The last we left our heroine, she was bumping along on a bus from Barcelona to Madrid…
DAY ONE- (REALLY FREAKIN EARLY ON) Wednesday
So my original plan was to get to the Avenida de América bus station in Madrid, where I had caught the bus to Barcelona. Then, I would work my way through an intricate series of night bus transfers to get to Barajas Airport. However, upon boarding my bus from Barcelona, I found out that the bus would make a stop at the airport, saving me a whole bunch of time and stress. Since this was not the original plan, I landed at the airport at 1:00 AM in anticipation for my 7:00 AM flight. So I did as the true seasoned traveler does and picked out a nice comfy bench for myself and slept in the airport. Except not really, because I think I only got about an hour and a half. But still. 5AM rolled around and I dragged myself upstairs to check-in and security and I was on my way once again! I had a slight layover in Rome before I landed in SICILY and was reunited once again with my favorite Italian chica, Miss Susanna Virgilio!
A few more buses later and we’d finally arrived at our bed and breakfast! It was so so cute and the lady who ran it, Anna, was very nice. The room was perfect and we had full access to the terrace, which had a spectacular view of the sea and the mountains that our little town was nestled in-between. Our B&B was about 2 km from the town of San Vito lo Capo, home to some of the most beautiful beaches in Italy. Lucky us! However, that night, we (mostly me) were pretty tired from traveling, so we just opted to stay nearby. We went to dinner at the restaurant right next door called Antico Borgo Ristorante. And here’s where my weekend of eating began. For my first authentic Italian meal, I had linguine with sea urchin and it was SO YUMMY. They’re really big on seafood there, which made me a pretty happy camper. But anyways, after we had dinner and a bottle of wine, it was to bed with us!
DAY TWO – Thursday
Thursday morning we woke up and went out onto the terrace (la-dee-dah!) for breakfast. Then, we set off on our journey to San Vito lo Capo on foot in the hopes of finding some bikes to rent there for the weekend. We walked along the seashore and oh-my-gosh it was wonderful. The water was the clearest I’d ever seen and where you couldn’t see straight down to the bottom, it was a beautiful crystal blue. Just perfect. We followed a not-so-clearly-marked path along the shore and up some steep hills. Along the way we ran into some COWS who were calming grazing right in the middle of the path. Crazy! And of course we had to hike up the side of a cliff (or so it seemed) and through fields of bugs and flies and cow poop (hence, flies). But we made it! We explored a little bit in the town and alas, we could not find bikes to rent. So this was our route into town pretty much every day. Huzzah!
The town itself was small and quiet, of course because like everywhere else we’d been, it wasn’t quite tourist season yet. But we did manage to find some gelato (uh, YUM) and we got to stick our feet in the sand. This was after the sun decided to disappear behind the clouds. Booooo!
We once again went to Antico Borgo for dinner. This time, I decided to try the cous cous, which Sicily is famous for. The cous cous was served with fresh grilled fish and it was fabulous, of course. Gosh the FOOD here…
DAY THREE – Friday
Alas, more clouds and gloom and even RAIN today. So what did we do? Well Susanna decided that she wanted to play with my hair. And makeup. And take pictures. I’ll let you creep on her Facebook for those pictures because they’re pretty interesting haha. Afterwards (me still very much beautified), we went for a run along the shore. Look at us being active and healthy and such! I definitely paid for it in the days to come because my buns were on FIRE. But anyhoo.
We managed to brave the elements and walked back to San Vito lo Capo for dinner. I had busiate pasta with pesto trapanese(kept it simple this evening) and enjoyed every bit of it. Lucky for us, Anna was able to pick us up and drive us back to the B&BB, saving us another hour’s walk.
DAY FOUR – Saturday
So today I ate probably more in a day than I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. We decided to make lunch the featured meal of the day, complete with both courses (Italian style!). Fresh bruschetta to start followed by asparagus and shrimp risotto and then grilled swordfish. Oh. My. Goodness. And then Susanna had me try arancini, which is basically a fried ball of rice with cheese in the middle. Also yummy. Actually, let’s be real. There wasn’t anything I tried on this trip that I didn’t like. Good. Glad we got that settled.
Since we ate SO SO MUCH, we decided dinner should be somewhat light. So on our way home, we picked up a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers and decided to munch on our terrace. Quite a lovely day despite the cloudy weather.
DAY FIVE – Sunday (Happy Easter!)
(really cute pics ganked from Susanna)
FINALLY! SOME SUN! Back to San Vito lo Capo we go but this time in hopes of catchin’ some rays on the beach! But not before we have some gelato, of course! Oh and some cannoli. And maybe crepes. And I tried stuffed mussels! Goodness…
The beach was so nice. Everyone was out and about, which was surprising for Easter Sunday, I thought. Guess we all had the same idea to go out and enjoy the sunshine while we could. We saw our friend Crazy Dog, who is this dog that wandered around the beach and liked staring at peoples’ shadows. We were told by some locals that he was crazy because he lived on the beach. Hence, Crazy Dog.
We still had some wine and cheese left over from the night before, so we decided to give a proper farewell to the Sicilian sun. We took the wine and cheese and some crackers to the rocks on the shore and watched the sunset and it was just perfect. So gorgeous! Couldn't have asked for a better end to our adventures in San Vito lo Capo.
We had our last Italian dinner at, of course, Antico Borgo! Except tonight was special. Tonight was the night that I was to try spaghetti al nero di seppia. Aka. Spaghetti in squid’s ink. Yes, folks. BLACK spaghetti. I’m brave, I know. It was actually really good! If you couldn’t see it, you’d think it was just pasta and garlic sauce. Very glad I tried it!
DAY SIX – Monday
Time to bid farewell to San Vito lo Capo! Up early to get a ride to the airport. Of course, our flight ends up getting delayed just a tad so we chill out in the airport, get a few pastries, etc. Our flight from Palermo to Milan went swimmingly. Yet another meal was had at the airport. Then it was time to say goodbye to my Big/personal translator. We really had such a great time and I can’t wait to see her in June!!!
So yes. Milan to Madrid and then back to mi apartamento. Was hard to shake that overwhelmed feeling one gets after returning home from a big trip. It was so much fun though and I am so glad I was able to experience everything that I did! A new exciting city in Spain, beautiful food and beaches in Sicily…everything :) I have a LOT to do in the coming weeks before I can finally return to the US of A. But wait! Next up…trip to IBIZA!
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