How to Enjoy an Endless Sicilian Summer (At Home)!
9 fun tips, including Vespa-inspired classic style, the ingredients for at-home aperitivo, and all white gone wild!
My favorite thing about traveling is sleuthing for tiny life-enhancers to transform mundane moments back home.
In England, I discovered the iconic country house design trick of mixing checks, florals, and stripes to add warmth to a room. In Spain, I learned to make simple tapas by rubbing olive oil, fresh garlic, and tomato on toasted bread. And in Greece, I was beguiled by personal ice buckets!
Last week, we were lucky enough to take a family trip to southern Sicily. While we had our fair share of hot, bored, tired, and cranky moments, I’ll treasure the memories of my family’s smiling faces gathered around tables laden with perfect pasta, creamy cheese, and ripe tomatoes, the friendly, down-to-earth locals, and golden evenings spent enjoying aperitivo and stunning scenery!
Here are the ideas I brought back to savor the dolce vita all year long…
1. Sicilian Tomato Salad: Does anything taste more like a Mediterranean summer than a simple salad of juicy fresh tomatoes and grated ricotta salata cheese?!
2. Fresh mint in drinks. I grow mint at home and always have so much I don’t know what to do with it! An easy solution: add a very generous cutting to every drink, like Teddy’s mocktail on the Hotel Gagliardi terrace.
3. Fish en Papillote: My favorite dinner featured fresh-from-the-Ionian-sea orata (sea bream) and tiny clams smothered in white wine, lemons, olives, and herbs, and packaged up in parchment paper. I had forgotten how easy (and mess free!) this dish is to make at home: once you get the hang of it, you can experiment with different additions!
4. Caponata. This Sicilian classic featuring eggplant and tomato is a hearty veggie-forward topping for bruschetta that doesn’t need cheese—although a dollop of burrata or mozzarella won’t go astray… The other eggplant dish going into our regular rotation is Pasta Alla Norma: my kids don’t usually like eggplant but loved this!
5. All white gone wild. Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) is a classic Sicilian novel (iconic 60’s film, and now a Netflix series), and it’s style influence could be seen everywhere. My favorite was an elegant woman wearing all-white sneakers, trousers, tank, and cardigan, plus a leopard-print scarf tied jauntily around her neck. Here are some ideas for adding just the right amount of animal print: bracelet; black and white silk scarf; jungle print silk scarf; leopard-print sneakers; raffia clutch.
6. Vespa-inspired classic style. Watching people of all ages zip along the busy Italian roads on Vespas was both fun and terrifying! A common sight: men in cuffed white pants plus a navy t-shirt. It’s the exact opposite of navy jeans and a white t-shirt, and it works for everyone! Here are some ideas: white linen elastic waist pants with pockets; wider leg white linen pants; pleated white linen pants; v-neck tee; cropped tee; button-down.
7. Spritz with a twist. The most delicious Aperol Spritz we had on the trip was made with blood orange juice, a Sicilian specialty! Enjoy during at-home aperitivo, while playing Italian Vintage Summer tunes, with olives in an adorable dish, and on-theme cocktail napkins!
8. Clean citrus. Southern Sicily is home to countless lemon groves, and I couldn’t leave without buying some citrus and olive-oil-scented soap. And citrus-scented candles always feel like summer!
9. Striped travel dress. “Mom, that lady is wearing a dress and high heels!” Sadie noted at Catania airport, a highly unusual sight in a sea of sweatpants and sneakers. I have long wished I was alive for the glamor days of air travel so decided to up my game and fly home wearing a dress. I wore this short-sleeved, pocketed midi dress with my trusty woven crossbody bag, and was every bit as comfortable as I typically am in soft pants!
I’d love to know: would you wear a dress on a plane?! Do you have a travel uniform?
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I feel like I went on vacation! Lovely recap, Amelia, I forgot how easy and mess free (and delicious) en papillote fish is, love the travel dress, checking Anthropologie now! ❤️
I almost always wear a dress on long travel days! Sometimes I’ll switch it up and wear a long maxi skirt (elasticized waist) with separate top. It’s so much more comfortable than pants and makes me feel more put together. I have socks and a cashmere wrap or cardigan for the plane. Your dress is great!