Hello friend, I'm gradually working through your travel questions about Sicily. It's taking me a while, but I'm loving it. Be sure to send any of your general questions to: sicilyinsideandout@gmail.com Don't expect detailed travel itineraries; let's keep it general. I'm happy to point you in the right direction if you are planning a trip.…
Continue reading ➞ Travel advice: Taormina, Palermo and Catania
Hello friend, I'm gradually working through your travel questions about Sicily. It's taking me a while, but I'm loving it. Be sure to send any of your general questions to: sicilyinsideandout@gmail.com Don't expect detailed travel itineraries; let's keep it general. I'm happy to point you in the right direction if you are planning a trip.…
Continue reading ➞ Travel Advice: Santa Ninfia and the province of Trapani
Hello friend, I need to say thanks to everyone who has sent me their questions about Sicily. I’m gradually making my way through your queries. Give me some time to work through them. The response has been great. Here is this weeks question that I try to answer for you. Ciao Rochelle,I have plans to…
Continue reading ➞ Travel Advice: what to see in Sicily
This is the first free travel advice post dedicated to answering your questions about travelling to Italy and Sicily. Send me your queries and I’ll try to help with a weekly post.
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I’m not a tour guide or translator but I have lived in Italy for two decades so send me your questions and I’ll do my best to help you out.
Throughout the year, Sicily offers the occasion to enjoy the best local food and traditions for locals and visitors. A town or city's Sagra will feature a particular speciality celebrated and usually consumed for only a few Euros. Some people hire a camper, particularly in the summer and go from sagra to sagra, depending on…
Continue reading ➞ Sagre and Feste in each Sicilian province: Catania
Randazzo sits under the feet of Mount Etna; a gigantic menacing shadow is constantly over the city. It is a place born out of the volcano and at its mercy. The wide lava streets of Randazzo create a sense of ancientness, the shades of grey sketching out the city in the deep depressing tones of…
Continue reading ➞ Randazzo: at the feet of Mongibello
Lately, I've been feeling a little tired, frustrated and burnt out. At the beginning of the year, I'd set myself the goal to post every day either on this blog or my creative writing blog. I've been maintaining this practice and have made a routine of preparing three posts here on Sicily Inside and Out…
Continue reading ➞ Burnt out and frustrated
While accompanying my husband on his work trips to Catania, I noticed how many little water pools dotted the harsh lava landscape. Since I spent most of my time standing out in the sun to help by holding up one of those measuring poles you see surveyors using on the roads, I didn't get much…
Continue reading ➞ Sicilian Details from Catania
I use my camera like I'd use a notebook. I record little details and notes, things I've noticed or want to remember for later. I photograph small things that catch my eye, a particular design or pattern which seems unusual. It could be a texture that catches my eye or how the sunlight hits a…
Continue reading ➞ The story is always in the details
The arrival (Catania, August 2002) Arriving at Catania airport, my husband and I are hit by the blistering heat of August in Sicily. We are two sweaty zombies after an eighteen-hour flight from Perth, Western Australia to Rome, followed by another hour from Rome to Catania. It is hotter than hell. Our clothes are wet…
Continue reading ➞ Arriving in Sicily
The Sicily of today is very different from the one my grandparents left behind; it has gone through a tremendous economic boom which saw it move from an agricultural-based economy to one based on industry, all in one generation. People in contemporary Sicily live as well as anyone else and barely recall the hardships of…
Continue reading ➞ Moving towards Sicily
My Grandparent’s generation in the 1950s wasn’t the first to have left the island; the inhabitants of this region have immigration in their blood. Sicily’s ancestry comprises generations of colonising Greeks, from conquering Romans, to tyrannical Normans, cosmopolitan Arabs and imperial Bourbons. Sicily’s timeline is made up of a long succession of dominations, thirteen different…
Continue reading ➞ Immigration in their blood
I’m always being asked about Sicily’s landscape; what is it like? The truth is Sicily is very mountainous and difficult to negotiate. In its interior, the roads are constantly under repair or filled with detours; a short physical distance can turn into hours of curvey mountaintop back roads and deviations. While at times I find…
Continue reading ➞ Words from Sicily: D.H Lawrence
Gesualdo Bufalino wrote about Sicily’s many different faces. He was fascinated by the multifacited nature of the island, filled with many paradoxes and contrasting elements that often exist side by side. The complexity and instability of the island’s cultural history has created an engimantic place which is difficult to define. Bufalino says how there are…
Continue reading ➞ Words from Sicily: 100 Sicilies
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