We have made it to the airport, we are leaving the Puglia region today, but we are not leaving Italy
We are actually heading to Sicily.
Sicily, here we come!
I was gonna get some cool shots of us flying into Sicily, but that's our view, so nevermind.
We have made it to Sicily we have our trusty vehicle we are headed out to explore but not today
'coz it's really gross out.
It might be pouring down rain and there's lightning in most directions, but the scenery is still really beautiful
Good morning adventurers.
Good morning.
So as you saw in our little intro we made it to Sicily
This is actually the last leg of our Italian road trip
We actually came all the way out to the eastern side to the coast as you can see. That's Mount Etna right back there
We came to this town called... I think it's pronounced "tormina", but it's a coastal town that's on the base of Mount Etna
So all around the city you can just look out and see the mountain, and all its glory over there
But it is covered by a little bit of cloud cover today
But it was quite a trek to get up to this town because it's not at sea level it is way above sea level kind
Of carved into the mountainside we came to this little garden area that's just on the outskirts of the town
Come here if you want some spectacular views with barely any people. The gardens are amazing
They're really well-kept and super beautiful to stroll through
It's absolutely free to enter so they have a lot of different parks and viewpoints here and all sorts of things with great views some of
Them you have to pay for though, but this is a great free first step
so I think we're gonna stroll around the park a little bit and then explore the town and
Eat some food. We have yet to have a breakfast
Just stumbled onto the shop where he's making these amazing
Tabletops and he let us come in and just learn a little bit about how it works. Look how intricate some of these are
It's got all these cityscapes and the mountain in the background with the steam coming up. It's very cool.
I wish we had a place where we live
It's times like these when - I mean it'd be sick to just have a piece that he worked on by hand
Yeah, I took a car just in case one day. Yes
we have a very special dessert that we will be getting but first we needed lunch and Eric spotted this adorable little
Cheese and meat shop that has all these little takeaway items
We ended up coming back to that park where we started the video
We found a nice little spot to chill and eat our little lunch that we found
Got an epic view of the coastline over there. You can see some of the mountain off in the distance
we thought the cloud cover was gonna dissipate but it hasn't but it's still a beautiful view
Alot of little shops like that
We've seen just have a bunch of little individual food items that you can kind of mix and match and create your own perfect plate
We got some cauliflower, some aubergine pepper, there are some zucchinis under there
And I am probably gonna try this little guy. It's a spinach little ricotta fritter, I guess, deep-fried.
Mm-hmm.
There's so much cheese in there. Mm-hmm
That is delightful. It's a little fried ball goodness
There's some spinach, cheese. It's a little salty
It's not too crispy anymore because it's been sitting for a second, but it's still absolutely delicious
This dish that I got is pasta Al Forno and I believe that just when it's baked pasta tomato some meat in there
There's a little bit of greens in there and it looks just nice and hearty and cheesy and delicious. Is that egg?
It looks like a hard-boiled egg yolk. All right, cool. I'll take it
That's delicious, it's cheesy, it's meaty, it's savory
Tomatoey. It's an absolute delight. Well, I can say everything that we got is absolutely delicious. It's so flavorful
Everything is flavorful even all the veggies I got
Every single one is so different and unique tasting but so yummy
But we are going to finish the rest of this and then we have a date with dessert y'all. So that's where we're headed next
We have gotten our dessert this little cutie right here is a granita
It is just sugar ice and then whatever flavoring you want on top. We mixed and mashed ours I got almond
raspberry and then they put cream on there and
It's from Sicily but it's I think it's a little bit like Italian ice or
Sorbet is what is gonna be the texture. They serve it with this little brioche bun. Oh graci
And we got coffee. Of course. And look they give us the cutest little face on it
but so apparently you get this bun and then you either dip it into your
granita
or you I guess would rip off a piece of this and put it on top and I
Think it's hotly debated how you're supposed to do it. Try to get a little bit of everything
I'll try it without the brioche first because like I just want to get the taste of it
There is so much flavor in that oh my god
Raspberries
Really thick almost like raspberry puree pretty much
It tastes like frozen raspberry jam and all the fruit here is fresh. It's all fresh
So it's only what's in season is what they sell so everything is super delicious and legit
Also, this is just some freshly whipped cream on top for some reason
I thought they were meaning like they were gonna put milk in there or something. Nope
It's just this amazing delicious light layer of cream
I went with the kiwi and the strawberry and she put the little bit of cream on top there
You can see how fluffy and just a little bit thick the cream is there's a little bit of mass to it
I'm gonna dig all the way down and get a bit everything. I might be - yeah, is it really cold?
It's pretty...it's cold but it's not -
Whoa, that's so good
Jeez, that's decadent. Holy cow. I mean like you said the fruit is super fresh and that cream is amazing on there
It's really thick too. Holy cow. I tasted Allison's. I thought mine was good. You win. Okay, that is amazing
I was about to say this is one of the most magical frozen desserts I have ever had in my life.
The raspberry the almond and the cream go together so well, it's so milky and so delicious
Get this one right there. If you come here, you will not be disappointed
Now, for our little brioche guy
It looks like a nose. I just see a nose. I'm just gonna rip his nose off
Yeah, it's kind of a weird combination yeah, okay
Good it's a really good brioche. I think I'd like it better with the coffee
it's great cause it's kinda like a buttery dinner roll consistency and then
[inaudible]
Or, or, this way I guess. Let us know in the comments below. Would you prefer dipping or
covering
But that is enough with desserts and stuff in our faces. We have some ruins to go see
Oops, I realize we forgot to say the name of this place
It's called Bam Bar. I feel like we often forget to say the names of the places you come to but we try to always link them
in the description below so if we don't say it look down there. Okay, now to ruins
As you travel around Taormina
You're gonna see a lot of giant heads just like this of all different shapes colors and sizes. Some are plain like this
Some are more ornate
We were really curious why that was so we looked it up many people believe it goes back to this story of this woman
Who fell in love with this man?
It turns out to the man back home had a family that he didn't tell her about
So she murders him in his sleep cuts off his head puts his head out on her balcony and puts flowers in it
turns it into a vase all the people passing by were so jealous of how well the plant was doing I think was basil or
Something like that
They were so jealous that people started to make their own heads out of ceramic and then put them on their balconies
It's really just a beautiful love story at the end of the day. Yeah
so now you know
We've made it to the theater this thing is in quite a state of ruin it's so overgrown and
Destroyed but there's still a surprising amount of it left
They have all these seats that they put here so you can kind of get more of a sense of what it was like
And it's really not that crowded.
No, it's the afternoon on a Thursday
There are a couple groups here, but we're in November so I imagine during the summer months it'd be a lot more crowded
I'm really sad though. You're supposed to get epic views of Mount Etna, but I think it's too cloudy
I mean, these are still epic views of amazing ruins, so I can't be too upset
You all we have just been sitting here for the past few minutes just taking in the views and it is just blowing me away
I mean look at this, it's spectacular.
We're just imagining back in the day
You would be sitting here at this Roman pristine amphitheater Mount Etna off over here castle on the hill up here
People fighting to the death in the pit down there
I think they actually did proper fights like gladiator style fights at one point in time here
Fun fact: This is still a functioning theater
Which yeah
we didn't really realize that but that's why they have all this wooden seating built up and they have some lighting fixtures and stuff like
That so they actually have performances here
I think I actually like this better than the colosseum
I think I do too that I mean the views are insane. Yes. You get to see so much more
Okay, this is officially one of the coolest views ever
we've got the
Volcano front and center in front of us and you can see I think it's actual steam coming out that just clouds some of it
I don't know. It is fantastic when we left the theater
It was completely clouded over you couldn't even see it. Now look at it, it's crystal clear.
Oh yeah, that is very neat.
Well, we weren't really gonna go up on Mount Etna mainly because the temperatures dropped dramatically we were hoping it wasn't gonna be that cold
We don't have any winter gear because it's too bulky to travel with
There was a huge storm the day we arrived to Sicily and it dumped a bunch of snow up to the top
It's been super windy. The weather's been awful
but
We keep driving passing it so pretty so we're gonna take our chances and see how far up we can make it
As we have mentioned Etna is a very active volcano
It has had quite a few eruptions of the last hundred years. And as you drive up the mountain, you'll see so much
Lava, you're basically just driving through a gigantic lava field
It's wild it goes kind of from forest land the neighborhoods all of a sudden just black fields of lava like this with their these
Amazing colorful trees in there at least now because it's fall. Yeah
It's so weird because you get these pops of color in the middle of all this blackness
Yes
One of the craziest things is that as you drive around you can see a bunch of houses that have been trapped in the lava
And then abandoned one of them was right on the side of the road and it was completely buried it
Looks like it's been there for who knows how long but man. It's just completely swallowed by the lava
We've put on as much clothes as we could because it got really cold really windy you guys
It was 17 °C at the bottom and now it's
Windy, shield the mic
And now it's 8 °C and I think just insane winds
We saw a really beautiful lava field over here. We're gonna go try to check it out
[strong wind overpowering Eric's voice]
Okay.
I don't wanna be up here!
Y'all. That went - we had crazy wind at The Cliffs of Moher
Which - that was where you couldn't even move.
[Eric]: We're probably getting blown over now.
Holy cow!
Everyone's ducking behind the barricade.
And if you open your mouth it takes your breath away just fills you with air
It kind of scared me because I felt like it was gonna throw me off the rocks
Alright, so we're just chatting and we were thinking maybe we don't go up to the top?
If it's this windy down here
My hands are already numb.
This is - I'm glad we came it's beautiful a you can see but
Holy cow! It's crazy!
We found this cute little guy who's just been roaming around here almost keep getting hit by cars don't know who he blongs to
Look how regal he is.
He's retty chill and he's got a collar. He's gotta belong to somebody. There's no name on it though.
You're not cold at all, are you?
He's a little sweetie though
You guys check this out on this postcard. I don't know if this is real or I mean a long exposure
So they're catching a lot of stuff
but I mean
Can you imagine if this mountain looked like that or?
if this all happened, even if it was over a long period of time, holy cow. This thing's a monster
Conveniently, there was a little cafe right next to that lava field
So we popped in for some very warm cappuccinos and a very warm croissant. Yeah, they didn't have a plain one
Yes, we got cream filled. So we are having a very Italian breakfast on top of a freaking volcano
I mean, how does life get better? I don't know
Okay, but sadly, we are not gonna get to go up to the top because it is just too extreme out here
But it was so cold. It's so cold
If you guys have been here
Let us know what month you came and what you thought about it and your like favorite
Route if you hike it if you take a tour whatever cuz there's so many options you can do.
All right, goodbye adventurers.
We'll see you on the road