Category: Sicilian Trips

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Hockey in Sicily

Hockey and Sicily don’t seem like two words that should find themselves in the same sentence.  It’s hard enough to find ice for drinks let alone a whole sheet of ice to play a sport on.  Luckily ice isn’t absolutely necessary and luckily I didn’t leave my hockey equipment in the States when we moved here to Sicily.  From everything I could find online there wasn’t going to be a chance for me to play hockey.  This was a tough pill to swallow since I have played competitively for the past 30 years!! Yes I am old!   I packed my hockey equipment anyway Continue reading “Hockey in Sicily”

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Surfing in Sicily

Before moving to Sicily we lived in San Diego for 10+ years.  When I moved to San Diego from Michigan I immediately got in the water.  Surfing was my daily obsession after work and whenever I had any free time.  Eventually I learned how to avoid drowning and then moved onto actually surfing and I was hooked.  I was lucky to have a bunch of friends through hockey that were also excellent surfers.  They taught me and protected me when I made stupid mistakes with the locals.  These are the negative types of experiences that end surfing for a lot of people.  To say that surfing Continue reading “Surfing in Sicily”

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Lipari Island – A Sicilian Getaway

What do you do when you are on an island for an extended period of time? You go to a smaller nearby island. Sorry for the random thought, but I think its funny how many islands we have been to over the past couple years. We might have an obsession with them or maybe some type of “hermit” psychological brain condition that we should spend some time looking into. But who has time for that when there are so many islands to visit in the Mediterranean. MUST SEE more islands. One thing that I like about islands is that they always have their own identity. Lipari definitely has its own identity despite the fact that it is less than an hour away from Sicily via hydro boat (or is it hydrofoil? Continue reading “Lipari Island – A Sicilian Getaway”

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Sicily Gets “Best Beach in the World” Honor!

Tripadvisor has put out their “Best of 2013” and a Sicilian beach scored the best beach in the World!  Yes, beating out all the Hawaiian beaches, Caribbean beaches, and Mexican beaches.  The beach is called Rabbit beach and its on an island off the southern coast of Sicily called Lampedusa.   We have yet to go to this island, but it was on my radar before this.   Its about an hour flight from Catania airport or a boat ride from the southern coast.  Darwin airlines (whom I have never heard of) seems to be the only airline that flies direct to the island.  Then once your there you have to take a boat to the beach, since that is the only way that it can supposedly be accessed.

Im excited that  Sicily got such a great honor and Im equally excited to check the beach out this year sometime.  I will report back with pictures of course.  This beach looks very similar to Continue reading “Sicily Gets “Best Beach in the World” Honor!”

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Skiing & Snowboarding in Sicily

Its funny how much is packed on this island.  I always thought San Diego was unique because you could go skiing and surfing all in the same day, but here its even easier.  It takes about 40 minutes from where we are to get up the mountain and its amazing how the scenery changes.  You go from a mild coastal climate all the way up to 6 feet of snow in that short amount of time.  There are two skiing opportunities on Mount Etna,  the north side (Linguaglossa) and the south side (Nicolosi)… we were on the north side.

Granted I don’t think we will be seeing any winter Olympics here Continue reading “Skiing & Snowboarding in Sicily”

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West Coast Sicily Wineries – Planeta Winery & Donnafugata Winery

A trip to the West coast of Sicily has been looming over us for the past year.  It has always been on our list to explore over there, but always gets aced for something else that comes up.  The 2+ hour drive definitely has influenced our decision.  Back in August something came up that forced us to commit to a particular weekend.  That something is the annual “E’ la notte di Calici di Stelle”  at the Donnafugata winery.  That translates to “Goblets under the stars.”  Donnafugata puts Continue reading “West Coast Sicily Wineries – Planeta Winery & Donnafugata Winery”

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Agrigento Sicily – Valley of the Temples

Agrigento is a place that every visitor of Sicily should try to make.  Especially if you are into archeological things.  Agrigento is well known for its well preserved Greek temples that date back to 580 B.C. !!  Now I understand why they call America the New World.   Wikipedia has a page about Agrigento that has a lot of information (LINK).

We stayed the weekend in Agrigento to make sure that we got all the sights in.  Plus its about a 2 hour drive from where we are on the island.  I was excited because one of the few surf stores was supposed to be in Agrigento, but after searching Continue reading “Agrigento Sicily – Valley of the Temples”