Sambuca di Sicilia
The view from the Terrace. Monte Adranone is just left of center. Site of Pre-Greek settlement and Greek fortress captured and destroyed during First Punic War.
The weather was sunny and warm on Tuesday so we headed to Sambuca di Sicilia to see the town. We've driven past is many times on our way to and from Bologneta and Corleone. At the far end of the Corso Umberto, the main street is the Belvedere Terrace overlooking the valley, with Monte Adranone in the distance. We decided to go to the archaeological park to see the excavated city. You end up driving up a paved track no wider than the car by the time you reach the site. WARNING: Get tickets in Sambuca at the municipal building. We didn't and had to come back on Wednesday.
Here are some photos of the site that we took. It was sunny but very windy. I had to put up the hood on my sweater to keep my hat on. If I hadn't it would have blown off the mountain.
On our way into Sambuca on Tuesday we saw a sign pointing to Planeta vineyard. Naturally we had to take it since it's one of our favorite vintners here in Sicily. After about 15 -20 minutes of driving down rough, narrow roads we ended up by the shore of Lago Arancio at an old palmetto winery. They no longer press using the old methods but the enoteca is open almost every day. We had to stop and do a small tasting. The manager, Genevere (?), I hope she reads this and provides me w/ the correct spelling, was a most gracious hostess. She sat with us for almost an hour as we compared our experiences with Washington wineries in the Yakima and Columbia valleys. She was astonished at the prices their wines carry in the States. Our friend Mario charges $75 a bottle for the Santa Cecilia and it costs $100 in Vegas. It's only 20 euros at the winery.
The winery in Sambuca is the only one they have with a tasting room. They now have a winery at Etna to go with the ones in Menfi, Noto and Vittoria. If you're in the area you need to take the time to stop by. They serve excellent olive oil, their own production, and bread when you do a tasting. Hell-a-deal. When Rachel comes at Christmas we plan on taking time to go there.
We also stopped by Fuedo Arancio, which is right off the highway on the way back to Sciacca. You are supposed to call to set up a tasting but they were more than gracious and provided Cathy and I with a couple wine samples when we just pulled in. We picked up a couple bottles, very inexpensive at the winery. We may try and schedule one later during our stay here in Sicily. He was surprised that we had already known about them and look for their wines in the States. Our friend that we're staying with, Toto Maniscalco, told us that he knew the sommeliers at Fuedo Arancio and we should have mentioned his name. Next time.
The one thing we learned was that they have a second label, Stemmari, that they use because too many people could not pronounce Fuedo Arancio. If you see this label on a wine, buy it. It's the same wine as the Fuedo label so don't pass it by if you get the chance.
Tomorrow the weather is supposed to turn back to rain and thunderstorms. The tickets we bought for the archeological park are good for the museum in Sciacca so we think we'll head into town and use them. Tomorrow's Thanksgiving and we've invited Pascale and Toto to our "place" for dinner. We'll hit his favorite, recommended fish monger at the Porto Palermo for some spada and calamari, get some charcoal and fire up the fireplace/grill on our terrazzo, do some fried patate and onions. salad, etc. He's offered to make cannoli for dessert. We have some really good vino and I'm sure we'll do fine. Do not expect a blog from tomorrow. It'll be Friday at the earliest.
On Sunday we head north to Bolognetta to see Katherine and Toto, Toto is the nickname for Salvatore. (all men in Sicily are named Salvatore according to a driver we had in Palermo one time). They have a B&B, Home from Home, and are great people. We'll spend the night before heading to Marzi, Calabria to see Franco Tucci and his family who own and run La Cisterna. They are like our second family in Italy. His brother, Alphonso, lives in Seattle and runs Italy Imports with his son and daughter. Their sister, Fausta and her husband are visiting Seattle now. They have 2 sons working and living there, Mauritzio and Fabio. I found out a couple days ago that Franco's son Nunzio and his family have moved to Seattle also. Nunzio and his sister Maria were born in Seattle while Franco was there from 1955 -1966, working and learning to be a pulmonary tech. He moved back to Italy and took over the family farm, turning it into an agriturismo. It's the only place in town that you can rent a room and get a real dinner. It's been almost 6 years since we've seen him. Unfortunately Franca, his wife died about 5 years ago from cancer. He's headed to the States in early December so we need to get there while he's still at home. It'll be great to see how all his grandchildren have grown. We'll be on the road and in Calabria for about a week.
My tribulations with Garmin over my Drivesmart 50's inability to download my European city maps continues. Multiple attempts at downloading the maps have met with abject failure. I'm not an IT specialist but my years of managing computing systems, programmers and software engineers for the "Big B airplane systems" has me totally pissed with the problems I've had. My last email was a real burner. I've questioned their processes and download methods. Their product support folks in Kansas City have finally proposed to have their European counterparts send me a card with the maps. This was the way they used to supply additional maps and I've recommended that they return to it. I hope to have a working GPS available to use on the backroads of Sicily when I get back from Marzi. I'll keep you informed of their success or failure.
Ciao for now.