Under the Sicilian Sun
Clinging to Summer in The Middle of the Med
Hi friends and family!
Fall finally hit Porto, but not before I was able to get in a few more beach visits and deepen my tan. It started raining the day I left for Sicily, which was great timing because the sun was waiting for me when I arrived, and it stuck around all week.
This week’s email is all about:
Sunning ourselves in Sicily
Construction Updates
Vamos!
Sunning ourselves in Sicily
Every year Hilary does her best to celebrate her birthday month: October. This year, she joined forces with her bestie and former business partner Darcie (also a Libra) to plan a ladies' trip to Sicily. She was generous enough to invite me to join for the second half.
It was our first time visiting Sicily, and I had the bonus of arriving after Hilary had already been there for 9 days and figured it all out.
The weather was unseasonably warm, ranging from mid-20s to low-30s (mid-70s to mid-80s F) and sunny. Perfect for hitting the beach and soaking in the Med. We hit quite a few spots in our 9 days together, so I’ll break it out by location.
Palermo: Hilary had spent time here with Darcie and we spent two days on my arrival as well. We wandered the old streets, ate arancini, grabbed dinner with our friend Joana (follow and check out her music!), and had a nice vegan birthday dinner. This bustling, chaotic city has a lot of rugged charm and a wealth of street food to match. I could easily spend more days here.
Taormina: Famous for 5-star hotels perched up on rocky cliffs and stunning blue water, Hilary and Dacie stopped through here to soak in some luxury. Sadly, I didn’t make it to this spot, but the reports back from Hilary were positive, and they even stayed at the hotel used for the in-cliff pool shots for Season 2 of White Lotus.
Cefalù: This gorgeous old cliffside beach town drew Hilary and Darcie twice during their visit, and she brought me back for two nights on our tour as well. The beach is perfect soft sand with clear acqua azzurra (that characteristic light blue water), and is backed by a stunning old town with an impressive fort-topped cliff. I can understand why it was the location for all of the beach shoots in White Lotus. I could stay here for a month, swimming, sipping Messina on the beach, and enjoying dinner at our little family restaurant that made Hilary special vegan meals.
Siracusa: We drove from the beach in Cefalù down to the ancient town of Siracusa, which has been occupied since antiquity. Our little Airbnb was in the heart of Ortigia Island, the old walled city. We toured Neapolis (ancient Greek ruins with caves and an impressive amphitheater) and wandered the old streets in search of dusty wine bars. We found an incredible all-vegan restaurant pushing the envelope on local flavors and dined there two nights in a row.
Noto and Ragusa: We did not stay in either of these two baroque cities (UNESCO World Heritage Sites), but passed through on our drive from Siracusa to Agrigento. These towns should not be missed. Noto is home to a vast array of impressive baroque buildings and Cafe Sicilia, the subject of a Netflix Chef’s Table episode. Yes, their granita is worth the stop! We wandered the streets gawking at the architecture before driving on to Ragusa, another old city perched on a ridge flanked by two deep valleys. The views were simply breathtaking, and we enjoyed lunch on a small square before heading to Agrigento.
Agrigento: Our final two nights were spent at a charming B&B (thanks for the recommendation, Ksenija and Mirek!) in an otherwise un-charming town. We were there for the impressive 2,500-year-old ruins at Valley of the Temples. This sprawling complex of ruins did not disappoint. It boasts one of the best-maintained early Doric temples still in existence. After a hot afternoon rambling in the ruins, we made tracks for the Scala dei Turchi to soak in some cool ocean breezes.
The tour was a 9-day, sun-soaked, pasta-fueled, crazy-traffic-driving whirlwind, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The crowds were still present but not overwhelming, and aside from a few days of poor air quality due to seasonal field burning, our luck with the weather was impeccable.
We have tons of recommendations if you’re planning a Sicily trip. Just hit us up!
Adulting Updates
A LOT of adulting has happened this month, especially regarding the remodel.
As the timeline started to run up on the roof project, and a significant amount of work remained (and still remains) incomplete, we started having to juggle the interests of the contractors working out of our apartment (hired by the HOA) and our contractors, who were getting anxious to start our remodel.
The last few weeks of the (ridiculous) 90-day window required by the roof contractors were filled with efforts to push their work forward and hold our team at bay. We had to motivate our friend and association manager, who was also frustrated by the never-ending work delays, and continue to maintain relationships with everyone involved (as they’ll be on the hook to fix any future leaks). It was challenging, to say the least.
Fortunately, our team is amazing and our HOA manager gets it, and we were able to work around the other team.
Work started in earnest on Monday the 16th, the day I flew to Sicily, and the day it started dumping rain on Porto. No better way to put a new roof to the test than a named storm (Aline). Yes, the roof has many leaks. The saga continues.
Our contractor also submitted a request to the city to permit a crane to lift all the drywall, tile, etc, into the building. This required hiring an off-duty cop to block traffic, coordinating multiple trucks, and submitting piles of paperwork. We expected it to take forever to approve.
With our luck, they turned it around in a matter of days, with a go-date only 12 days out! This meant our contractor had to order as much stuff as quickly as possible so it would all be there in time.
Last Wednesday was crane day, and it all went according to plan.
The current state of the apartment? We have OSB sub-floors in, windows are cut, and a huge amount of the prep work is done. Our architect continues to be amazed at how fast our construction team is moving. Vast progress has been made in just the last two weekls. Fingers crossed it keeps moving this way!
How has your October been? Do share!
This week’s music is full of Brazilian sunshine produced by a French duo. Enjoy.
Ohh, tickled pink that you stayed in “our” Airbnb. I am glad you enjoyed Sicily, the granita and the ancient monuments. We don't care that much for the rich and famous spots full of tourists and expensive boutiques like Taormina so in our view you didn't miss too much. It was insanely crowded when we were there for a day. Loved that Airbnb on the outskirts in the countryside though.
Good luck with the reconstruction and the leaking roof (jeez, didn't take long) I am just looking at remodeling a tiny bathroom here in California and the estimate is 1 month and 50 Grand. Ridiculous!
Super jealous of your Sicilian trip! Not so much of the housing work! Just the house painting and remodeling our small bathroom this summer sucked, so I can’t even imagine your scale of things.
October flew by, but we held our pumpkin carving party for the first time since Covid and actually went out Halloween weekend to the 20th anniversary of Howl. Socializing is fun again, but exhausting! The fall colors have been exceptionally beautiful this year and the temps have stayed a bit warmer than usual, but right on time following Halloween the storms are hitting. Oh, well - at least we had a crisp fall dry night for the kiddos this year. October was peak fall this go around, can’t complain at all. Cheers!