Randazzo, Sicily

Wednesday we went up the flanks of Mt. Etna to explore the wine region in this area. This is the northwest slopes of the mountain at 800-900m elevation.

It was a little surprising that this was vinyard country because it was clearly lava flows and almost desert like in appearance.

We later learned that it has a lot of limestone, much like northern California. The air was cool and the sun very bright. It has been a wine growing region since the time of the Greeks.

We chose one of the wineries listed on Google at being open at 10 am and found it on a small winding road.

The gate was open and we saw workers moving boxes of grapes. This makes sense as it is harvest season. We wandered around a bit but didn't see the proprietor although the door to the tasting room was open.

We looked around at the art and other information in the room. Finally we called a number on a brochure but it was the sister winery in Tuscany. They gave us a number to call.

When we did Maria Giovanna Pagano came rushing over. She was shocked that we were inside. She said "what if you had guns?" Apparently, we had wandered in the back gate. Shows me that things haven't changed that much since the historical mafiosa days.

Barbara assured her we didn't have guns or bombs but were only looking to taste some wines. Maria is the hospitality manager at the winery but the person who would give the tours and do the tasting was away at the moment.

There was a couple who were scheduled at 3pm if we would like to come back and join them. It would be quite interesting during harvest and the cost would only be 30 € per person. Wow!

In the mean time she suggested that we visit the nearby medieval town of Randazzo and go to the shop Il Buongustaio dell'Etna to try some of the local wines. This turned out to be an excellent suggestion.

Heading to Randazzo

Pomegranate that split open on the tree. This variety stays yellow in color.

One of their vineyards.

View of the Cathedral in Randazzo.

Mama and kittens in a small alley.

These must have been the aunts and uncles guarding the kittens.

Dad was in the monkey house. Maybe mixed up in the local mafiosa.

Street art next to someone's house.

Wine tasting at Il Buongustaio Dell'Etna. Four bottles of primo wine, a plate of cheese, bread with sun-dried tomatoes and smoked meats. All for 15€. He just left the bottles at the table so the tastes were quite generous. 😏

We tried some of the wine from Passopiscario, but it was not our favorite. Instead we loved a bottle of Cirneco at half the price. A bottle of that came home with us.

The Cirneco was recommended by the proprietor who looked like he could have been a movie star according to Barbara.

A big part of the enjoyment of our time in the shop was the local people who came in to have a glass of wine. They were all so stereotypically Italian, obviously good friends, who talked with hands and arm gestures highly animated to the point of being farcical at least compared to what we are used to now in Thailand.

We really had a good time. We miss the wine culture at home so we got a good shot of it here. We never made it back to the winery for the tasting.

Instead we headed back to the beach. We had a small delay as these goats were herded past us.

One guy and one dog were handling 75-100 goats by my estimation.

The water was even nicer than yesterday. Just a little cooler than the air and with no surf at all. We figured we better enjoy it since rain is forecast for today and thunderstorms for our last day on Friday.

I'm not saying it was the wine, but Barbara took a little tumble on the beach. Luckily there is a lifeguard there who cleaned her up and put on the antibiotic spray.

We finished the night by watching the Godfather movie. Barbara had never seen it. It was fun to see the places we'd been. In one scene Michael Corleone has to wait for a herd of goats about the same size as the one that blocked our path.