Eraclea Minoa

This is a beautiful big beach on the south central coast of Sicily. There is a natural mud cliff at one end of the beach. We were told that the mud is apparently the same as day spa treatments and supposed to make you look 10 years younger. So we layered it on generously and maybe more than once…

Street Food Palermo Stylee

We would love to say this was delicious, but… We were at the Mercato del Capo in Palermo (highly recommended) and noticed a crowd milling around a man with a cart handing out filled bread. Everyone had been talking about the amazing Palermitan street food so we thought this was an opportunity not to be missed. After asking what it was and not being able to decipher his mumbling we placed our order. So he reached under a tea towel into a ‘secret’ metal bowl with his bare hand and it emerged with the mystery meat and he proceeded to fill the bread roll. It was topped off with a little salt and a squeeze of lemon… this could have potentially been an amazing moment. Well it wasn’t. It wasn’t gross but it wasn’t enjoyable either. The texture was somewhere between slimy and gristly. Three of us tried, very hard, to enjoy it but in the end we offered the remains (read: most of) to some stray dogs who also turned up their noses at it. It was later confirmed that it was veal stomach that is apparently very popular in Palermo. Other offal offerings considered delicious amongst Palermitans include cows lungs and goats intestines. Verdict, not all street food is amazing.

Fried eggplant and Panelle. Panelle = deep fried chick pea flour in batter, sort of like a potato cake but thinner.

Welcome Summertime at the shrine to the watermelon.

Palmino, also known as Palermo to everyone normal

Lovely Slums.
Palermo is old, very old… It’s been inhabited for about the last 3000 years and most of the buildings looked like they haven’t changed a great deal since then. It’s pretty hard to describe exactly how Palermo made us feel… This is the kind of place where they deal with undelivered post by burning or throwing them into the sea, primary health care for many involves a trip to the local magician, some of the most amazing palaces, cathedrals and remnants of their vibrant history are left to rot and crumble because the city cannot afford to keep them safe let alone maintain.
But behind the decay, and possibly even because of it, is a beautiful, culturally rich and entertaining city. One of the things we liked most about Palermo was wandering its streets crammed with cars and scooters in every spare space, the gesticulating and volatile Palermitans, its shrines to Padre Pio and the sacred watermelon on every street corner, tacky karaoke bars and some of the best markets we’ve seen.

Sarah wanted a trim and I’d never had a barber shave and these guys waving me down so we thought we’d give them a ago. So after being forced to drink a shot of espresso and Sarah explaining she knew it was a barber shop for men but she had short hair like a man so it would be ok, we both took a seat.

Mysterious Girl.....

We are certain no one knows or wants to know exactly what goes through Turks head but quite regularly he happens to verbalise what he’s thinking… we went along with this one. So this is us pretending to be Petre Andre singing mysterious girl. In Turks actual scenario, Panda is Peter Andre singing mysterious girl to Claire…. it got weirder but harder to explain.

San Vito Lo Capo

On the North east point of Sicily lies San Vito Lo Capo, the beach here is big and long and sandy and sits under some amazing mountains with rocky outcrops. The town is also famous for it’s couscous (thanks to North African civilizations c. 800AD) And although we missed the yearly couscous festival by a day we were still able to get our fix.

Scopello and Castellamare del Golfo

Tonnaro di Scopello – is an old tuna processing plant that has been converted into accommodation on a magic cove. We were swimming here and could hear music coming from the adjoining cove so we decided to investigate by swimming around. We found 20-30 French dudes standing on the beach singing the Beatles’ ‘all you need is love’ at a wedding on the beach. We continued to float around listening to this soundtrack in the clear blue water.

Casatelle – Oh my god, small pastries with sweetened ricotta, Bar Sorgente in Castelmare del Golfo makes incredible ones (and the orange thing in the background, not so amazing)