Sicily is a wonderful place to visit but if you have the cance to go there in winter you will appreciate it even more.
Less people around, hotels with plenty of room, restaurants that cater only for the locals and – best of all – the sun shining and warm. You can eat al fresco at lunch!
I usually chose the long weekend around 8 December, to avoid the Christmas crowd.
This year I was in Taormina and visited two restaurants I have been knowing for years and want to share with you.
The first is Trattoria Da Saro in Capomulini, the wonderful coat below Acireale.
Da Saro is a very simple trattoria who has al fresco tables on a platform on the sea.
Here you can have the simplest and freshest fish youever had, starting from incredible seafood such as clams and urcins, to octopus and mullets which is exactly what I had, washed doewn with white wine from the Etna wineries. But they offer also wonderful pasta with fish or grilled fix to die for.
The second Restaurant is Trattoria Da Nino and is in the center of Taormin, just of the funicular.
The owners are the most welcoming people you can meet and the fish the restaurant offers is soo good you’ll go back every evening.
One for all: the marinated anchovies and the “neonata” fritters (very small baby anchivies) to die for.
Not to mention the grilled sea bream with raw olive oil on it!
My last tip is around a pastry shop called Pasticceria Russo in Santa Venerina on the Etna vulcano.
It is a very old establishement still managed now by three members of the family, two sisters and one brother. The brother is the “cash manager”, and teh admin, one sister is in charge of selling and the third is behind the scenes and paints personally one by one the small artworks made with almond paste and called frutta martorana. They sell lots of kind of traditional pastries and cakes from the Sicilian gastronomy including small “cassata” and old recipes for biscuits they keep mantaining alive. What a better refreshment stop after vulcan trekking?
These are only three tips but Sicily is so rich you will want to go back again.
See you there!
Trattoria Don Saro – Lungomare Mario Martinez 29 – Capomulini, 95024 Acireale Tel. 
+39 09 5877249
Ristorante Trattoria da Nino – Via L.Pirandello, 37 – Taormina (ME) – Tel. 0942.21265 – http://www.trattoriadaninotaormina.com
Pasticceria Russo
Via Vittorio Emanuele, 105 – S. Venerina (CT)
Tel/Fax +39 095 953202 – informazioni@dolcirusso.it – www.dolcirusso.it