Susan & Vince's Travel Blog 2025

Buongiorno a tutti! Today's post will take you way, way, way, way, way back in time - more than 27 centuries! We're going to visit the City of Siracusa (Syracuse), and the Valle dei Templi (Valley of Temples) near the City of Agrigento.  So be prepared to enter the Time Machine with us - it's amazing. Chapter 6: Siracusa   Siracusa (Syracuse) was founded by Greek settlers from Corinth and Tenea more than 2750 years ago.  It is located on the southeast corner of Sicily,  on  the island of Ortigia in  the Ionian Sea.  It was , at one time, the largest city of the ancient world with a population of 300,000. As we have seen elsewhere in Sicily, the city of Siracusa was conquered by many successive empires.  In fact, we can round up the usual suspects: the Romans; Byzantines; Arabs; Medieval Kings, Henry VI and his son Frederick II, as kings of Germany, Sicily, and Italy; the Spanish; the Bourbons from France & Spain; and finally, the uni...

Buongiorno! Our journey on this day, took us south from Catania down to a lovely farm near the town of Scigli for a different kind of adventure - olive oil tasting!   Scigli, Sicily Our guide, Massimo (front left), the team from Fidone Farm, Mirko and Angela Fidone Farms Extra Virgin Olive (EVO)  oil philosophy. The Fidone EVO oil comes only from locally-grown olives and is cold-extracted exclusively.  The hills around Scigli provide ideal growing conditions:  it is clay soil and silty, and is exposed to the sun for just the right amount of time.  The location  has a unique mix of being the right distance from the coast and sea, as well as being at the correct altitude. Century old olive tree at Fidone Farms Olive Oil Production Facility Left: Once the olives are harvested by hand, they are brought immediately to the production facility.  This machine transfers the incoming baskets of olives to the hopper Right (above):  The hopper sends the oliv...