Twenty-seven wineries pouring. Not the best venue for a table-top tasting since the room was hot and crowded. But what a pleasure to taste a range of wines of 8. Enjoyed Dr. Loosen Villa Wolf Pinot Noir They work co-operatively. The wines are made by Roberto Boeri. The wines have a dry cherry flavour with a characteristic bitterness.
Well-priced and food-friendly. To the airport to catch the Alitalia flight to Rome. We meet up with Stephen Pauwels, whose company, Pauwels Travel, arranged the logistics of our wine trip to Sicily. On the flight the stewards run out of wine and we eat a bizarre meal β smoked fish salad, followed by halibut with potatoes and ravioli.
No salt and pepper on my tray. Thursday, May Arrive in Rome, and then have to connect to Palermo. We meet up with the rest of the group, who have spent time in Rome. At Palermo airport they put our luggage through a scanner on the way out although we are arriving here on a domestic flight. En route we pick up our guide, Francesca.
We take a short walking tour around the city to visit the north gate and the Palace. Lunch in Piazza Boligni a few metres from our hotel at Trattoria Primavera. Over a couple of bottles of Sallier de la Tour Inzolio they spell Inzolio here interchangeably with Insolio , I demolish a plate of the local vegetable dish β a mix of eggplant, celery, zucchini, olives and capers in a tomato sauce served warm they call it caponeta and we are destined to have it at every meal and a plate of spaghetti vongole, with two of our group and the guide Francesca.
I manage to spill olive oil on my pale blue T-shirt and Francesca gets some talcum powder from the waiter and sprinkles it liberally over the spot. It miraculously disappears in a few minutes. The manager of the restaurant appears with four glasses of a local liqueur made with cinnamon made by Fiasconnaro. After lunch the group walks to the Palazzo Normanni to see the lovely mosaics in the chapel and then to the Cathedral. Crossing the roads in Palermo, I have found, is an extreme sport, akin to the running of the bulls.
