Celebrating 10 Years of our Sicilian House

Beach Life in Giardini Naxos

This year we are celebrating ten wonderful years since we bought our Sicilian home.

We first visited Sicily in 2005 after I saw an article in a UK fashion magazine about alternative Valentines Day weekends away which featured Taormina.

With my love of all things Italian and my husbands love of gangster movies it seemed like the perfect place for us to visit. After a lot of research I booked our flights to Catania and the charming Hotel Villa Sirina which is nestled between Taormina and Giardini Naxos. As soon as we first glimpsed the peak of a smoking Mount Etna through the airplane window and our feet touched the tarmac at the airport we had already fallen in love with the island.

Our host and hotel manager Salvatore had arranged for a car to pick us up and on arrival at Villa Sirina he immediately made us feel welcome. Once we had settled in he telephoned his friend to come and drive us up the mountain in his vintage Fiat 105 to see Taormina. It was absolutely stunningly beautiful and took our breath away with its beauty. The following morning after an evening of fine Sicilian wine we over slept and missed breakfast, however, as we attempted to leave the hotel Salvatore ran after us to tell us off in a fatherly manner that we had not had our breakfast and he escorted us to a table that he had laid especially just for the two of us on the terrace. Thereafter his friend came to take us back up to Taormina to explore some more, such is the hospitality of the Sicilian people. We stayed at Villa Sirina on three more occasions before buying our Sicilian home. We remain friends with Salvatore and I think he had an enormous impact helping us fall in love with Sicily even more than we already had. It was our first and not our last experience of being adopted by a Sicilian family.

On one of our trips we were celebrating our wedding anniversary and after a fabulous (as always) meal we decided to follow in the footsteps of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and go for after dinner drinks at one of Taormina's most famous bars in Piazza Aprile IX.

The impeccably dressed waiter came over to us to take our order and in the best Italian I could muster at the time I ordered our drinks and a strawberry ice cream. The waiter gave me an odd look and then went off with his silver tray and returned with our drinks. As he placed my glass of wine in front of me he whispered "Your Italian is S***!!!" I was totally flabbergasted. To this day he still cannot believe he actually said this to me as he had never behaved in such a manner to any other customer like this before. My husband burst into hysterical laughter and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. After that day Gianfranco became known as 'Our Sicilian Big Brother' and if it was not for him we would not have our beautiful Sicilian house. It was destiny that called that evening.

My husband and I had been thinking about buying a holiday home and I had always dreamt of having a Mediterranean kitchen. So we thought to ourselves "Why Not Sicily?".

Therefore on one of our trips in 2007 we mentioned this to our Sicilian big brother thinking maybe a few years down the line we would do this. He said "Leave it with me". Two weeks later he called to say that he had found us a beautiful house and one month later we found ourselves flying back out to Catania to view our future Sicilian home in the seaside town of Giardini Naxos.

Our Street

We fell in love with the house at first sight. It needed a bit of updating ie, a new kitchen and bathroom and a lick of paint all round but we knew straight away it was the one. It was a five minute walk to the beach and seafront, it had a balcony that spread all around from front to back meaning that every room had its own exit. The roof terrace was huge with sea and mountain views and such a spectacular vista of Mount Etna, so much so that if she erupted we would probably be able to make toast. I could envisage having soirees up there with our new Sicilian friends and guests. The next day we headed off to the medieval town of Randazzo with our Sicilian big brother and our neighbour who had built the house to negotiate the sale with the owner.

The following month we found ourselves back in Randazzo in a solicitors office signing the papers to receive the keys to our new Sicilian home. This was actually like a civil wedding ceremony, "Do you accept to buy this house from Mr *****?" reply "Yes we do" ... "and do you Mr ***** agree to sell this house to Mr & Mrs *******?" "Yes I do" with our big brother acting as a translator in between.

We spent the next year flying to and from Sicily experiencing many adventures choosing a new bathroom, kitchen, furniture and paint etc etc, I chose Mount Etna as a theme for our living room with shades of orange and red. For our bedroom I chose inspiration from the Norman rule of Sicily complete with two little Sicilian puppets keeping guard above our bed, even though my husband had visions of the them coming alive at night wielding their little swords. For our guest room it had to be a Godfather themed room complete with a vintage poster from the movie hung above the bed and my own black and white photos taken in the locations where the movie was filmed close by. Finally I had the Mediterranean kitchen I had always dreamed of with traditional hand painted Sicilian majolica tiles in hues of Sicilian blues and yellows. It is such a joy to cook with a view of the Ionian Sea.

And so we started to learn to live life the Sicilian way dividing our time between London and Sicily.

We probably spend most of our time on our roof terrace, it is like having an outside living room. My favourite time of the day is watching the sunset behind Mount Etna with a crisp cold glass of Sicilian white wine with some chill out anthems playing on our stereo. Mind you I could literally sit and watch Etna all day it is like having a living painting in front of you.

Over the space of ten years I have accumulated a extensive collection of books about Sicily, including cookery books, fiction and non fiction, creating my own Sicilian library, in fact one friend staying at our house messaged me to say he could not believe that so many books had been written about Sicily. He also asked why I had cat food in my kitchen cupboard, but more about that another time.

In December 2013 Mount Etna erupted in impressive style whilst we were back in London for Winter. We watched on social media as small lava rocks that had been liquid molten hardened and it fell like rain on the north eastern towns and coastline of Sicily. In Giardini Naxos the locals walked around town with umbrellas up whilst our town and beach turned black. I was told that our roof terrace now resembled an ash tray. Luckily I was flying out the following week. On arriving home our Sicilian big brother had swept the terrace creating piles of lava resembling mini Mount Etna's and together with him, our Sicilian nephew and my best friend we filled fifty four black bin bags.

Roof Terrace with a View

Over the past ten years through our Sicilian big brother we have made so many wonderful friends, he is responsible for introducing me to my dear friend Valentina with whom I have had many hilarious adventures in her car (Don't ask).

His family are our family and through him we gained two Sicilian nieces, a Sicilian nephew, a nonno and a nonna (grandparents).

He introduced us to the most amazing English lady called Norma who lives just down the road from us who then introduced us to the lovely group of ex-pat ladies who live in Giardini Naxos and Taormina, most of whom married Sicilians and loved Sicily so much they decided to stay. Our little group all look after each other and enjoy weekly coffee mornings and nights out and we swap English newspapers, magazines and books. When I am home alone I am actually never alone as I am always surrounded by amazing friends, Sicilian families and protective neighbours.

Due to all these amazing people we never have a lack of oranges, lemons or home made wine in our house.

We spent the first few years going on many trips discovering, exploring, and learning everything we needed to know about the island. We even unintentionally ended up having an impromptu renewal of our wedding vows in the Cathedral of Taormina.

Then in 2011 along came our dog Daisy.

Daisy was eight weeks old when she was found alone in a flat in Camden Town in London. Social Services found her and gave her to a local dog charity 'All Dogs Matter' who then found a foster home for her in Primrose Hill where I was working at the time. I saw her with her new foster mum the day she was rescued and immediately knew that if my husband saw her he would fall in love and would want to adopt her. He did !!!!!!!! I showed him her adoption profile on the All Dogs Matter website, thereafter a date was arranged to meet her and it was love at first sight for both man and dog. We vowed that we would never leave her alone and therefore we now partake in what is known as 'The Puppy Road Trip' twice a year driving from London to Sicily whilst I fly in and out alone or with friends in between.

The 'Puppy Road Trip' consists of driving to Folkestone and the Eurotunnel to catch Le Shuttle to Calais. We spend one night in a dog friendly hotel in the beautiful town of Dijon in Burgundy then drive the next day through the Alps and the Mont Blanc tunnel to Genoa in northern Italy to take a 20 hour ferry to Palermo. On the GNV ferry we book a dog friendly cabin and on the top deck there is an area for doggy exercise, toilet business and for making new four legged friends who are also heading for Sicily. Time actually does go quickly and it is like being on a cruise ship with lots of amenities. One of the best feelings in the world is when you see the headland of Palermo in the distance and you know that you are nearly home.

Daisy loves her Sicilian home and Sicilian life and has explored off road Mount Etna in a defender jeep and on foot with a geologist, she enjoys wine tasting trips, has helped with olive picking, visited the workshop of a maestro Sicilian puppet maker, been on the set on the TV series Inspector Montalbano and is quite the celebrity in Giardini Naxos and Taormina, in fact we have made a ton more friends through Daisy. The five minute walk down to the seafront now turns into an hour as everyone stops us to say hello to Daisy and when I am home alone the first question asked is always "Where is your dog?"

Chill Out Time for Daisy

We have also met a lot of English speaking tourists in restaurants as they always want to know "What is an English dog doing in Sicily?" On one occasion some American tourists who were part of an escorted excursion on Etna seemed more amazed to see an English dog up there than seeing the volcano itself. She is a great networker our Daisy.

In Summer 2013 a friend came out to stay with us, it was his first trip to Sicily and he did not know what to expect. Of course he fell in love with everything and to this day to anyone he meets he says "Have you ever been to Sicily? You should its wonderful!". He suggested to me that with my extensive knowledge of the island, my local contacts and my work experience in the events industry that I should do something to promote Sicily as a destination to English speaking tourists maybe something like a Blog, one a bit different than the usual day to day life blogs in Sicily or ones written by travel agents with top tens on repeat.

Therefore the concept of White Almond Sicily was born.

I chose the name due to the abundance of almond trees on the island and I started with blogging about places we had visited, travel tips and trip advice, food and culture and living life the 'Sicilian Way' using my own personal experiences writing in a fun and visual way using my own photos.

Through my Blog I have received many lovely messages and emails from followers and other Sicily enthusiasts from all over the world and it is a complete pleasure to be able to help them with their trips to Sicily and hear about their love for the island. I also receive fascinating emails from first and second generation Sicilians telling me about their families and genealogy.

I have made some amazing Sicilian friends through my Blog who work in the tourism industry that I consider friends for life (as is always the Sicilian way), they dedicate their lives to tourism on the island creating fabulous experiences and it is always a pleasure to recommend their fantastic services. From Etna guides to boat trips, horse riding, cooking classes, wedding planners and owners of beautiful hotels, venues and accommodations plus much much more. I am a strong believer of keeping it local.

One can never have enough Oranges

We have been invited on many exciting adventures and experiences and visited some beautiful places through my blog and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all (you know who you are !!!) I am now blessed with an extensive database of some of the best local contacts in Sicily to share with my followers and it is still growing.

And it is just not in Sicily ... In London too. We have our own 'Little Sicily' community where I have made lovely Sicilian friends that live in London. Earlier this year whilst having afternoon tea at the Dorchester Hotel I was so happy when one of the barmen told me that he grew up in Giardini Naxos in a house just five minutes down the road from ours and it turned out we had many mutual friends. Last November at The World Travel Market in London in the Regione Siciliana area I was astounded when I saw a lot of familiar faces from Taormina and it was also nice to meet some new ones there as well.

It is impossible to put into one post all of the adventures and experiences we have enjoyed over the past ten years hence why I started to write and share in my Blog. Therefore I invite you to browse my extensive archive.

We often get asked if we ever regret buying our Sicilian home and we always reply "Not in a million years". We are blessed to have a house in the sun on one of the most beautiful and cultured islands in the world surrounded by a lot of love and a volcano who keeps a watchful eye on us.

And so as we are getting ready for our next 'Puppy Road Trip' keep posted and follow us on our journey to Sicily where new adventures and experiences await and where we will raise a glass of Sicilian red to many more fun years in Sicily with good friends, good times and of course great food.

Next Blog post ... "14 Things I have learned Living the Sicilian Way"

This Post is dedicated to our Sicilian Big Brother
We love you lots xxx

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