“Sicilians build things like they will live forever and eat like they will die tomorrow.” – Plato

Overlooking the Ionian Sea, Catania, Sicily, sits at the foot of Mount Etna on the east coast of Sicily.

Catania has been settled by the Greeks as a fishing port and was later ruled by Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, and Normans. Mount Etna’s catastrophic eruption in 1669 swamped the city with lava. They rebuilt in the baroque style, using the lava rocks they had on hand, giving the city the nickname The Grey Lady.

What looks like wispy clouds to the right of the mountain is actually steam.

Since it is still an active volcano, you can always see smoke from the crater at the top of Mount Etna. Most volcanoes are “male”, but the locals refer to Mount Etna as “female”. She is like a strict mother who always wants sacrifices but still will repay at the right time with great generosity, like with fertile soil and good crops. Etna’s impetuousness and elegance make Catania and its surroundings unique.

I went to the Bonaiuto Family’s house for a tour of their gardens and a cooking demonstration of delicious food. The Bonaiuto family has owned the 17th-century Villa Trinità for two generations and they have created a vibrant farm and garden that continues to be a work in progress. When we arrived, the metal gates swung open and we walked into a veritable Eden, lush with plant life. We toured the gardens with Salvatore, who showed us the many art installations he had created among the native plants and flowers he had curated over the years.

the front garden of the villa

Watching over the fish

Stealing a drink of water

You could hear peacocks, doves, and songbirds as we walked along, and any sounds from the town outside the walls were muted so it felt like we were way in the countryside. There was a koi pond full of fish, and interesting art installations tucked away around every bend in the path. I got to play with two sweet Labradors who escorted us around the grounds but had to tell one of them to drop the dead bird she was bringing back as a prize. No one wants to see that.

Olive press stones

Irrigation channels

After our walk, we headed to the restaurant and kitchen, where Donna Maria demonstrated how to cook a traditional Sicilian meal. With our guide translating, we had a wonderful time watching and learning how to make Caponata (why have I been avoiding this my whole life??? Oh yeah, olives. But this one did not have olives - it was delicious), Carpaccio di Zucchine (marinated thinly sliced zucchini, bright with fresh lemon juice, mint, and salt), Pasta al Pistachio (short pasta with bacon, onion, chopped pistachio, and milk to make a sort of pesto/cream sauce), Pollo all’Uva (chicken with grapes, but we used apples instead – perfecto!), and for dessert a tart with bitter orange marmalade from the gardens.

The old family cookbook

Caponata - sweet and sour eggplant with peppers and onions

Making the pasta sauce

The chilly dining room

My tablemates at lunch were very nice and the conversation flowed along with the wine, but the dining room was so chilly because of the stone walls that I quickly finished and then went outside to sit in the sun for a while. After my allotted Vitamin D exposure, I wandered back down one of the trails and found two peacocks and two peahens rooting around in the grass and took way too many pictures of them.

The boys strutting their stuff

One of the peahens, quite unimpressed

I was viciously attacked by a giant agave plant, and now I have an almost perfectly round bruise on my arm about the size of a quarter. I’m considering a civil lawsuit. (Not really!) 

The assailant

On the way back we stopped at a roadside stand to buy chocolate easter eggs for our cabin stewards. The driver just stopped in the middle of the road and we piled out, grabbed what we could, threw money at them, and pile back on the bus as quick as we could.

It was a lovely day.