Escape to Italy

Hello

I just spent three weeks in the South of Italy with my family and our close family friends and my sister’s godmother. We did lots of swimming, walking, eating, talking and relaxing. We spent most of our time travelling around Sicily (including in a countryside villa amongst lemon and olive groves) and in a small town called Praiano on the Amalfi coast. The food was all based on seasonal produce and family recipes from the region. In Sicily, we ate lots of eggplant – dishes included caponata, an appetiser with eggplant, onions, olives and sometimes capsicum and potato; eggplant parmigiana with mozzarella and parmesan and pasta Norma, a sauce of eggplants, tomatoes and ricotta salata (a salty, drier variation of ricotta, similar to feta). Around the coast of Sicily the seafood is the most popular while in the middle meat is preferred. We ate sardines, anchovies, swordfish (not a fan), tuna, sea bass and sea bream, which were usually served grilled or through pasta. As we reached the shin of the boot the seafood stayed the same, although there was more pasta (think gnocchi, linguini and ravioli) and great pizza (no wonder as Naples is the birth place of the delicious bread). My favourite dish and what I thought was the strong point on the Amalfi coast was seafood pasta. It doesn’t sound amazing but believe me the iconic flavours of olive oil, tomato, herbs and grilled scampi tossed through steaming linguine was delizioso. As far as restaurant recommendations go in both places, local advice is the best, especially if you don’t want to get caught in tourist traps. We discovered Kasai in Praiano, which overlooked a full moon over the Mediterranean Sea, from our driver and looked out for TripAdvisor ratings when we were stuck. I will never forget the welcoming nature embedded in Italian culture. No matter whether it was a sneaky wink from a spunky man or a blessing from the dear Nonna at our hotel in Praiano.

Linguine con Scampi at Amalfi

View from our hotel (The Tramonto D’oro) at sunset

Kasai Restaurant, Praiano

Inside the hotel in Praiano

Natural sun-dried tomatoes

Walk of the Gods path from Praiano to Positano

Enjoying the pool at our villa, La Limonaia

Noto – Baroque village in Sicily

Noto nature reserve

Fountain in Siracusa

Sea bass with tomatoes, celery, onion and parsley

Mount Etna Climb

Greek-Roman Theatre, Taormina