Arrividerci To My American Friends……I’m Heading to Sicily, the Italy of My Grandparents

What makes this trip so special??

I always love my trips with bpptours to my favorite city of Florence and the beautiful Tuscan region. This year I have added to that experience by making a very bold move for Alan and I and also heading first to Sicily, the land where three of my grandparents were born. You see I am three-quarters Sicilian and one quarter Calibrese(from Calabria) and have never been to Sicily.

This is my inaugural visit to this area of Italy as I never felt that I was ‘prepared’ enough to make this trip. I have learned more thru Ancestry.com and from talking with some of my cousins that have researched our family ties much more than me. So,most importantly as I continue to make those trips around the sun, very rapidly I feel, I finally realized that I was not getting any younger and the time is NOW! So we are off to Palermo and all of the small towns around it that have history for me first. Then on to Noto and finally Taormina which I have heard amazing things about for years. It’s also no accident that I watched every episode of White Lotus last year. I also saw Stanley Tucci’s adventures tasting the finest delicacies from the Sicilian waters and have heard many things about the new ‘trendiness’ of Sicily.

Alan and I are heading out early this morning and have our walking shoes ready and our eyes wide open for all of the amazing things that we will  get to see and experience and to learn about my family’s earliest beginnings. I so look forward to seeing so much of what my Grandmothers, through their stories, shared with me as a child.

I’m expecting an exciting and emotional trip….so stay tuned if you have an interest in this area of Italy!

My True Purpose Of Visting Italy…

Of course, my driven purpose for crossing the pond once more is for my work with BPPTours that brings me to Tuscany each season with Fall, especially October, being our favorite time. It’s always been an awesome trip to make. However, after being grounded in this blistering heat all summer to get to Tuscany and with the cooler days of the season upon us and this most beautiful terraine excites me just to think of it.

It always feels so special to get back to the exciting city of Florence and getting to share it with our newest group of travel friends makes it all the better.  From the street scene and the culture of this amazing Renaissance city combined with the shopping of Florence and nearby towns to the beautiful hillsides of Tuscany and amazing wine country. The experience is that of building another lasting memory! Shopping, as always, will have some new spots that I will be trying. I’m totally ready for some great wine tastings and cooking lessons once again. I must say that I am finally mastering pasta-making after all of these many sessions and look forward to it once again! 

Please stay tuned if Italy is one of the places that you love as I will be ‘social-izing’ online with everyone through my Instagram and Facebook photos that I hope you will enjoy. Also, since my focus will be many things Italian this coming week, you may see a little more Italy from MRG in your Inbox in the coming days. So many of you ask for more and more info on what we are seeing and experiencing while we are there, so to you, I say, stay tuned! It will still be business-as-usual as well, but I know there will be much newness to report from these magnificent regions of Italy in the days ahead.

I know that I am leaving H-town ahead of so many great happenings…….wishing everyone an enjoyable, action-packed September and early October!

Ciao bella,

Roz