A Sicilian Summer
For those I haven’t seen in the shop this Summer and who don’t know about my lovely trip to Sicily, I thought I would share a bit about it here. A couple of years ago I spent a gorgeous few days in Sicily for a photography workshop, I vowed then that I would take the whole family back to this beautiful place. We booked the trip for the end of July just as the heatwave across Europe kicked in, we could see it was going to be hot before we left the UK when checking the Sicilian temperature but to experience it is quite something else. It reached a staggering 42 degrees during our stay and most days the temperature was hovering around 39…. I was quietly concerned as to how this would impact our time away but weirdly it made me slow down for the first time in a long time. I am one of those annoying holiday makers who needs to be on the go every day so my family seemed a little thankful that I had no excuse but to rest and in turn they didn’t have to run around looking at Churches….we saved that for the evenings.
We stayed in the area of Syracuse in the most delightful cacti farm we found on Air bnb. The owners were so lovely and the natural pool was an absolute highlight. You couldn’t walk to the beach as it would have been too far (especially in the heat) but the drive was only about 6 mins I would say. And when you got there you were rewarded with the most beautiful glassy sea. Because of the heat it forced us to start the day early so we would have a swim first thing and then stay at the beach until around 10ish marvelling at all the Sicilians able to cope in the midday sun dipping in and out of the sea throughout the day. 
Cacti farm
Beach at Syracuse.
Goats at the Cacti Farm
The farm we were staying on had lots of gorgeous animals roaming around, my favourite being this adorable goat. 
This was the gorgeous natural pool at the Airbnb. There were a few holiday cottages within the farm but we pretty much had the pool to ourselves so that was rather lucky.
We hired a car during our stay and we would have been pretty much stranded at the Apartment if we hadn’t been able to explore.
I am not going to through each day in detail as that would be more like a teenager diary, but instead simply tell you about some of the areas we visited and a couple of highlights.
Ragusa for me was one of the highlights, a beautiful baroque town high up with windy roads and cobbled streets filled with idillic Sicilian houses lined up next to one another. I don’t know if it was the temperatures but it was so quiet whilst we were there, really rather special.
Taormina
Taormina is a very special hilltop town again on the east coast. The town is most well known for the an ancient Greco-Roman theater which is still in use today. Incredible views from the top of the cliffs. We hired a boat for 4 hours for 200 euros which I would highly recommend. (Although our anchor wasn’t set up properly so that caused some issues but that story is for another time).
Ortigia
Well this was an absolute gem of a place and we actually did in the end get to stay there for an extra two days as our flights were cancelled with no explanation but again for another time. We stayed in the most gorgeous hotel called Hotel Roma which was very reasonable.
Hotel Roma
the streets of Ortigia
Other highlights included Noto and Madica. Catania is lovely to visit for the markets and restaurants but for me nowhere near as pretty as the other small baroque towns.
