Hello! We are taking a trip (4 of us) to Europe in sept\oct this year, looking for recommendations for Sicily and other coastal Italian towns other than the big go to cities. We have about 7 days for Italy. I know its not an ideal amount of time but that is what we have to work with. I have been to Cinque terre and really want to try to take them all there too. My hubby is a chef so any amazing retuarants or towns big on cuisine is a plus although I recall most of the places I went in Italy years ago were big on food anyway! TIA :)
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11351 posts
You say 7 days. If that includes arrival and departure days, you have 6 nights in the country. I suggest you select mainland Italy OR Sicily. Sicily is vast, in if you decide to go there, I think you need to decide eastside or westside and sleep in no more than two locations. I'll let others with more Sicily experience make a recommendation.
If you decide on the mainland and the Cinque Terre are included, plan 3 nights in=or-near the Cinque Terre and perhaps 3 nights at Lake Como (not coastal but beautiful) or 3 nights in the Maremma area of Tuscany, which is coastal and less-visited.
Once you decide on exactly where you are going, perhaps you can come back for some specific recommendations on restaurants.
Posted by
the Netherlands
2487 posts
Sicily alone is worth the week you've got. Palermo is worth two full days. Rent a car and have a relaxed drive to Catania, with possibly a stop on the way. Have a day trip to some of the Baroque towns of the Val di Noto. Have a day for Siracusa. All well spent.
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
I agree with the previous posters, you should choose between the mainland and Sicily. Food traditions are varied in different parts of the island. Sicily has all the coastline you could hope for, as well.
You can choose the eastern/southeastern, western/southwestern, or northern coasts. With six nights, or even seven, you should hAve no more than two bases.
Posted by
Chicago
1949 posts
If your chef husband is looking for some interesting & new ideas, venture no further than Sicily. Unlike the rest of the Italian mainland, Sicilian cuisine features Greek, Arab, German, French and Spanish influences, integrating their plentiful seafood, citrus and nuts in ways certainly not seen up country, and maybe not anywhere else. Our first meal in Taormina started with a blood orange salad with red onion, green olives & pine nuts, dressed with droplets of thick balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Delicious. Another night's entrée was sweet-and-sour tuna with almost a spaetzle-like pasta, no doubt influenced by the German occupation during World War II. They really like their yin-and-yang--sweet/salty, sweet/sour.
Of course, there is plenty of Italian-style fare as well. I just found the treatment fascinating on so many levels. And as Zoe alludes to upthread, cuisine in Trapani on the west coast is probably quite different from what I experienced in Taormina--in my travels I haven't gotten that far west. And the coastal scenery is spectacular. With 7 days, you could even get exotic--if Sicily wasn't exotic enough!--and do a daytrip to the tiny but historic island of Malta off the southern coast.