Published on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 by Kathy McCabe Seven sites in Sicily are among the 37 most-visited locations in Italy in 2019, according to a recently released report by Sicily’s cultural department. The seven sites are: Siracusa; the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento; the Ancient Theater in Taormina; Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina; the Benedectine cloister in the abbey in Monreale; and the Greek ruins in ...

Published on Tuesday, September 10, 2019 by Kathy McCabe As a young, female Italian chef, Martina Caruso has racked up accolades – including a Michelin star – that have given her a platform to talk about being a woman in the restaurant industry. Caruso has the passion and experience to back up these accolades, and the tattoos to match: an octopus, garlic, oil, and hot pepper, her favorite ingredients to cook with. Ca...

Published on Thursday, September 5, 2019 by Kathy McCabe Fashion house founders Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s luxury Italian villa is for sale. While the price is undisclosed, it is reported to cost €6 million. If you can’t spare the change, you can live vicariously through the real estate listing’s gorgeous photos. The oceanfront villa is located on the tiny volcanic island of Stromboli, one of the sev...

Published on Thursday, April 11, 2019 by Kathy McCabe If you’ve ever fantasized about owning your own private Italian island, and if you have extra pocket money to spend, this may be the opportunity for you. Isola delle Femmine, a small island off Sicily’s northern coast near Palermo, could be yours for as little as €1 million. An aristocratic family, which has owned the island since the 1600s, is selling it becaus...

Published on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 by Kathy McCabe The oldest known evidence of a wine production center, now confirmed to be 6,000 years old, has been found in a cave in Sicily by a group of researchers from the University of South Florida. The cave contained large terracotta jugs thought to be used as wine vessels. It proves that wine making existed in Italy three millennia before 1200 BC, which was previously belie...

Published on Saturday, July 2, 2016 by Kathy McCabe For 2,000 years, Italians have dreamed of connecting Sicily to the mainland, but various proposals to cross the 3.3-kilometer Strait of Messina through the centuries have never gotten off the ground. Now, Italians are hopeful that the newest idea, a cable car system from the Reggio Calabria airport on the mainland to the Sicilian city of Messina, will become reality. ...

Published on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 by Kathy McCabe In the most recent Trivago user survey, the top three of 20 historic towns in Italy are Otranto in Puglia, Sperlonga in Lazio and Cefalù in Sicily.  The users rated these towns not just on their beauty and surroundings, but also on how accommodations compare with other towns in their regions. In Otranto in the southernmost Salento area, an overnight stay in April co...

Published on Saturday, December 26, 2015 by Kathy McCabe Perhaps the last thing that comes to mind when thinking of Italy is the Aztecs – but, in one of Italy’s many peculiarities and well-kept secrets, the Sicilian town of Modica  is famous for Aztec chocolate. Passing on their discovery of an interesting new food called xocolatl from the New World, Spanish conquistadors introduced the chocolate to Sicily during the i...

Published on Friday, November 27, 2015 by Kathy McCabe The city of Trapani on the island of Sicily was named the best Italian destination in terms of both price and quality by travelers who took part in a Trivago.com online survey; Cagliari (on Sardinia) and Lecce (in Puglia) came in second and third. "The objective of the Best Value Index is to draw a map of the cities that offer tourists the best compromise between ...

Published on Friday, May 15, 2015 by Kathy McCabe The International Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) has once again given Italy the highest number of Blue Flag beaches, bringing Italy's total to 280. The Blue Flag designation means that a beach meets the organization’s high eco-standards for cleanliness and sustainability. FEE Italy President Claudio Mazza says that the constant increase, up from 248...