Sicilia

 Well. We survived Sicily with one car, five different stays and a dozen different towns and beaches (and maybe three car accidents, none of which were our fault). 

The island and people are best summed up in the following quote:

Sicilians build things like they will live forever and eat like they will die tomorrow.

-Plato, Philosopher

The people are always nice, the places are always beautiful and it really is other worldly. 

We visited numerous towns. One more ancient and beautiful and unique then the next. We climbed hundreds of stairs through the town of CXXX which hangs on a cliff. We strolled through the hilltop town of Erice (Er-a-chay) with streets maybe six feet wide and we visited the Ancient Greek temples of Agrigento which (in my opinion) are more impressive then the ones Greece actually has. 

Beaches each held their own special qualities. Some with white step like mountains falling in to the sea (Turkish Steps), others with gorgeous bays with water ten shades of blue. Sisto braved a paddle boat and dove off and the boat and a few cliffs. Rafa took a brave step towards swimming and started floating on his own!

We tried granite (Sicilian slushie), cassata di Sicilia (heavenly liquor soaked cake coated in almond glaze), arancini (it means small oranges because that's what they look like but hidden inside this fried ball of goodness is buttery delicious rice with either ragù or prosciutto and mozzarella inside).

I'm glad we went. We had an amazing time. I would love to see it again some day but for those who haven't been the common phrase Rick Steve's warns travelers about Italy does ring true. Italy gets a little more wild and crazy the further south you go: from Milan, Florence, to the lakes, to Rome to Naples. AND then there's Sicily.  :)