After an unplanned side trip to Switzerland, Chris and I landed in Sicily ready to eat our weight in pizza. During our practice honeymoon, I felt I had overloaded our itinerary (v. typical travel move for me), so for the real deal we landed on two weeks in Sicily split between two spots: Palermo and Taormina.

*While posting about Palermo, I’ve learned it’s having a cultural moment due to White Lotus. We haven’t watched it yet :(*

Neither of us had been to Sicily before. It’s the most conquered island in the world, and you can see the influence from the Roman, Greek, Arabic, and Norman eras in the food and architecture.

Our first stop was Palermo, where we stayed at Villa Igiea. It’s a newly renovated resort in an old villa along the Mediterranean. Super beautiful, very posh, lots of rich people, totally our typical vibe.

Loved the grounds, and the rooms were belissimo, but I felt like the resort was a little too uppity for our tastes. (Like, watermelon carpaccio appetizer for 30 dollars uppity). It was also in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, so it was a bit of a production to get access to the pizza we needed to eat our weight in.

We spent one day in the city, taking a tour of Teatro Massimo where they shot some of the Godfather franchise.

Gelato was eaten; Chris had a Sicilian specialty of gelato in a brioche!

Our favorite thing we did during our stay in Palermo: spending the day at a beach club. There’s not many sandy beaches in Italy (or in Europe really), so this club built a little perch on some rocks and a railing to help you dump yourself in the Mediterranean. There were umbrellas to shield albinos like myself, and a little pasta restaurant. Pretty heavenly!

We had one less day in Palermo than planned due to the Switzerland whoopsipoodle, but we were OK with it; next stop was a village on the east side called Taormina.

where: palermo, sicily
when: early august and my irish self was melting
how: villa igiea; they arranged the beach club

palermo

taormina

surprise: it’s switzerland