When the almond trees are in blossom in Sicily, it is a glorious sight.  Beginning in late January and through the early days of March, the cool green hills are bedecked in lacey blossoms in shades of pure white to delicate pink.  The air is sweetly perfumed and bees are buzzing.  It’s already spring.

On the other hand, the almond harvest takes place in the heat of summer, so forget cool and green, and think Dante’s Inferno. The August sun is fierce, the earth baked dry.  Still, I wanted to experience the almond harvest, and Francesco Padova of the Mastri San Basilio farm, willingly obliged. 

I am not sure why people who are not farmers often have a romantic idea of agriculture, and are prone to exclaiming “Oh, wouldn’t it be fun to take part in the grape harvest!  Or “ How wonderful to go olive picking!”  Their enthusiasm quickly wanes once they are covered with mud, miserably damp, and have stiff fingers aching from the cold.  Not once have I heard anyone thrill to the idea of almond picking, and now I know why.

I follow Francesco’s car to where his great-grandfather first farmed in the late 1800’s, near Ispica in southeastern Sicily.  The hills are chalky and grey, looking nearly white in the harsh sunshine.  Once we’ve parked along a quiet road, I open the door of my air-conditioned car to a blast of oven-hot air, and wonder what I’ve gotten myself into. 

Francesco leads the way on foot up a steep rough track, through groves of almond trees that have already lost many of their leaves.  Underfoot the finely tilled earth is soft but dry as a bone, and my shoes are soon covered in grey dust.  Above my head, the  outer husks of the almonds – which were once as plump as little peaches – have shriveled and split, and the precious almonds are protruding.  It feels strangely sad and forlorn yet bountiful at the same time. 

At the top of the hill, I am drenched in sweat, and glad to find a carob tree that provides some shade.  Francesco leads me to an overlook that looks out onto an intensely cultivated landscape, where the bare fields are resting in the August heat. 

I’d normally be thankful for a breeze but here on the hilltop a hot wind is blowing – the scirocco from Africa – and it feels as though I’m standing in front of a full-length  hairdryer.  We retreat to the shade.

Francesco speaks in measured tones, calmly explaining the ins and outs of almonds as beads of sweat trickle down my back.  We are in a grove of fascionello almond trees, which along with the prized pizzuta cultivar, are able to thrive in this arid climate.  The fruits survive the intense Sicilian heat by growing an extremely thick, hard shell that protects the intensely flavored almond seed inside.  In fact, the shell amounts to 80% of the whole almond’s weight. 

Francesco warns that it is impossible to open these almonds with a nutcracker – the farm has a special machine for this, and sells most of its almonds already shelled.

By comparison, California grown almonds have only a 40% shell weight, but their almonds contain less oil and as a result, less flavor.  It’s a trade-off that Francesco seems happy to make.  

At last we hear a motor and the almond harvester arrives.  It has a tractor-like section in the rear with a yellow contraption up front that resembles a huge upside-down umbrella.   

Within the folds of the umbrella, are two thick metal arms covered with rubber, which reach out and grasp the trunk of a tree.  The umbrella unfolds to form a big cup-like sack, and suddenly a loud motor kicks on.  The ground beneath my feet trembles, the tree shakes furiously, leaves fly up in the air, and almonds land neatly in the sack.   It only lasts a few seconds, like a mini-earthquake. 

Francesco explains that with this method – manned by 2 or 3 people – they can harvest as much as what 40 men could do by hand, or about 600 trees in a day.  When there are 15,000 trees to harvest, it makes sense. 

A few of the smaller trees with slender trunks still get the hand-picked treatment, which consists of whacking the branches with a wooden pole, then collecting the almonds that fall to the ground. The fellow that does this has skin darkened from the sun, and is amazingly energetic, filling a bucket in a short time, then jogging off to dump them in the machine’s sack.  Finding 40 men like this would be no easy task.

Later the harvested almonds are separated from the leaves and left to dry in the sun for a few days, until they “sound right.” When ready to be harvested, the almond will rattle in the shell.  If you listen to it carefully, the rattle will be soft, like a tiny thud.  Once it has dried in the sun, the rattle will become like a sharp tapping noise.  This is a signal that the almond is truly ready.  It can be stored without fear of getting moldy. 

Since I’m obviously a glutton for punishment, Francesco gives me a kilo of whole almonds so that I can attempt to open them.  Being around all these almonds has given me a hankering to make traditional Sicilian almond milk.   

 “Let me know how it goes”  he says.  Later, when I am struggling to open the the almonds by bashing them with a rock, I wonder how he managed to say that with a straight face.

It’s now close to noon, and is getting hotter by the second.  As the top of my head feels like it’s about to burst into flames, I say goodbye to Francesco. 

My car is parked in the sun, and is like a blast furnace inside.  I’ve learned a lot about the almond harvest, but also that being hot in Sicily is a relative thing.  I drive home with the windows down, enjoying the African wind.

Details:  Mastri San Basilio pizzuta almonds can be purchased in Ragusa Ibla at Gelati Divini or by mail order in the USA at Zingerman’s.

Read more:

How to Make Almond Milk

Colomba Easter Cake

San Sebastiano Festival

Magical Mandrake Plant

When traveling through Puglia, the “heel of the boot” of Italy, food is everywhere.  Beneath majestic olive trees, there are fields of red earth planted with vegetables, and the night air smells like celery.  Long expanses of wheat fields produce the local flour used in excellent crusty bread, and then there are the raucous fish markets, teeming with wriggling sea creatures.  And we haven’t begun to get to the exquisitely creamy burrata cheese, the oh-so-sweet tomatoes, or the heady Primitivo wine, thus named because it describes your ability to make a sentence after a few glasses. 

On one occasion, while traveling through Puglia with friends, we stopped in a bar in Martina Franca to have an aperitivo, and the waiter asked if we wanted stuzzichini - appetizer snacks – with our drinks.  When we said yes, out came bowls of soft bocconcini of mozzarella, plump green olives, oven-baked black olives flecked with hot pepper, bits of salami, tiny one-bite pizzette, pickled lampascioni, sun-dried tomatoes, and crunchy taralli, spiced with fennel seeds and black pepper. 

In other words, a meal for most people. When we commented to the waiter about how this could suffice as dinner, he laughed and said, “Only if you aren’t pugliese.”  And so, wanting to fit in with the locals, we headed off to dinner.  We found more taralli in the breadbasket at dinner, and they became our addiction during the trip. 

Learning to make taralli will just be one of the many things we’ll be doing on our Pleasures of Puglia culinary tour, but since that is months away, I decided to make a batch at home.  You’ll find my complete taralli recipe at the end of this post, but here are the basics:

Taralli are quite simple to make, with an unleavened dough of flour, salt, extra-virgin olive oil, and white wine.  You can leave the dough plain or spice it with fennel seeds or cracked black pepper.

Take walnut-sized pieces of dough and shape into thin ropes about 5 inches (10 cm) long, then bring the ends together to form a ring.  It’s okay if they look like a teardrop.

Next, the rings are briefly cooked in a pot of boiling water until they float to the surface, then removed with a slotted spoon and left to cool and dry on a clean cloth. 

Place the taralli on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake until the taralli are golden brown.  Cool on a rack and serve with an aperitivo – drink the rest of that white wine you used to make the dough – or fill a breadbasket and serve at dinner.

Read more about what we’ll be doing on our Pleasures of Puglia tour.

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The Mysteries of Lampascioni

Wild Asparagus Walk in Sicily

In a country known for its cultural treasures, the medieval town of Pietrasanta – known as the “City of Artists” —has deep roots in Italy’s legacy of art and sculpture.

Located near the Italian Riviera in northern Tuscany, this little town has been a hot spot for artists and sculptors since the 15th century, when Pope Leo X ordered Michelangelo to construct a road from the coast below Pietrasanta to Monte Altissima, an otherwise inaccessible peak known to contain rich deposits of pure white statuary marble.  Cutting and then transporting the stone from the wilderness back to the coast proved too difficult a task to perform very often, so only the Michelangelo’s Moses and the unfinished Slaves were carved from  this marble. 

But from here, Pietrasanta’s reputation as an international center for art and sculpture was set in stone, and today artists from around the world come to use the local marble studios and bronze foundries, and to benefit from the knowledge of master artisans.  And not only are these artisans highly skilled at carving stone, they also sport nifty paper hats handmade out of newspaper. 

Staying in Pietrasanta is an interesting experience, where you may run into Colombian artist and sculptor Fernando Botero, who has made Pietrasanta his home for part of the year; one of his bronze scuptures graces the entranceway to the town.  Quirky restaurants, unusual shops, and art galleries abound, so there is always something to do.   

Worth a visit is the Museo dei Bozzetti which has hundreds of sculpture models by over 300 Italian and foreign artists.  It also offers guided tours explaining the many “meanings” of the museum—that is, the history of local sculpture, what a model is, the contemporary artistic background and the work of the craftsmen, who are the real force behind today’s artists.  You might be surprised to learn that few contemporary artists produce their own designs in stone—visit a sculpture studio and you’ll find hardworking artisans working on stone sculptures that are destined for public gardens or private villas around the world. 

On our walking tours in Italy that touch upon Pietrasanta, I always include a visit to a sculpture studio or a bronze foundry to see the fascinating process firsthand.   I love staying at the luxurious Albergo Pietrasanta, a boutique hotel housed in a palazzo in the center of town,  with a stunning modern art collection that seamlessly blends with the historic building and fine antique furniture.  This is where we stay on our Cinque Terre & Beyond walking tour, which touches upon some of the more well-known hiking trails in Liguria as well as the quiet undiscovered trails that bring you to Tuscan marble quarries or tiny seaside villages.

Intrigued with sculpture?  You might like:

The Looted Goddess of Morgantina

The 5th century BC Greek statue known as the goddess of Morgantina, was unearthed in illegal excavations in Sicily, and after being smuggled into Switzerland and eventually given “legal” status, it was purchased in 1988 by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for $18 million.  Recognized by archeologists as having come from the ancient site of Morgantina, after a thorough investigation and long negotiations the Getty museum eventually agreed to return the disputed statue to Italy in May of 2011.  Amongst much rejoicing and fanfare, the looted goddess is now housed in the archeology museum in Aidone, a small town set on a lofty hilltop near the ancient city of Morgantina.

Sicily’s hilly terrain coupled with an antiquated road system means getting to Aidone and Morgantina is a long trek from just about anywhere, but one fine June day we decided to see what all the fuss was about.   Much of our route from Modica to Aidone was on winding back roads with little traffic, and also without much in the way of road signs, but we managed to find the town with only a couple of U-turns. 

Before arriving at the museum, we noted an information point with a couple of tour buses, and stopped for further info. A friendly man gave us a map of the town, and with obvious pride, pointed out the route to the archeology museum, and also suggested we visit a church and the belvedere with a splendid view. 

We are instructed to leave our car and continue on foot, but Emanuele, ever the hardheaded Italian, insists on driving, and after getting lost, we soon end up on a steep narrow street barely wide enough for our compact car.  After wedging the car into a stairwell, we clamber out and hurry to rush past the tour group arriving on foot.  Inside the splendid statue is a bit of a surprise.

At 2.20 meters tall (7 ½  ft) this a big goddess, with massive thighs outlined beneath her flowing gown, and I am at first a bit disappointed as she seems to lack a certain elegance. It’s as if the size of the room does not quite do justice to this amazing figure – she needs more space. But the more I gaze upon her, walking around to get a good look from all sides, I begin to sense her power and feel that she just might burst through her gown, crushing the onlookers in one triumphant step.

The Goddess of Morgantina (often erroneously referred to as Venus) is most likely a figure of Persephone and is carved using the acrolithic technique in which a different material is use for the body and the extremities. In this case the body is carved from a limestone from Ragusa, while the head and extremities are carved from Greek marble. Traces of color suggest that the gown was once painted. Archeologists date it from 400-425 BC, and a likeness of the statue has been found on ancient coins from Morgantina. It is surmised that the statue stood on a pedestal in the center of the city. 

Locals hope that the return of the Goddess of Morgantina will help the economically depressed town of Aidone, and I hope that they are right.

The Aidone Archeological Museum is open everyday from 9.00 am to 7.00 Pm.  Tickets are 6 euro, children and students 3 euro. It is recommended that you arrive early so as to allow time to also visit the nearby archeological site of Morgantina, and the Roman Villa Casale at Piazza Armerina (under restoration, but parts of the magnificent mosaics are open to the public. )

Join us on October 31 as we explore these sites together, as an add-on to our Splendors of Sicily walking tour, Oct 24-30, 2011.  Only a few spaces available – see our contact info below

Read similar stories:

The Looted Morgantina Silver Hoard

History of a Sicilian Biscuit

660 properties will be open to the public throughout Italy during a weekend sponsored by FAI,  the Italian National Trust.  This year, in honor of Italy’s 150th anniversary, the 2011 weekend includes places linked to the Risorgimento in Italy, as well as bicycle rides, guided walking tours through nature reserves, and visits to archeological sites and gardens. Many sites are not normally open to the public, so here’s your chance to get a peek into Italy’s hidden treasures. 

You are encouraged to make a donation of your choice to FAI, which goes toward the restoration of important historical properties and gardens, as well as an educational program in Italian schools promoting knowledge and pride in Italy’s vast cultural and historical heritage.  

Visits to many sites are available in several languages, with Italian school kids as your guides – in my past experience, they have been excellent and enthusiastic tour guides to these unique attractions.  Dates are March 26 & 27, 2011.  The FAI website has a complete listing of open sites in every region of Italy – just click on the map of Italy for a list of properties and hours.

Read about other unique attractions in Italy:

Mysterious Muragghi of Sicily

Stalking the Magical Mandrake Plant

All state run museums in Italy will be free on March 17, 2011 in celebration of Italy’s 150th anniversary.  This includes all archeological sites and state parks, so wherever you are in Italy, there will be a vast choice.  In addition, several important sites will be open the night of March 16 including:

Turin:  l’Armeria Reale, la Galleria Sabauda and  Palazzo Reale
Milan: la Pinacoteca di Brera
Florence: la Galleria degli Uffizi, la Galleria Palatina, la Galleria dell’Accademia
Rome: Palazzo Barberini, Castel Sant’Angelo, Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II
Naples: Palazzo Reale

There will be all-night parties on March 16 in many Italian cities, so join in the celebrations and get a free dose of culture, too.

The fun continues with the San Giuseppe festivities on March 19.

One of the first autumn wildflowers in Italy is the sternbergia lutea with its bright yellow flower that has a crocus-like shape. In fact, it is often erroneously referred to as Autumn Crocus. It is actually more close related to the narcissus (daffodil) in the amaryllidaceae family.  The easiest way to spot the difference is by noting the number of stamens in the flower- a crocus has just three, while the sternbergia lutea has six.  

Soon after the the sternbergia is finished blooming, the lovely purple saffron crocus appears. If you are a patient person with a hankering for risotto alla milanese, you can gather the tiny amounts of saffron from the flower’s stigma.  

Autumn in Italy is also the time for beautiful walks, when the summer haze lifts to reveal splendid clear skies and far-reaching views. In my backyard in Sicily, the peak of the Mt. Etna volcano appears, while in the Chianti area of  Tuscany the craggy Appenine mountain range suddenly comes into view.  

And a walk is always a good excuse to taste.  Crisp autumns days in Tuscany invite the walker to explore pathways through golden vineyards, stopping in one of the delightful hilltowns in Chianti for a taste of the vino novello, the season’s new wine. 

In Sicily, its still warm enough by the sea to have a picnic, and I love to go to the Vendicari coastal oasis, and follow the ancient Greek road to a rocky overlook.  This is a good place to sit in the sun, watch the changing colors of the sea, and slurp up the juice of the season’s first oranges.  

Read similar stories about the seasons in Italy:

Have Sausage, Will Travel- Regional Food Exchange

Encountering The Magical Mandrake Plant

Autumn Traditions - Thank San Martino for Warm Weather

Top Places to View Wildflowers in Italy

In Italy, where blue lines - strisce blu – delineate parking spaces, you must pay according to the parking rules on the posted sign. But first, you must decipher the sign:

The two hammers indicate a workday, which in Italy is classified as Monday thru Saturday.

So, on workdays, you must pay to park from 8.00 -13.00 and from 15.00-19.00.  This assumes that everyone is home eating a big lunch, apparently having worked up an appetite hammering all morning.  And for those unfortunate souls who have nowhere to go for a home-cooked meal, at least you can park for free during lunch.

The cross indicates Sundays and holidays, which do not have to be religious.  This means that all time off is sacred.

This sign means that it is forbidden to park on one side of the street, in this case, during specified hours. 

So, you cannot park on this side of the street from 19.00- 24.00 on workdays, and from 10.00-13.00 and 19.00 to 24.00 on Sundays and holidays. It is encouraging to note that, when you can park, at least the cost is very low – 30 cents for 30 minutes, 60 cents for 60 minutes – but this is in a small town in Sicily.  (Do not expect such prices in the heart of Rome, where it can be cheaper to take a cab than to park a car.) 

But now comes the tricky part: “Esporre biglietto prepagato distribuito presso revendite autorizzate” states the sign.  Allora?  Well then, let’s assume that after riffling through your phrase book, and arguing with your traveling partner, you have deciphered the meaning: “Display the prepaid ticket distributed by authorized vendors.”  Well, you think, just who is an authorized vendor and where do I find one?   Your next thought may well be to simply give up and drive away.

Forza, you can do this!   If you can’t decipher a sign or figure out where to buy a ticket, and there is no official traffic cop in sight, then head to the nearest café.  Wave your arms around, babble in any language, and look desperate – this should be easy to do. There are always retired fellows that hang out in their favorite bar, and will be eager to help.  In fact, once you have made it known that you are in need of assistance, they will instantly become your guardians and may eventually be hard to get rid of.  You officially become a ward of the bar until you leave town. 

Once you finally get your parking card, it will usually look like a scratch and win lottery card, except there are no prizes.  Scratch off the date and time of your arrival – give yourself an extra 10 minutes for all that effort – and run back to your car or you may get a parking ticket in the meantime.   If you do, return to the bar and get your guardian to intervene on your behalf.

Place the card on the dashboard – cruscotto – so that it can easily be seen by the vigili.  They are traffic cops and meter readers, that living up to their name, are ever vigilant.

By now, it is probably lunch time, when you could have parked for free. Relax and have a good meal.  Buon appetito!

A Sunday at the beach was anything but typical on Sept 19, 2010, when members of the Sicily Wildlfe Fund released nine loggerhead sea turtles on the San Lorenzo beach near Noto in eastern Sicily. 

The caretta caretta sea turtles, which had suffered various injuries, had been cared for at the Centro Recupero Fauna Selvatica – Wildlife Rehabilitation Center – and were now deemed to be in good health and ready to return “home.”

Ranging in size from 20 to 50 kilos, the sea turtles looked a bit confused when first placed on the sand near the water’s edge, and tentatively flopped forward towards the sea.  Once in the water, they happily swam away to the cheers and applause of the Italian families gathered to watch this unusual event.

More sea turtle news:  The San Lorenzo beach near Noto in eastern Sicily may offer lovely walking as well as delightfully clear water for a dip, but this summer it also appealed to a couple of loggerhead turtles, who made it their nesting ground.  The two nests containing approximately 70 eggs each, were made by caretta caretta sea turtles on 2 separate occasions this summer, July 31 and August 15, 2010, and are to due to hatch in October 2010.  I’ll keep you posted!

Read more stories about Sicily: The Magical Mandrake Plant

The gourmet hiker is in for special lunchtime treats in the Dolomites, where top chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants have created dishes using traditional ingredients for eight alpine rifugi or mountain huts .  It’s all part of the “In Vetta con Gusto”- Peaks of Gastronomy – initiative that makes hiking in the dolomites with lunch at a mountain hut a truly sublime experience.

The chef’s dishes, which feature many South Tyrolean food products of the Dolomites, are paired with a local wine, a great way to taste some of Alto Adige’s lesser known wines.

After a magnificent walk through alpine meadows full of wildflowers in the Dolomites, we lunched at the Rifugio Pralongià where I was too hungry to notice the gourmet dish, and opted for an immediate and steaming bowl of barley soup, but sharp-eyed hiker Robert Gardos went for the chef’s dish:  Fresh sheep’s milk cheese wrapped in warm Speck ham with mountain honey, served with an Alto Adige Sauvignon.

Other rifugi that are participating and are convenient for wildflower walks from San Cassiano (and the luxurious hotel Rosa Alpina, a Relais & Chateaux):

Rifugio Bioch:  Chef Norbert Niederkofler of the 2-star Michelin St. Hubertus at the Rosa Alpina, proposes a tortelli pasta stuffed with Speck ham paté and buffalo ricotta cheese on a bed of green beans, paired with an Alto Adige Bianco.

Rifugio I Tablá: Chef Arturo Spicocchi of the 1-star Michelin La Stüa de Michil suggests pork shank in honey and black pepper, with thyme-seasoned polenta and chanterelles accompanied by an Alto Adige Pinot Nero.

For more information about the Peaks of Gastronomy initiative, click here.

To learn more about where I go hiking and walking in the Dolomites, click here.