Today is our last day in Sicily. A week spent on this exotic, magical island has, as was the case with our two previous three and four day visits, not been long enough. It has been an interesting, fun packed visit, with experiences galore – culture, people, history, food. And plenty of relaxation. Choosing a place on the beach in a fairly remote corner of Sicily has been an excellent choice.

As we move on to Ponza tomorrow, we will miss Sicily.

Our final day is a day for relaxation and catching up. We will have to depart the following morning for the airport in Palermo at o’dark thirty, so our unambitious itinerary for the day calls for sitting on the terrace, catching some sun, maybe go for a swim, reading a book, writing a blog post and eating a couple of meals. Even that agenda may be too ambitious.

It is a funny sort of day, weatherwise (if that is truly a word). We wake to a light fog that shrouds not just the shore, but the area inland as far as the Greek monuments at Selinute just down the beach from our villa. The curtain of fog thickens throughout the morning, obscuring the beach and making our strategy of hanging out on the terrace a good choice. Then around noon, the fog begins to break. We break, too, for a light lunch of “leftovers” that includes a few filets of swordfish that Pete had grilled for the previous evening’s dinner, the steaks topped with a sauce made from pine nuts, raisins and olive oil, some chicken grilled a few days earlier, an unbelievable frittata whipped up from eggs a few of which had frozen in our fridge that we set on the wrong temperature (frozen eggs? You’d think this was a fertility clinic. Perhaps this is why Italians generally don’t refrigerate their eggs), a selection of cheeses and cured meats, some salads. It is all topped off with a few leftover pieces of cannoli, crunchy pastry shells filled with sweet ricotta cream that were bought fresh made from the local pastry shop the previous day.

And as we finish lunch the fog begins to thicken once again and our group goes back to reading and contemplating the insides of their eyelids from the vantage point our cool veranda.

Later in the afternoon the fog lifts completely and our final day is a glorious one, just like the six that preceded them. This little beach town of Tricina di Selinunte is raw and wild. There is not much here (if you don’t count the monumental Greek ruins of Selinunte) other than a few beach houses and a little hotel. The ground is scrubby and the beach is a natural, sandy beach with a gentle tide. Some of the houses are half built and the one across the street from ours, also on the beach, is an unfinished mass of cement slabs and columns, without walls on the upper floors so you can see right through it. But the family who (presumably) owns it inhabits its lower floor, also unfinished but at least enclosed on all sides other than the one facing the sea. They have set up chairs and tables in the enclosed area and an umbrella on what will eventually be the back porch. The family doesn’t seem to mind. They are, after all, enjoying their own beach vacation. Sicily seems like this – raw, unfinished but perfectly suitable for human habitation and enjoyment.

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Our final night we treat ourselves to a dinner at the villa cooked by Gabriella and her assistant. They arrive as most of us have mostly finished packing for the next morning’s early departure, bringing with them the prepped dinner ingredients for finishing at the house. It promises to be a great Sicilian sendoff and it lives up to the promise.

Gabriella starts the meal with a grilled zucchini and some castevetrano-style olives. Casareccio with basil pesto, tomato and almonds is our delicious primi. Grilled swordfish, fresh from the market is the main course. Its presence announced itself from the barbeque, just a few paces from our outdoor table, so when it arrived it was snapped down quickly. The meal is capped off with a walnut cake with a candied walnut center and bowls of mixed fresh fruit. Oh, and it was all washed down with Gabriella’s homemade green mandarin limoncello, a friend’s homemade mulberry liqueur and the obligatory grappa. We willingly oblige.

One final word about our Sicilian odyssey. It is hard to imagine us having as enjoyable, relaxing and productive time in the province of Trapani had we stayed somewhere other than villa Zeffiro and under someone else’s hospitality other than Gabriella Becchina. The villa is, in a word, ideal. Comfortable for three couples with good sized bedrooms, nice baths, an ample kitchen and a comfortable living room. But the real treasure are the patios that wrap around the entire house, providing cool, quiet, shaded areas with comfortable chairs for sitting out and reading, chatting or just watching the lovely, natural outdoors. And Gabriella is a perfect hostess, providing a wealth of written information and itineraries and always available to answer questions or make suggestions. Our third visit to Sicily, each one at least partially under the guidance of the Becchinas was a memorable one for that very reason.

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We will indeed miss Sicily. Over the course of a week we succeeded in scratching the surface of at least this corner of the island. It is a fascinating place to visit. The people are warm and friendly, if a little difficult to understand. At every turn there is a surprising monument or trace of another civilization that at one time or another occupied and ruled Sicily. It is indeed rugged and unpolished, yet its culture is deep and sophisticated and can stand up against anyone elses’. As we move on to another island, the island of Ponza, we will truly miss Sicily.

Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy