When you said that you were in restaurants, you were in like the restaurant business, right? Correct. Yeah, I owned a restaurant called La Casa in Sydney, which was a pretty good restaurant. It did pretty well. And yeah, I had a huge following in the local area. And yeah, we were, you know, we won best suburban restaurant in Sydney. So we did some great things there. It was a lot of fun. Was that Sicilian food that you focused on or what was it? Yeah, look, it was a mix of Sicilian food. I'd probably always tried to do a couple of specialties. It's a bit hard because the Australian are used to a certain type of Italian food. I think when people, when I come back from Sicily, people say to me, oh, you know, what is it that you had in Sicily that was a standout? And for me, it would be like a grilled piece of eggplant on a barbecue with a bit of balsamic,

vinegar. You know, I can't go and serve that in a restaurant, really. It would be a little bit hard to do and price. But, you know, it's that purity or that tomato on a plate with a bit of basil and a bit of cheese. That is the standout dish that I would have in Sicily because it's the flavors of that tomato, which are incredible, which we obviously don't have the same anywhere else in the world. Obviously, Australia has beautiful produce, but there are a couple of things which you just cannot get like you do in Italy. That's for sure.

Well, I think that Italy's food is so diverse for such a small place, but I think a lot of people don't realize that, like you mentioned people, had like a specific idea of like what Italian food was. What would you say the differences between Sicilian food and other regions? We have a lot of obviously the sea around us. So we've got a lot of seafood. You know, the Trilia, the red mullet is like just, you know, to die for. It's sweet. And the anchovies that you get in the south. You can only get those in the south. The tomatoes down south, obviously. I think it's our soil, which is in Sicily, which is very different. So the eggplants, the capsicants, the tomatoes.

The things that come out of there are obviously, you know, really rich in flavor. And there's a big difference with Sicilian fruit and veg, which is down south compared to what you get, you know, on the mainland. Yeah. And like north is, you know, often hardier, fair. You'll get like polenta's up there. And in Sicily, you know, there was different occupations as well, like the Arabs and the Normans.

And how does that affect the food that you see? Yeah. I mean, as we know, pretty much everybody invaded. Cicely, didn't they? Everybody had it go. They all came through. You name it. They came through.

So, you know, the obviously with that Arab influence, we have a lot of the spices, you know, and the herbs. The Greeks came through. And so, you know, you've got the pistachia, which they brought. And the Spaniards have their sort of influences. There's all of that, which I think has given us, you know, this Agri Dolche. which we get from the Arab influence, Agaradolchia being sweet and sour. So there's a lot of that,

you know, when you have that, like even a seafood dish or, like I was telling with the scotchia, we put like raisins in with spinach and it gives you that sweet and bitter taste, which is like, you know, is absolutely divine. So, yeah, there's a lot of influence in our food from definitely generations of all those that invaded Sicily. All right. Well, let's keep talking about food. And what we need is. need to try when we are in Sicily. So what do people on your tour go crazy for? Okay. So as I said, the scotchette, definitely, which is the folded, it's like a made of, it's a semolina pastry. So it's a fine semolina and it's much lighter than a like a doughy flower

pastry and it's layers of it and we fold it into layers and it's filled with all different fillings. And so that's something that is very famous in Ragusa, which is the southeast corner where Scholieti is located in. And then you've got the Casatadi, which I mentioned, that it got the ravioli. And then Arancini, which, you know, the famous, it's either Arancino in Palermo, sorry, Arancina, with an A in Palermo, it's an Arancino in Katania. So it depends on where you are, the war of, you know, the Aranchina, they call it. But in the end, we just, it's a ball of rice. They're definitely one of our most popular street food. Fried ball of rice.

Yeah, it's got filling with it. It's got bolognese in it and peas and mozzarella or otherwise it could have like mushrooms in it, mushrooms and cheese. So it depends now. When they modernize it, I've noticed in Australia, they put some truffle in it. But, you know, we don't do a lot of that instance. That's for sure. Yeah, in London, I've seen the hipster versions of, yeah, of like all different.

Yeah, of course. Yeah, I've even seen actually the other morning I was at, a cafe here in Sydney. Somebody was doing a one with an egg and that fried egg, a breakfast art and chino, which I thought, wow, that's interesting. It was just like, you know, broken up egg inside the arachina.

It was very, very smart, yeah. Look, and then there's the finchone, which is like the thick pizza that you get in Palermo. And that's beautiful. It's just, imagine, like, really home style pizza, which is like a focaccia almost,

and it's thick, and it's just got, like, breadcrum and onion on top. And it's done in Bianco, which is like just no sauce. It's just divine, but it's onions that have been cooked from, you know, for hours and hours. And, you know, the big white, sweet onions that you get in Sicily, which are just, you know, absolutely divine. So Svinchon is another great one.

Things like the pasta consard de Mudica, some of these things, sometimes I actually give them to people on tour. Some people appreciate it. Some people are going, oh, I think I want a red saucey pasta. Yeah, that's the thing. That's, I think, I think, the problem with Australians or maybe the English or the Americans, when they come, they're so used to really saucy, heavy pastas. Whereas the locals, what they eat, like a pasta con sartad there is just basically pasta done with a bit of oil and with fresh sardines, and it's got fried breadcrumb on it,

Mudica. So it's actually quite plain. It's not to everyone's taste, you know. So that's something that, you know, or pasta with sea urchants. You know, that's not something to everyone's taste. But it is a very, very popular dish in Sicily. I do like pasta alla Norma. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

Pena Norma is basically, comes from the opera, from Vincenzo Bellini, his opera Norma. And it was made famous in Catania. And it's basically penne done with eggplant. So the sauce has actually got eggplant in it. And most of the time, it's baked ricotta. So or just, you know, a ricotta that can be grated on top. And it's just, you know, you pretty much find it in every single restaurant in Sicily.

You won't find like a Bolognaise or a Boscuola, which like is a cream sort of sauce, but you'll find Norma in every single restaurant in Sicily. What's your favorite meal? Oh, geez, I get asked this a lot. You know what? I have to say my favorite meal for me would have to be a panino, the crusty bread that you get with mortadela inside. Yeah, just a traditional panino that you go to the deli and you order and they wrap it

in the foil for you and you walk out and you have it with your beer. That to me, like there's a place in Orteja, which is Syraguz on the East Coast and Fratelli Bourgio, they do panini there. It's like a deli and there's like no tables or chairs. The place is always packed and you walk up and like you look at them and you go, where am I going to sit? And the guy looks to you and he goes, give me a second. And he pulls out tables and chairs, pulls out mortals.

tables and chairs. And suddenly you're all, you know, there's 10 of you and you've all got tables and chairs. You're sitting there with a panino on your hand and a, and a, and a beer. It is the most amazing atmosphere. And that panino, honestly, the sesame seeds on that bread, you will never forget it. It's one of the best panini I've ever had in my life. Yeah, Syracusa is such a beautiful town. I went there with my mom a number of years ago. And I remember we went to this puppet show or like sort of Marianette show. It was, I guess famous in that area. And they were saying that when the rest of the world was starting to get TV,

it still hadn't made its way to Sicily, at least not that region. So for entertainment, people were still going out and watching these puppet shows, which I thought was so interesting. Yeah, they still do a lot of that, especially Orteja, which is the island there of Sinagoza. Yeah, there's a lot of all that entertainment that goes on all the time at night. You see them in the main piazza near the Duomo, which is a beautiful place to hang out. It's definitely a must-see. What's your just beautiful.

I have to ask you where to find good canoli because I have tried many times, even in Sicily. And I'm like, wait a minute. This is not what I was expecting. And I grew up in New England. So, you know, we have a lot of Italian Americans in Italian pastry shops. And maybe I'm comparing it to those and it's not what I'm used to. But I know that there's good canola in Sicily, obviously.

So where can we find it? Okay, that's funny you say that because people that have grown up in a certain way and they like it a certain way, they probably have the one in Sicilian think it's not right. So, I mean, which one is right, Richard, which one is wrong? Is the question, isn't it really? Yeah, yeah. I've had some time. Some people in Australia put mascaponi in, you know, Ricotta, and I'm just going, well, no, that's just not on.

That freaks me out when I see that. Okay, so look, for me, it would be in Palermo, the famous Santa Catarina convent, and they make the big white. like 200 gram canolo there and they fill it for you. And their ricotta is usually sheep's milk ricotta. And it's just got this beautiful sweet taste. It's just, obviously, they've got sugar in it as well. But I'm just saying the ricotta, they just got a different taste to it, very light. And the canola is, you know, the canola shell is just divine.

And obviously they give you an option of if you want to have bistakia on there or chocolate chips on there. So that would be in Palermo, I would go there. And if I was in the southeast corner, I would suggest modica. So there's a place called Antica Bonito where they make chocolate and they actually have canolae, but you have to order them. You can't just walk in. You won't see them on the counter.

So if you don't know, you won't know that they have them. But, you know, obviously all us guides, we know that we can pre-order them. They are divine. Everybody loves those. And they're tiny. They're bite size. And they're made with Rigota from cow, cow's milk. and they are simply delicious.

I've had somebody eat 12 of those in one sitting. Whoa. Well, that does sound delicious. And thanks for the insider tip on the pre-orders. So if I were coming to Sicily for a week, how should I spend my time? Okay. So if you have a car, which is always really, really helpful, it can get you to, you know, pretty much around the whole island.

I would say to somebody, base yourself in Palermo, head over to, you know, east of Palermo, visit Cephalo, go to Castelboono, go and see the Fiasconaro where they make the Panetone. Then it's a beautiful little town. Is that where like Panetone became a thing? And for anyone who doesn't know, that's like the Christmas cake. Christmas, Christmas cake, yeah. Fiascanado do, is a pretty famous Panetona house and they do, there's probably one of the most famous Sicilian panatone makers. And yeah, they are located in Castelbronos.

They have a store there and their mothership, and you can go there and try so many of the different panatona. It is amazing Panetone. We have it imported here in Australia as well, which is fantastic. So I would definitely say from Palermo, visit Chepaloo, go to Castabana, go to the West and visit Erichu. Go to San Vitoa Karpo and have kus. Go to Erichu and have the biscuits.

You know, go to Trapani. if you go sort of around the island and then come down through Shaka across the Agrigento where the valley of the temples are and then you keep coming, you're going to go, you keep heading southeast, you'll end up in Squalliti, which is my hometown, and you'll go to all the famous places I mentioned earlier on. And then from there you could shoot straight across over to the east of the island, which is Orteja. You know, when you're in Orteja, you can visit beautiful places like Mad Zamami,

which is down on the right, you know, south-east corner. of the island. Norto, which is, you know, beautiful baroque palaces, but Norto is very famous. It's like you've walked onto a movie set. It is just simply spectacular, beautiful little town. And then from there, you can go straight up, obviously, Tormina. Everybody likes Tormina. Look, for me, I don't go there a lot with the tour groups because it is a very touristy place, but it is very beautiful. It's got a lot of shops there and a lot to do, a lot of restaurants. Great place to sort of sit for three days and just, you know, stay in a hotel and, eat pretty much every day, pick a restaurant, and it's got great views. And then obviously head up to

Capo d'Orlando, which is really pretty Franca Villa in Messina. There's all these beautiful little spots in Messina, you know, where there's a real greenery. The beauty about, and Sicily's diversity of the land, you know, you've got beautiful mountainous towns, and then you've got tiny little villages, and then obviously your fishing villages, and then you've got your big cities. So you could do the whole thing in like two weeks or 10 days. Easily, I could, you know, I can put a, I can put a tour together for anyone to do that. Sounds amazing. And yeah, you do have a seven-day tour. I think COVID probably interrupted that, but I think that you are back this year. Yes, we are. We're back in October. So we're doing Palermo and Ortiz. So we go straight through the middle of the island. But in basically,

I'm packing everything into this tour. It'll be one of those tours where we are going. above and beyond and it'll be nights where there'll be many people that will say, I can't do it. I'm full, but I'm just going to throw everything in there. And whoever wants to come out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, we're going. So I'm putting the best of the best in this one. So we've been obviously haven't been there for two years. So I really want to, you know, really want to pack everything in. So during non-COVID times, I believe you split your time between Australia and Sicily. So what do you love most about spending, you know, part of your, a good part of your life in Sicily.

I think it's when you're there automatically, you become like Italian and, you know, you work to live, like you don't, you live a full life and, and I enjoy the culture. I enjoy where I come from, my family, my friends. I love that I walk out of my apartment and I'm in a piazza and there's always going to be somebody there. There's always going to be somebody at the bar. You know, you can go out on your own. It doesn't matter.

And I love that freedom. I love, you know, that town feel, that really feeling like you belong. Really love seeing, you know, the lady in the corner, having a hair done by her girlfriend, you know, and they're in their 80s. And they've probably been doing the same thing, same ritual for the last 70 years, you know. Or they're doing a bit of crocheting and the boys, all the men sitting in the, I just really love that cultural, you know, thing that my parents, obviously would have grown up in. And the fact that obviously everybody knows me, I walk through the town, they call me Giuseppina.

And I say, no, that's not me. That's my mother. So, you know, I'm very honored to be called named my mom. And, yeah, it's a sense of belonging. And I really enjoy that. That's a nice connection. What did your parents think about you spending so much time back in the place where they left?

Yeah, they love it. They love hearing the stories. Mom and Dad came back with me probably last time would have been about four or five years ago. Unfortunately, they haven't been able to travel since because they're getting older and haven't been great in health. But, you know, they love that I go there. They want me to enjoy myself and make the most of it. And they love hearing little stories. I love hearing their stories. You know, I talk to mum every time we cook together, we sit there and she just tells me another new story, you know, and I just go, wow, I had no idea. Like, it's just, yeah, it's,

they're very, very proud of that. And I have to say, the first time I got there as an adult when I was probably about, you know, 15, 16. I remember feeling like, wow, this just feels right. It was this feeling in my tummy. It was just really, yeah, really weird sensation, I have to say. Sometimes we just have like a body wisdom and we can't really put into words what makes it right. But we know in our soul like this is my place. Yeah, 100%.

I agree. This has been so fun talking about Sicily. Before you go, can we do a little lightning? round on your favorite things in Colermo? Yeah, absolutely, sure. What is your favorite cafe? There's a place called Antico Café Spinato, which is Via Pincibe del Bemonte, and we go there pretty much every morning for breakfast and have you had a granita with brioche or, you know, an ice

cream with brioch or just a cornetto and our cafe at the counter. The traditional breakfast in Sicily is the brioch granita with panna, so it's, you know, iced sort of lemon. And we put, oh, if you have it with coffee, like a coffee one rather than lemon, you can put pan on top, which is like cream, and you just dip your brioche into that. That's actually, brioche is like a sweet bread. That's our breakfast. It's a very traditional Sicilian breakfast.

And Grenita is like an icy, how would you explain that? Yeah, like a slushy, lemon slushy. So you can get in lemon, strawberry, coffee. In the summer months, we do like, you know, 20 different flavors. mango, like, all mint, all the flavors. What's your favorite restaurant? Boy, okay. In Palermo, look, there's two places, obviously, I always go to.

It's where the locals go. It's called Corte de Manjone. And it's one of those really bustling, crazy places. And they, you know, throw the pot on the table with fill the pasta. So you'll have like a pasta al-a-norma in a pot, and it's got burrata cheese on it. And they've got bees there and steaks. It's really crazy, loud place and also a place called Villa Rosa in Karini. And they got a music, the musician there, pizza and the food there is, like, amazing.

The pizza there is extraordinary. It's probably my favorite pizza in Sicily. Oh, okay. Where do you like to hang out at night or what do you like to do at night? So Wucheria, Merikato, Wichuria, that whole area is really buzzing at night. So there's a lot of different bars that just pop up and a little stands that have a lot of people that you can go there for a drink. Of course, the passage of the in Via Rogerio Settimo.

So people passage other at nighttime is just people walking up and down where they close off the street. So that's, you know, that sort of whole area near the theatre or in the theatre. That's a beautiful sort of area to sort of just hang out and walk around, get a gelato. There's also a bar called Whiskey and Drink, which we go to, which we really enjoy as well. What are your favourite cultural experiences in? Palermo. I know, I think it's the biggest opera houses in Italy is there, right? Yeah, yeah. The Teatro Massimo is just absolutely beautiful. It's spectacular. Look, some people aren't into churches or museums, but the

cathedral in Palermo and the Teatro Massimo, they're two massis. They are absolutely beautiful. You can do a guided tour of Teatro Massimo. It's like eight euro. Or you can even go and see an opera, you know, on a weeknight. You can just book at the last minute and get into some see something for like 50 euro. It's just a must see. It's a beautiful architectural building that is just renowned. You've probably seen it in. There's a lot of people who have seen it in the movie, The Godfather. There's a Godfather of the Three. Yeah, it was a Godfather of the Three actually. The Theatro Massimo was in. It's grand juer. It is just a spectacular building. It is definitely by night, it is absolutely beautiful. I love the idea that we can go and do a tour event.

What are other places would you recommend as far as like museums or places that we could explore like that? The catacombs, there's the Santa Rosalia Sanctuary, obviously because she's our patron saint of Palermo. There's a beautiful contemporary art called the Resuto Art Gallery. And, you know, they support like new local artists and really focusing on contemporary expression. So there's, look, there's so many, obviously, museums and churches to see. in Palermo. You can't, every second corner there's a church or a beautiful, you know, or a museum to visit. So there's definitely a lot of culture and art in architecture, beautiful architecture in Palermo. Are there any festivals or any like special time of year

that you would recommend visiting? Yes, Santa Rosalia is in July, but it is a crazy, crazy festival. And also in September, they do a kuskos festival in San Vito L'Acapul, which is very famous, and that's only about an hour from Palermo City. Are there any local customs or anything that we should know about before visiting Sicily? Don't have a cappuccino with your lunch or your dinner. I only have a cappuccino over morning. Make sure you drink your water after you've had your short black. because they always give you a glass of water with short black at the bar. When you say short black, are you talking about espresso? Yes, an espresso.

So, yeah, always have the glass of water after the espresso. Make sure you buy a pine cone when you're in Sicily because they bring you health and good luck and prosperity. You're probably seen those pine cones all over Sicily. There's also the symbol of a triangle, like the three-legged... That's the Trinacia. So basically it's the three points of Sicily. So you've got Trapani and Messina, the three points.

Basically in the south-the-east corner, obviously Madamemi. So you've got your three points of Sicily. And the Medusa head in the middle basically talks about our rich soil. And that's why Sicily has such amazing produce is because of volcanic soil? And so, yeah, and she's called the Trinacia. So before we go, I know that Sicily is so rich in different historical sites. There's like a lot of UNESCO. Is there any like one or two places that if you're history lover, you definitely shouldn't miss?

Definitely Agrigento, the Valley of the Temples. That's on the south of the island. And also there's, we're probably in Syragusa. You've got a lot of ruins there in Syragusa, which you can visit as well. And, but I think Valley of the Temples for history lovers, they're the ones that they, it's a must say, Valley of the Temples is particular. And where it's located is beautiful because it overlooks the whole south coast. So you can headline down to and see the Scali di Turgi, which is the famous limestone Turkish steps, which is just down from Valley of the Temple. So that whole area is

just absolutely divine. It's really, really pretty. Carmel, thank you so much for talking to me. Is there anything else that you wanted to mention about Sicily or about the tours that you're running Sicilian food tours? You know, if you're looking for something a little bit different and not just for your normal touristy things and you want to meet people who, look, they're warm and loving and very, very welcoming, you know, come to Sicily because honestly I, most people, you'll never be disappointed. Go off the tourist beaten track and, and, you know, message me, tell me you're going. I'll give you some great places to visit, which aren't your standard touristy spots.

Even if you're not coming on tour, I'm happy for people to message me. I want them to get the best out of Sicily and really enjoy it, because it really is an amazing, amazing holiday destination. That's very generous of you. And yeah, thank you again so much. I really enjoy talking to you. Thank you. It's been my absolute pleasure.

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