Sicily, A Few Final Highlights

Photos and a few more places

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The beaches - Taormina and Cefalù were our beach stops. Taormina was a comfortable place to hole up for a few nights after our long flight to Sicily and was the most upscale and touristy place we visited. It is home to a Greek amphitheater with views of Mount Etna. 

Taormina's Greek Theatre

My cousin Frank and his wife Clara took a trip to Sicily that overlapped with ours so we meet up with them in Taormina on one of our last nights of the trip.

Cefalù, on the other hand, was less touristy but with a livelier personality. The old town was small and next to it was an area that felt more “local” but was still worth exploring. Like many places we visited in Sicily, Cefalù had narrow wiggly streets connected by passageways that were fun to explore. This is one of the few spots in Sicily with a sandy beach and there was a nice seaside promenade. A large rocca (Rock) looms above Cefalù with temples and ruins including those of a Norman castle and made for an easy day hike.

At the top of the rocca hike Mike explores Castello di Cefalù, a Norman castle built on the site of an old Arab citadel.

Old walls and sea views on the descent of the rocca.

Sunset Cefalù

Valley of the Temples, Agrigento - When people say Sicily has better Greek than Greece, they’re probably talking about the Valley of the Temples. We spent almost three hours exploring this extensive site. There are seven Greek temples with the oldest dating back to the 5th century BC. Some are nothing more than a pile of blocky fallen stones while other are complete. There were some Roman mosaics there, too. 

Dubai chocolate gelato – catching the trend early

I discovered this treat in Siracusa, a heavenly rich dark chocolate gelato filled with pistachio cream and crunchy kataifi (shredded bits of toasted phyllo dough). I couldn’t find Dubai gelato in any other gelato shops but a web search revealed that Dubai chocolate is indeed a thing, not just a random flavor created by this particular shop.

According to Food & Wine, Costco is selling Afters Ice Cream brand Dubai chocolate ice cream bars. They claim the treats are “inspired by the wildly Instagrammable chocolate bar, which has been trending online over the past few months.” This article was from April 2025, so I’m surprised to see I’m an early adapter. I’m not a Costco shopper but many folks are so if you go, look for the bars and let me know what you think.

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Click here to see all the posts in my Sicily series.

Here are a few final photos

Mike and I had a 6 a.m. flight out of Catania. When we left, there was a small plum of smoke rising from the summit of Mount Etna. Several hours later, we received a text from Frank and Clara with this photo. They were still in the Taormina area and captured this photo from their inn.

Also in Taormina. They had a stylish mix of clothing with a few Vinciguerra label garments. I wanted to buy one but couldn't find anything that suited my style.

We were charmed by these Sicilian carts.

No trip to Italy is complete without a photo of a Vespa.