but I don’t know what it is.” “You’re supposed to keep the black color like this,” Enrico tells us as he shows his panino. Then, he eats the sandwich, closing his eyes and smiling as he chews. “He touches his food with so much love,” I tell Juliana. She nods, “I noticed that,” she responds. As we eat, Enrico shares with us the tradition of the “testa di Moro,” a sweet
marzipan figure that Sicilian families put outside their homes to ward off any sort of evil. “Here, before they go inside, they knock on a metal bar, it’s found mostly in Castelvetrano,” Enrico tells us. We dive deep into this symbol, talking about its differences in meaning, whether or not ensinging the figure too hard could lead to any bad luck. We learn about the different things the figure symbolizes, such as the fight against slavery. We hear about the significance of the key in ancient cultures on the island. It’s often referred to as the ‘chiave ingrassa,’ tied to the religion and custom of the island. Enrico makes the story come to life, as I’ve felt it every time I’ve traveled Sicily. As we continue to talk, a young mother and her daughter come up to say hello. We talk about everything we’ve done in our travels, and throughout our conversation, we realize how much this family loves so much. We hop back on the vespas, which were creating quite a stir. As each person hovered around admiring it more and more, giving off smiles as we zipped down the street. Enrio told us this good family time and this espresso totally balanced out with such a motorcycling around anni ragusa and through the farm. Now we’re back for coffee, a very Sicilian part of our day with the family. Do you know how martin keeps saying that Sicilians are great at talking children much more than adults good? I think I’m beginning to see his point. We drive to a place called ‘Bar Bizzu’ not far from here to meet an entirely different and longer side of the family. Martin’s aunt and cousins are waiting, and the coffee machines appear ou to make a few espressos in typical fashion of chewing the food. Enrio’s mother first greets us and then tells us about the importance of the gathering, about how we like to be together and have strangers right from anywhere in the world share this one too. Tradition is significant to me, and it’s only good for real families to embrace. Meal time is about good food and good company, a no-place for those who seek for local cuisine but to go anywhere else. We join them for macaronade, a choice diner. We chat about life, about travel, and about anyone having the chance to come to Sicily for the first time and experience the island for more than just what they see in the news. “It is a beautiful place,” I tell them. Martins’ grandchildren come over after dinner, and we all talk about them. They ask us what’s with the baby, who’s just started to eat these pasta. The little kid laughs who can now pronounce his name. “You have to try the coffee,” Martine tells us. He recommends to us to come out drinking coffee with him. Growing up in Mexico I learn to make coffee at a young age. I already had my first espresso three weeks old. And it’s a good thing to be on the same level with someone that shares the same love for it as you do. Enrio’s mother gives a signal just as the night air begins to fall to. We put the babies to bed, take some quick photos together, and begin to plan our visited in the small city. Tessaius backs us, for the pizza, and cherry, and sweet briocadebegs. After finishing our coffee just in time for evening, we thank everyone for making our day such an excellent experience. As we walk, we talk about our time together. We were feeling more human. Sharing time. It’s really something. Family, as well as the city, is beautifully displayed, beautiful. If you’re able to experience Sicily in such an authentic way, you will undoubtedly carry the memories with you for the rest of your life. That all. Thanks for joining us on this journey. And next week, we get a little into the details about this trip of ours and how we made a lot of the uplifting sense and the impact on individual lives. Thanks for watching. See you next week.
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These guys are yelling like crazy back here. It’s a little too early for that. I want you to forget what you know about Sicily. It’s not at all like they show it in ‘The Godfather’ or ‘White Lotus.’
The real Sicily can be found in the markets and narrow streets of small towns like this one. In last week’s episode, we landed in Agrigento, a sun-kissed corner of Sicily where few tourists pass through, and where my husband Martin spent his teenage summers running through these streets,
Playing soccer with his cousins. Sicilians, they are misunderstood, and I know a thing or two about how that feels. My country of Mexico has been tarnished with reputations of organized crime, causing many around the world to turn a blind eye. But let
Me share a little secret about places like these: the food is 10 times more delicious, the friendships and families are stronger, and the stories you hear in the news, they’re just a fraction of the reality. We love an underdog story, don’t we? That’s exactly what
Sicily is. So, if you came to see some travel influencers’ glamorized guide to Sicily, that’s not what this is. Today, we’re spending the day with Sicilians, discovering what makes this region of Italy different, and diving into the Sicilian lifestyle. Welcome to Sicily.
The scene opens at ‘Agora,’ a charming pastry shop nestled in the nearby town of Villagio Mose. Enter my cousin Raimondo. We grab his usual breakfast: a few pistachio-filled pastries, an espresso, and the newspaper of the day. First cannoli in Sicily, and it looks like Juliana already picked up the Italian way of
Communicating and talking with your hands. Makes sense, because with so much food to eat here, your mouth is probably too full to talk anyway. Speaking of food, it’s one thing to get food in a restaurant, but it’s another to see where it’s coming from. So, we meet up with my aunt
To join her for her trip to the local market. Our aunt told us about this place. She loves coming here. What’s so interesting is coming to Italy, I thought I would know all the fruits and vegetables, but there’s actually a lot of things here that I’ve never seen anywhere
Like these round green melon-looking things, for example. Martin’s aunt asks one of the locals to explain what it’s used for or this wacky-looking summer squash called the ‘cucuzza.’ A local explains that she loves to put this in soups.
The produce here is gorgeous to look at, and we knew we wanted to take something with us. So, we asked our new friends what they’d recommend for a snack and were directed to the island’s juicy variety of peaches. My aunt just bought this one,
And it’s a speciality from here. You can see it’s white, but I hope you guys—I wish you guys could smell it. In Italian, it’s ‘pesca’; in Sicilian, it’s ‘persica’… Ah a juice Sicilian white peach ripened in the sun—this is what I’m talking
About. But it’s not just produce you can find here. As we walked further, we found secondhand clothing tables with vintage Ralph Lauren button-ups for just a Euro, linen and blankets for Martin’s aunt to stock up on for her bed and breakfast,
And fish and cheese sold out of the back of someone’s car. I’m not sure I would trust car cheese somewhere else in the world, but here, you want the car cheese, trust me. And it wouldn’t be a Sicilian market without lots of yelling. These guys are yelling like crazy back here;
It’s a little too early for that. So, this market is a great place to come to learn about all the ingredients they use in Sicilian cuisine, and it’s open every Friday starting at 8:00 a.m. So,
Come in the morning, grab your produce, and make your own meal. But we already have plans for lunch today. My other cousin, Enrio, has a place he wants to take us to try ‘panino con la milza.’
So, we meet up with him for the afternoon. Now, there are a few ways that you can get around Italy, right? By car, walking, but going on a ‘vespa,’ that’s the way to do it, Sicilian style. Yay! Oh, that was awesome. I felt like I was living in the ‘Lizzie McGuire Movie,’ which
Martin has yet to see, uh, but I’ll show him tonight. After you’re 14 years old, you can drive your motorcycle, so everybody, when they are 14, they already drive their vespa all around. Enrio takes us to a place called ‘La Antica Panineria,’ and I know what’s coming.
‘Panini con la miltza’ is the dish I’ve been craving for years. And if I told you what it is, you might be too afraid to try it. Okay, I’ll just tell you. It’s a sandwich that is typical from Palermo, stuffed with chopped veal lung and spleen that have
Been boiled and then fried in lard. Sounds gross, but it’s such a tender meat that melts in your mouth. We’re going to give this delicious panini de miltza a try. Now, we’re actually making a whole other video solely focused on all the amazing food you can
Find here in Sicily. It’s going to be a good one. We’ve had a lot of fun putting that together for you guys over these past few days. But in the meantime, let’s eat. We take our paninis to a nearby plaza, where Juliana notices my cousin’s tattoo.
“I noticed your tattoo. It’s super cool, and it’s something that I’ve been seeing all over Sicily. So, I was wondering if you could explain what it means.” At the time of filming this video, it’s been almost a week living in Agrigento
With Martin’s family, and it’s been one of the best trips I’ve ever had. Yeah, we’re having so much fun, and we’re enjoying the food, the weather, the people… The people! Right now, as we’re walking down the streets, we get recognized by people that
Are like friends of my family or people that we have met, shopkeepers. Yeah, and then they always say hi. They are so welcoming, so warm. I think it has to do with the weather, though. I think so. I can only imagine if we’ve made this many friends here in a week, imagine if
We’re here for months. And something that we haven’t mentioned is the fact that over here, they don’t only speak Italian; they also speak Sicilian. That is the dialect. And I’m going to give you guys an example. For saying, like, a beautiful girl in Italian, it would be ‘bella
Ragazza,’ but in Sicilian, it would be ‘bedda picciotta.’ So, it sounds completely different. Oh my gosh, yeah, for sure. I mean, I can’t understand either. I’m just surviving on Spanish and English, as you guys can tell. And it’s funny too because we talked about how warm
And welcoming the people are, but when you see the Sicilians talking on the street, they use their hands so much, and they sound angry. Yeah, they sound like they’re about to fight. I know, but they’re not. That’s just how they talk, and it’s kind of funny. You realize people—it’s one of
Those things where it’s like their bark is worse than their bite. They’re very, very nice people. And one other surprising thing we didn’t expect to kind of connect the dots here is the similarities between Sicily and Mexico. There are a few different reasons we’re going
To mention this. Yeah, both Sicily and Mexico, they are related with things that they are not as nice—you guys know what I’m saying, you know what I’m talking about—and that’s very sad. And it’s very funny that both Mexico and Sicily are such fantastic places where people are warm,
Where food is amazing, where weather is great, and where family is important. And we have that in common. I just cannot stop thinking about that because a lot of people, whenever they think about these two places, they think about the bad things that sound in the news.
And to address the elephant in the room of what we mean, we’re referring to the famous movie ‘The Godfather.’ People think Mafia when they think Sicily a lot of the times. And while that is still
Present today, it’s not in a way that you’ll see. It’s more in terms of extortion. As a tourist, it’s not something you have to worry about. It’s an ugly face of Sicily, but it’s not everything about Sicily. There are so many things here that are not about that. In Mexico,
People think of cartels all the time, but when you talk to the people here in Sicily, you realize they’re ashamed of that. They don’t want to be known for it. Unfortunately, Sicily is an island that has been forgotten by much of the rest of Italy. They don’t have as
Many resources and funding, so you don’t see as much tourism here, which is sad because they have great potential for tourism. This island is amazing for tourism. I just wish there would be a bigger effort from their tourism board. But you know, today here in Agrigento,
I’m loving how few tourists we’re seeing. We’re living the real Sicilian lifestyle. Speaking of which, we’ve been to a market already, but one other interesting thing where I think we can learn a lot is going to a supermarket. You can learn a lot about a place
If you go to their supermarket and see what people buy over there. So let’s head over. There’s a funny story about here.I went to the movies with my friends in 2011, and we watched Harry Potter. After that, we came over here, grabbed some of the supermarket carts,
And had a race. One was on top of the cart, and one was pushing it. We have photos of that. I think we’re going to put one over here. We had so much fun with that.” Okay, what the… Okay, there’s a lot going on here. Texmex Doritos,
What even is this? It’s not a tortilla chip. I think people in the US would lose their minds if they saw the selection of meats and cheeses that are already sliced up. Imagine the charcuterie boards you could make with all of this. This looks so good. Martin and I have
Been living off of sandwiches while we’ve been here because I love how they cut up everything, and everything’s so fresh and delicious. This is how they package the mozzarella, with this little water it comes in, so it stays fresh. There’s a ton of fresh pasta, and also fresh
Pasta over here. The store is so funny because the amount of shelf space dedicated to pasta, sweets, cheese, and meat is insane. It’s probably about 3/4 of the store. Then, the shelf space for cereal is like two little lines, and for chips, barely anything. I think it tells a lot about
Where their priorities are in terms of food. And yes, even the Italians have frozen pizza. This is going to shock some of you guys back home, but what have we found? We found food for babies. And what’s so different about it? But this one is from horse. It’s very common actually. It’s
Not as weird over here in Sicily. People eat horse, actually. We tried it in Catania. Well, I tried it in Catania. It’s something that is not as weird. So for little kids, it was also interesting to see how seafood, another important staple, has taken on forms for easy preparation.
And other amusing things like the pistachio pesto or the abundance of goat milk. Now, at this point, I’m realizing that Sicily is a whole different ball game from the rest of Italy, but two things remain the same: food and family. So we’re going to meet my family for dinner.
They take us to a place called Nucio, where even years later, Martin is running into people he knows. ‘Are you famous here now?’ The thing is, I knew him when he was young. I used to take him to the beach with my cousins. He remembers
Me, but he tried to speak English, no, Spanish, and he just added an ‘s’ at the end of every word, thinking he was speaking Spanish. First order of business: wine. We asked for Nero d’Avola, which the waiter advises is Sicily’s most important grape variety. It’s
Compared to New World wines with sweet tannins and plum or peppery flavors. As the meal goes on, the wine and the olive oil flow, while plates and plates of various pastas, seafood dishes, and Sicilian specialties come out to us. We’re eating good tonight,
The Sicilian way. I was curious, ‘What do you wish the world knew about Sicily?’ ‘Sicily is more than the Mafia. We are so famous because of the Mafia, but we have a lot to offer here. In Sicily, you’ll find your origin of the life because Sicily is the Greek world,
And everything has its origin in the Greeks. To understand Italy, many people love Venice, Rome, etc., but the origin of everything is in Sicily. To know Italy is to know Sicily.’ And to know a good meal here means you have to walk it off with a ‘passeggiata,’ the Italian
After-dinner walk. 10:30 p.m., that’s what time we wrap up dinner here in Sicily. Now, Juliana back home would be sleeping, but Juliana here in Sicily, with a ‘G’ might I add (it’s my new name), Juliana here in Sicily, she’s about to go on a walk with the family.
We’re going to work off this meal we just ate because we still have one more meal coming, and that’s dessert. It’s amazing how many people are out like this on a weeknight, but it’s sort of charming. Agrigento is a small city with 59,000 people, but on nights like this,
Where I see Martin’s family say hi to so many people, it really feels more like a small village. And of course, we end the night at Le Cuspidi, where pistachio gelato is a must. I’ve waited
8 years for this again. And so, with gelato in hand, this is how you end a day in Sicily. We’re going to leave another video over here so you can see it after this. So long, travel well, and make the world our neighborhood. See you guys next time. Bye!
Video “Foreigners live 24 HOURS with SICILIANS in Agrigento, Sicily” was uploaded on 01/14/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by Tourist to Local on Gretopia