Focus on Palermo: Giardino Garibaldi and the Banyan Trees

Nestled amid Palermo’s chaotic traffic and beautiful Baroque/Norman/Arab inspired architecture lies Giardino Garibaldi, famous for it’s unique Banyan Trees.  While we were visiting Palermo, we took Ollie down to the Garden to stretch his legs.  It was a beautiful reprieve from Palermo and all of it’s chaos.  The garden is located at Piazza Marina, where [...]

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A Sicilian Adventure: Messina to Siracusa

In which the three travelers encounter their first taste of Sicily……….

The three travelers sprinted into Messina Centrale; they needed one-way tickets to Siracusa and they needed them in a hurry. They had fewer than five minutes to purchase the tickets, find the train, and board the train.
They heaved their heavy bags onto the train [...]

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From Boot to Toe: The Drive from Matera to Sicily

The last time I wrote, we were in the enchanting city of Matera in Basilicata, visiting the spectacular sassi. We were now on our way to Sicily to visit the mythical city of Siracusa and the bustling city of Palermo. But first, we had to get there!!!
Before leaving Matera, we headed back to [...]

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Orecciette with Garbanzos, Tomatoes, Arugula, and Feta

One of the stops on our Southern Getaway in Italy was Puglia, also known as Apulia. This region is the heel of Italy and has only recently become a tourist destination. It was beautiful! It is very Greek and very Italian at the same time (it was actually part of Greece at one point). On [...]

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Back in Sorrento: A Ferry Later and all the Wiser

I awoke early on Friday morning, around 5:30 am, before the alarm had a chance to go off. We were scheduled to arrive in Naples at 7 am, but what do you know, we were early. Sure enough, we were pulling into the port. We hastily got everything together, during a time like this it [...]

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Palermo: Are we really in Italy????

We woke up Thursday morning and had a busy day ahead of us. Considering that we only had one day to see everything we wanted to see we were going to be busy! The one thing that I was interested in seeing after doing my research but we had to eliminate was the catacombs. Maybe [...]

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Palermo, Sicily: Kebabs, a horrible hotel, and a really expensive glass of wine

Wednesday was a long hard day! One of those days that makes you wish you could snap your fingers and be back home. We awoke early in the morning eager to leave Siracusa behind and ready to try our luck in Palermo. I had read a decent amount about Palermo and we had opted to [...]

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Matera: The Magical City of the Sassi!

We were on our way to Basilicata, the region in the “instep” of the boot. We were sad to leave Puglia and Ostuni behind but we were excited to see Matera as well.
Basilicata is often described as Italy’s last true wilderness. As described in Lonely Planet, Basilicata “is a chaotic landscape of tremendous mountains, dark [...]

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Highlights of Ostuni

I love Ostuni! It is by far one of my favorite Italian cities. Before leaving, we walked around the city one last time to get some more pictures. This is one place I can’t wait to go back to!
As we were walking around out of nowhere came a pack of 6 or 7 stray dogs. [...]

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The Highlights of Puglia: Alberobello and some Trulli

On Friday morning we woke up early to a cloudy day with weather forecasts predicting rain!

I was disappointed since this was our only day to head to Alberobello and visit the trulli. The trulli are traditional stone structures with conical roofs that can be found in the Valle d’Itria in the Italian region of Puglia [...]

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