Sicily – Part 1

Yes!, we went to Sicily for a short Easter holiday with our son and daughter-in-law, to celebrate the upcoming 50 years birthday of Lene 🙂. The first days we stayed at the wine resort Barone di Villagrande on the eastern slopes of Mount Etna, the most active volcano of the world.

What a pick; the service from the very late evening arrival to departure was perfect, they even made us a night meal with a nice chilled white wine to let us feel welcome! We surely felt being part of the family, thank you! The next day we enjoyed a delicious wine tasting lunch with a visit in the wine cellar, and later a wine tasting dinner, too 🙂.

The view from our spacious rooms with balconies, facing the beautiful garden with an infinity pool!!!, over the wine fields to the Ionian sea was really stunning. From the other side of the building we had a good view to the snow-covered and smoke-spewing Etna. When the weather is less good, there is a cozy, shared living room with a fire place and tea/coffee facilities. The hard working friendly family and staff do a great job running this place and making fine organic wine expressing the terroir of the volcanic soil. (Not sure it this has changed, but the menu in the restaurant of the winery is fixed, so the normal selection from a menu card is not available). In the nearby village of Milo, we had dinner at these two restaurants; 4 Archi and Gli Amici di Milo. We can highly recommend both of them.

We also had a wine tasting lunch by Gambino Vini, also with wine fields on the steep eastern slopes of Etna. In this tasting, the emphasis was placed on showing what food makes for wine and what wine makes for food, an interesting approach. They will ship the wine to your country – if you live in the EU. By the way, we rented our lovely Fiat 500 🙂 from Sicily By Car in Catania, through Rentalcars.com in the UK, surprisingly hassle free.

www.villagrande.it/en/wine-resort-2/
www.vinigambino.it/en/home.html