The ULTIMATE SICILY ROAD TRIP - Taormina, Ortigia, Agrigento, Erice & MORE (Italy’s Hidden Gems)

Welcome to Sicily, Italy's southern island nestled in the heart of the Mediterranean. While Italy attracts millions of tourists each year, many tend to focus on its more iconic cities and regions. Sicily is by no means a hidden gem, but it certainly provides a more authentic and less crowded Italian experience. With its alluring mix of ancient ruins, charming coastal towns, and delicious cuisine, this is the Italy we've been looking for. We're so lucky that Tommy's parents are joining us on this unforgettable road trip as we go beyond the usual tourist hotspots and immerse ourselves in the Sicilian culture. Today we're spending the day in Taormina, it's a hilltop town on the east coast of Sicily. It's really well known for its Mount Etna excursions and it's absolutely beautiful here. Right now we are going to Bambar to go try a local sweet treat. We've come and ordered a local sweet treat here, this is called a granita. I ordered mine with two flavors, I got raspberry and lemon. So basically it's like an icy slushy and I got mine with cream on top. You order it with a side of a brioche bun and the traditional way to eat it is to pull off a piece and dunk it in the ice cream. That is so freaking good, the raspberry is so tart and the sweet cream on top, the bun is so fluffy. It's four dollars for granita, which that's not a bad price and a dollar for the brioche bun. Okay your favorite? Lemon and raspberry. Your? Cafe almond. Nice and you? The raspberry lemon. Everybody ordered right. Yeah and the bun was delicious, like it was like Hawaiian sweet bread. We just bought our tickets for the cable car to head down to the beach, it was 10 euros for a round trip and six euros for one way. When you first get off the funicular you arrive to Mazaro parking lot and you walk a little bit further and you see Mazaro beach. It is so beautiful, the water is so turquoise, looks super inviting for swimming, but it looks pretty private. So this is all private through here. The public beach where you don't have to pay is gonna be where those boats are at, that small area right there. I think we're gonna walk six minutes farther to the most popular and most beautiful beach here. I think the water is warm enough that Sammy's actually gonna get in. She's in, she's swimming. I think it's very beautiful, the water is so clear and the rocks make it just look like that perfect, I don't know, like almost Mediterranean beach vibe that you want. It is very, very crowded. Tourism here in Italy is wild to me in shoulder season. It's the middle of October, for good reason though, this is so beautiful. Yeah and the weather. And that damn tv show. This is the famous white lotus. The damn white lotus. Top tip though is to bring some like beach shoes. It's a little tricky to get in on these slippery rocks. I was prepared, I wore my tibas. Sammy is one of the few. Yeah it's fun, funny watching everybody else. No thanks, we're trying to vlog. We're doing a little video for somebody. We're trying to do a vlog for someone but thank you. I know you're probably expecting Tommy and Sammy, but instead you got Tom and Jackie, Tommy's parents, because Tommy and Sammy just happen to be a little too cheap to pay the $13.50 ticket to get into the ancient theater of Tormia. Look what they've missed behind us, it's so beautiful. For sunset tonight we're going to hike up to a castle overlooking this cliff. The view is supposed to be amazing, it's like a 15-minute hike up all these stairs from town. Wish us luck. What a view. Wow, I told Tommy, I said this is a mute walk, we're not going to talk, we're just going to listen to our iPhones because we've been like so over-simulated today, but I'm talking now because look how, like also dehydrated, look how pretty this is. We made it baby, we made it. Right from down there. So we started behind that castle down there. Corso Umberto is the main street in Taormina. It really comes alive at night with musicians and has a lively atmosphere as people are strolling along, shopping, and dining in outdoor restaurants. We just loaded up the car today, we are heading south and continuing on our Sicily road trip. We're heading to Ortigia, Syracuse, but we have a stop we want to make first. It's like a local bakery that our tour guide from Etna had told us about, so that's where we're going to head first. Wow, look at those. These are the honey croissants. They actually fold them with honey inside them. The moment of truth. This is going to live up to the hype. Absolutely fantastic. So soft, look at all these layers. They're losing layers. Of course we got it with a few cappuccinos. It is amazing. It's definitely worth going out of your way to stop. Plus Bar Russo, this establishment is over 140 years old. Wow. That's amazing. Well you know how I love Italian pastries? This might be the top. I know. Best one yet. Really good. He also brought us a little tasting of more granitas, chocolate, almond, and coffee flavors. We did not order these, so he just brought it to us to try, which is so nice. I just met a third generation owner and her grandfather originally started this, then it was her father, and now it's her and her son, which would make it the fourth generation. And this behind us was the original and it dates back over a couple hundred years old. That's wild. Yes. So cool. She was so sweet too. Yes, she was very sweet. Stars and moons. Okay. How much are the little necklaces? It's 10. Styling is still water, no problem. Okay. Look, it matches my ring. Nice. Very intelligent. Meant to be. I kind of do love it. I always buy all my little pieces at little, this is Myanmar, this is Hungary, this is MyNewNecklace.com from Tommy. How's it look? It's great. Very, so pretty. I'm like looking at it in the lens. It's cute. Can't pass up this deal. One oyster for $2.50 plus a free glass of wine. Thank you. That hit perfectly for me. It gives you that like feeling right there where it's just like tart and ocean-y. Love it. It's been a while since we have oysters. Oh my God. One of our favorite things. I know, I love oysters. So we were waiting on our calamari and he was cutting up this octopus and it looks so delicious. So we're getting some of that too and a large cone of calamari. The calamari for the big cone is 10 euros and the octopus is seven euros. It looks so good. Your parents already got into this and they were like, it's so delicious. I know. They're so bad. They snuck it. Go for it. Look at that. They put chili and parsley on it, right? And oil and lime. It's so fresh. It is not chewy in the least bit. Oh, a little spicy too. Chili gotcha. This is the best octopus I've ever had. Ever. Spectacular. Wait, okay, wait, pause. Look at that cute little We're definitely a house of seafood lovers. We love all any and all seafood and this is really good. It's as good as Portugal. Portugal is nice. It's hard to get good octopus and it's so easy to mess up when that's easy to get good. It's the best calamari I've had for a long time. But it's they're both excellent. There's something about eating seafood when they're cutting the fish right there in front of you. Right out of the water. That's pretty irresistible. It is. If you start eating that way, you can never go back. That's right. So nice to meet you. It's a pleasure. Good luck with everything. Enjoy the conference. I just met my favorite musician we've met on our travels. So talented. Check out his website. Very special moment there in the main square. So at the end of town, there's a castle you can explore too. I think it's only eight euros to get in. We don't have time today, unfortunately, but it looks really cool. So me and my family are pretty go, go, go. And Sammy likes her quiet and relaxing time too. So check her out right now. Taking some much needed rest time, huh? Yeah. I saw everybody else doing this and I was like, this is what I want to be doing too. How perfect are these benches? It's pretty comfy. Yeah. They're actually very comfy. This castle was erected around 1232. And as you can see, it would be a great fortress, the way it's situated toward the ocean. All right, Sammy, back to the main plaza for a beer. Okay. My workouts at end workouts. I was like, I haven't been working out at all. You've been walking a little bit. A little bit. That looks so good. We were walking by this restaurant and this guy brought this huge tray of seafood. It looks so amazing. We're asking him, how much is it? 34 euros. So we're going to wait for a table and devour that huge plate of seafood. Hey guys, what do you think? Wow. Do you guys think we can finish it all? What do we got here? We have calamari, mussels, french fries, shrimp, oranges, garnishes. This is a little sardine. I love how salty those are. I wish we could have seafood more often. Especially when it's this fresh. Do you know what we need to get through the rest of the road trip today? Cappuccino. Cappuccino. Cappuccino. It smells so good. I love it. And this is pistachio? Okay. Yes. We had such a great time exploring Ortigia today. We have a three hour drive to our next destination so we're not going to vlog all that. We'll see you guys in the morning as we explore the Valley of the Temples. We've just arrived here to the Valley of the Temples. This is the oldest archaeological site here in Sicily and one of the largest archaeological sites in the world. It is so incredibly beautiful. It's actually not set in a valley. It's like set on this ridge line, like a three kilometer long ridge line. We've just entered to the first temple. It is beautiful. It was built in like 400 BC, I think. What else did I want to say? Opening hours 8 30 a.m to 7 p.m, right? And it was only 12 euros a person to get in. Not bad. They had such a great view back here in the day, didn't they? Yeah. This is beautiful. You can see all the way out to the sea. Sea. I was going to say ocean. I stopped myself. It's really beautiful and I'm really glad we started at the eastern gate because you can see all the people walking up the steps. So we timed our visit right at sunset so we get that golden color right on the temple. So beautiful here and much quieter than during the day. So cute. All right, Sammy. What'd you think of the ruins? I thought they were very impressive. I think we got here a touch too early, like around 3 30. It was a little bit too early, maybe like around four or five and then you'd have Jackie saying four is the perfect time. Four o'clock is the time to come and have the perfect ambient lighting. The temple of Concordia was unbelievable. It's massive and fully intact. The history up here is pretty amazing, so it's kind of scary to even think that during World War II a lot of it was destroyed. Today we're continuing on our road trip through Sicily here. We're heading to Trapani and we're supposed to be going there to take a cable car up to what is going to be one of the most beautiful villages here in Sicily. It's called Erice. E-R-I-C-E. I really want to say E-R-I-C-E but it's E-R-I-C-E. So that's what we're doing today. We have stopped because everyone in this car needs coffee. One thing I love about all the gas stations here in Italy is they all have espresso machines. So we left Agrigento. We used up all of our coffee pods at our Airbnb, so it was a very quiet car ride. 20 minutes to get to this gas station to have coffee. Everyone was just sitting in silence because we haven't had our coffees yet today. This is my second one. Coffee's flowing through people's veins. It's amazing how much we changed after a couple coffees. Oh it's speeding up. So we're riding the cable car up to Erice. It was 11 euros round trip to take the cable car up. The views are beautiful. I just wish the glass was a little bit cleaner so I could show it better to you guys. So we've made it up here to Erice, the little hilltop town. It's very historic. There's lots of little places of interest that you can enter into, like the bell tower, the churches, different things. And they all cost like 3 euros or you pay 12 euros for the city pass and go into everything. So you could save money that way. We were just walking around and I was googling what is there to eat in this town because I don't like talking about history or old towns, but I can really talk about food and there is a local delicacy to try here. So we're gonna go get a cookie. Okay we got the goods. This is a typical cookie, Sicilian cookie from Erice. It's a shortbread cookie and it has filling inside and we got cream and ricotta. We got two kinds to try. They wrapped it up so tightly. It's warm. I did not expect it to be fresh. That shortbread got a crunch to it but it's so light. So light flaky. Never had one quite like that. Really good. You ready for the second one? I like this one better. You don't? I like that one better. This one's like less sweet. You're the cheese queen of course. And I'm the cheese queen. Of course I would like this one better. I like the other one better but unlike ricotta at home it's a little flat so to speak. I mean that's not a negative thing it's just lacks a little bit of that cheese flavor that we get. I like it more here I think. Yeah me too. I like that's what I'm saying. I like it better than ricotta at home but I still like the cream better. Sweeter. More flavor. Well we found our typical treat to try. So glad we made it up to the castle. The views up here are amazing. Best views yet of this trip. The water has that turquoise blue. So beautiful. The surrounding area too is just gorgeous. So green. So sweet. All right. Grazie. We're trying one last little treat before we leave. This is an arancina. So this is a fried rice ball and it comes with so many different varieties of fillings. Jackie and I got mushrooms. Who doesn't love fried rice? Super soft rice. Crunchy outside. Mushrooms are kind of peppery. Delicious. So when you're in Sicily you have to try the arancina. I asked him his favorite. He said the spicy salami is the only way to go. Let's give it a try. And we got a beer with it as well. Oh my gosh. That's unfair. You always ask them their favorite. They'll never lead you astray. Look how delicious that looks. Mama mia. You've been waiting to say that, haven't you? It's a place called La Tonda. Mom found it actually. It has great reviews. It was a must-stop while you're here in town. And it lives up to the hype. This is delicious. Try them both. Which one was better? You guys won. Who again? I'll never admit it. You won. I'm just kidding. Okay what a great little stop in Andice. The Sicilian road trip continues and we're heading to Castelmare di Golfo. These names are going to just like do me in. They're hard to pronounce. You're doing great. We've just arrived to our beautiful apartment. We're staying right outside of Castelmare di Golfo. It is a beautiful spacious apartment. Two bedrooms, one bathroom. It was only $60 a night for a couple, which I think is a steal. Especially because the best part is this incredible view overlooking the sea with all the greenery. It's just going to be a great place to relax for the next two nights. Also the place came with ice so we can make our gin and tonics here. And the host gave us a bottle of wine which is really nice and some cookies. And very nice wine glasses. So we're going to have our gin and tonics and enjoy this view. Salute. Salute. Cheers. Gin and tonics and a great view. Yeah. A fun Sicilian road trip. Good morning you guys. Another beautiful day here in Sicily. Good morning. Excellent. Yeah it's very good. That's our wonderful host. So we're staying in this area to explore this beautiful coastline. There's some great hiking and today we're going to explore the small quaint town of Scapello. It looks very beautiful and hopefully do some swimming again. We're going to go to the little hamlet of Scapello. It's like a couple buildings and like a nice beautiful beach. We went over there and it's 15 euros a person to get down to the beach, which to me is just crazy. But we have some beautiful drone footage that you can see now. But we're going to go head back to our very public, very free beach. Finally arrived to the beach. Free beach. I left my swimsuit at the last Airbnb and my extra swimsuit that I usually carry, I also left that one at the last Airbnb. So this is all I have to swim in. You're matching though. I know I was like well at least my one pair of shorts matches it and they're like the kind that dries quickly. Good morning. Today we're leaving our beautiful Airbnb. We have one last stop on our Sicily road trip. We're heading to the town of Messina. It's going to be closer to the ferry where we have to drive and leave in a few days. But today we're actually heading to Palermo for a food tour, but you'll see that in another video. And then after that we're heading to our last stop here in Sicily. We just arrived to our beautiful place right outside Messina. We are right on the beach. Look at this beautiful sunset in the background. Oh the next three days we are just hanging out and relaxing here. Are you excited? I'm so stoked. This is our very last stop in Sicily. Hope you guys have been enjoying our Sicily road trip. I'm sure we'll show you some stuff or whatever we get up to over the next three days. But this is it. How awesome is this to end our Italy trip. I want to show you guys where we are staying at. We're in the little town of Genzeri right outside of the main city of Messina. This property is absolutely beautiful. We have this huge patio area with lots of little sitting areas, lounge chairs, and we're overlooking our own private beach. I mean honestly what more could you want. We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an outdoor kitchen, and the best part is it's only $55 a night. What a great way to end our Sicily road trip. Look at this amazing breakfast this morning. We have hash browns, sausages, a couple eggs, some toast, and our host was super sweet. She brought us some granitas with four different flavors to try. Super excited. Tonight we're having our last dinner here in Sicily. Parents bought some fresh fish from the fish market today. I think we have tuna and what's the other one? Sea bass. And we have lots of fresh veggies. Jackie made up a beautiful salad. We have like some charcuterie stuff that we bought. Just a nice, a nice last dinner to end our trip. What do we have to drink mom? We have a little wine shop we stopped by. It's a white wine from Sicily. Nice. And he was such a sweet man so I think it's supposed to be a little sparkly to it too but I don't know. I like what they say here frizziante. It's white frizziante. For dinner tonight we have a beautiful plate of home-cooked sea bass. Compliments to the chef, Tom. Bravo. Bravo. We have this tuna. Tuna. Delicious tuna. The fresh catch of the day. Yes. We have our beautiful salad in our pot. Jackie. You know you do what you can in airbnbs and booking.coms. We have a little charcuterie board of stuff we cut up and then we also have green beans. Look how beautiful this is served like this. Tom and Jackie went to the market this morning. They bought fresh fish. Then they went to the bakery. They bought fresh bread. Then they went to the vegetable market and they bought fresh fresh vegetables. The true Italian way. So yeah. This is pretty much formed a table people. And the wine shop for the chef. Yes. All right. Cheers to a wonderful last night in Sicily. Salute. Sicily. What a great trip everybody. Such a wonderful trip. Favorite parts of the Sicilian road trip? I think for me it would probably be Taormina. It was a very touristic city but it was just beautiful old town. Beautiful ocean views. The ambiance was so fun. I loved like Bambar and the Granita. The whole atmosphere was just really great and the hike that we did with the views. Perfect. I loved it. For someone who doesn't live by the sea being able to swim in it all around Sicily is always fantastic. But I gotta say my favorite was Mount Etna. You just don't get that many opportunities to have a unique experience on such a site as volcanoes that have recently erupted. The natural beauty that it has with all that destruction is incredible. That's that was my favorite for sure. My favorite part of traveling is always going to new places and then the bonuses traveling with our beautiful family together has been wonderful. But I love this last place we're staying. It's not touristy. It's just a way to wind down and kind of live like a local here with all the little tiny shops to go shopping and I loved it here. That's a great trip you guys. Yes. Wonderful trip. I'd agree with dad. Mount Etna was my favorite highlight I'd say. Marco our guide was very special. So knowledgeable. He has such a passion for what he does. So amazing. Thank you guys for watching. We appreciate you. See you guys in the next video.