Scopello, Sicily, Italy

After a somewhat dreary Madrid trip with no access to the water, and continuously stressful workweeks, myself, Jenna and Erin were in the mood for a relaxing long weekend on the beach. Sicily was a great choice for such activities. Upon landing, we hopped into our rental car and headed up the Northwest coast to Castellammare del Golfo to wander around before continuing up to Scopello, our base for two nights. Castellammare is a very quaint town, with an old Church and castle surrounding a beautiful harbor with lots of characteristic fishing boats. Surprisingly, the town was, not too many years ago, the most infiltrated mafia town, where a high percentage of the men were involved in organised crime.

We walked around the city for an hour and then grabbed a pretty good spaghetti meal at a spot on the harbor before heading up the mountain along the coast in a quick Big Suresque drive to Scopello. We stopped on a cliff side vista where a couple was selling tons of great olive wood products that are about a tenth of what the likes of William Sonoma would sell them for. Naturally we picked up a few things!

The landscape of Castellammare del Golfo is terrific.

We arrived in Scopello to find that our reservation for three people at Bed and Breakfast Maria, was mistakenly made for two, meaning we weren't able to stay there. This ended up being a blessing as the Maria's place wasn't exactly nice, it was pretty crappy actually and wouldn't be recommended in the summer as there is no AC and tiny windows. We instead stayed at a nice apartment rented by a local with views of the med and AC. We were happy for the mistake! But it took away 30 minutes of beach time at the tonnara (above), one of the most stunning beaches we've been to....crystal clear waters, caves, sun, and the rock formations were like those in Thailand! It was a great start to the weekend!

We had dinner that night at la Terraza, where it if weren't for the views, would be a complete bust as the food didn't meet the high expectations for Italian cuisine. At least the wine was cheap and good!

The next day we set off to Zingaro Nature reserve, a beautiful and unspoilt reserve with great hikes and beaches. We packed a big picnic and were off. You could walk from Scopello if you don't have a car as well. We walked to the third beach from the Scopello entrance to begin our day. We were warned immediately of a jellyfish presence on the beach, where we saw a couple but our snorkel gear was helpful to spot them before they got too close. The water was so clear and the snorkeling was amazing. The sun wasn't too shabby either, good thing we had lots of sunscreen!

The next beach was our favorite of the weekend, Cala Della Disa, complete relaxation in an amazing setting. See for yourself...

The snorkeling was also amazing at this place, we went for a while along the coastline, seeing cool coral, colorful fish, and not many jellyfish. We gave hot and cold stone massages to each other which amplified relaxation time and then did a little more snorkeling near the beach, when Jenna randomly was the recipient of a jellyfish sting. Luckily it was just a little guy so the sting wasn't too bad.

After a few hours of R&R at the second beach, we made one last stop at the closest beach to the park where the waves were crashing and there were hundreds of fish at our feet playing in the water with us.

Following the beach we had a nice pizza dinner and some wine on the balcony of our apartment enjoying thesunset. 

 

We then had the most local experience of the trip, joining the entire village in the main square to watch the Ghana-Uruguay world cup match on a projection on one of the old buildings. I think it was the best atmosphere I could ever imagine to take in a world cup match, apart from being at the match itself. If only it was a US-Italy match it really would've been intense. It was great as the road through the village was completely blocked off by the spectators so cars just had to stop their journey at the square and watch the game until it was done!

The next morning it was off to Palermo, saying one last goodbye to the great village of Scopello and its amazing beaches!