(Notes from Oct 10 2024)
Well ya can’t visit Sicily without doing a wine tour! Sam and Robert struggled online quite a bit weeks ago to make this happen, and it was really fun.
But it almost didn’t happen: a “driver” was supposed to appear at our AirBnB that morning to pick us up… we all dutifully appeared on the street outside our place, but there was no one there. Of course the street was really weird, we weren’t even sure cars were supposed to use it! Eventually we noticed this guy loitering around at the far end of the block, we tried to talk to him; after some confusion, turns out he was our driver! We had noticed a taxi ‘way down the street waiting but we’d been led to expect a private car so we didn’t think that was for us. Anyway, he packed us all in and we were pulling away when a mysterious lady ran up and tapped frantically on the window–turns out that was Helen the wine-tour lady, we had nearly left without her!
Although it’s a wine tour, the big highlight is lunch, this being Italy lol
The winery was full of really chill dogs everywhere, and many not-so-chill mosquitoes… Anyway, first course was avocado toast with anchovies & parsley, with fried sage leaves on the side (those were crazy good!!)
Third course was rotini in a green sauce with salted salmon roe–huge bowls full!! It was excellent but enormous. No pix unfortunately…
Finally it was the last course: peaches, cheese with jelly, hazelnut biscotti, paired with a raisin wine (?).
Helen the wine-tour lady was fascinating: she’s from Riga, apparently speaks every language, and has great food & wine recs in most every European city. Her Italian driving school stories were hilarious! She’d learned to drive in Riga, which is apparently pretty slavic and rule oriented, but she had to pass a test to get her Italian driver’s license. She had the official teacher in the car, and some other guy in the back seat, they had her drive here and there and then had her stop in the middle of the lane, with parked cars all on her right, and the oncoming traffic on her left. She says, “stop here? In the middle of the road?!?” “Oh yes,” they replied, “just for a short bit,” and they both left the car, with her sticking out in traffic with people having to maneuver around her. Eventually the two guys returned: turns out they had gone for a quick beer!! Welcome to learning how to drive in Italy!
We wandered around the streets in a different direction, and saw a mysterious old building
In no time flat, it’s time to eat again haha so we set out for dinner (despite not really being hungry lol). Remember that great seafood place all the way over in Siracusa? Well, the owner’s nephew is their fisherman, and we had them promise to get us a whole fish big enough for two, and tonight is when we find out if they remembered!
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