Sicily Guide

A peasant and an island changed the life of the Llewellyn family, writes Kelsey Munro.

Lipari is the largest of the volcanic islands off the north-east coast of Sicily. Crowded with tourists in the summer, with honey stone buildings, painted fishing boats bobbing in the small harbour and the smoking cone of the active volcano Stromboli on another island of the same name on the near horizon, it is not an obvious place to have an environmental awakening. But that’s what happened when Marc Llewellyn took an Italian sea change with his young family.

Read more at SMH.com

I always keep in high esteem companies and organizations that help Sicily’s economy and image. Planeta is one of them. In a very short space of time, Planeta winery has built up a veritable empire of four vineyard sites totaling over 60 ha and two wineries, changing the way Sicily makes wine and putting the region on the map of the country’s finest wine producers.

I do not want to talk about its wines this time, though. The Planeta’s web site is plenty of ideas and traveling suggestions for food and wine lovers and not only. Alessio, Francesca and Santi Planeta share their accumulated knowledge by suggesting a small selection of restaurants, wine bars and wine shops, hotels, bed and breakfasts, trattorias, pastry shops and bars throughout Sicily. If it is the Planeta family to give these recommendations, they must be good!

Check it out at Planeta.it

More about Planeta

Technorati Tags [ planeta | sicily travel ideas | food and wine suggestions ]

Sicily offers a wide variety of accommodation: from luxury resorts to hotels, apartments & villas for rent, bed & breakfast, hostels, camping, agriturismo. Popular destinations, such as Taormina or the main provinces, offer a wider choice of accommodation.

This past Sunday, the Washington Post published an article called “Details: Sicily Agriturismo“. This type of accommodation is gained in popularity…

[…] When we decided to go to Sicily, we both knew we wanted to try a farm-stay, or agriturismo. I don’t know whether we were swayed by images from old Italian films of families gathered at an outdoor table over a fabulous meal, or by raves about Sicilian cuisine being the next big thing. Maybe we even had a notion of “Sideways,” Italian style, with picnics amid rows of grapevines.

Whatever the reasons, we were enchanted by the prospect of staying close to the soil. And we weren’t alone. Going online, we found that agriturismo options throughout Italy have bloomed in recent years.

Now we had tough decisions to make. In Sicily alone, there are a host of farms and country homes to choose from, many with Web sites showing idyllic estates with swimming pools set in rolling hills, giving the impression of baronial fiefdoms. Half the fun was mulling the choices; we were torn between staying in the island’s heartland or on the coast. […]

Read more at WashingtonPost.com

More agriturismo ideas

Technorati Tags [ sicily | agriturismo ]