Sicilia

The 6 days that I have just spent in Sicily were some of the most exhausting, incredible, stuffed, and bizarre of my life! The trip was planned by the "Regione Sicilia" which is basically the Sicilian government (whereas all other university trips are planned by the university) therefore it was an odd mix of sales pitches, back scratching, and putting on a good face with a little slow food thrown in on the side. From the moment of arrival, it was uncommon for us to have an entourage smaller than 10 people, some from the region, maybe one slow food leader, and lots who probably just heard there was free food. A camera man and a photographer became daily instalments, even on our bus. By day 4 our questions were finally answered about why in the world these strange men were following us around. The region is making a video which hopefully can be seen on you tube soon. The only problem is that my self esteem might suffer this next week without anybody in my face trying to take my picture! But over all, the trip was like a dream. I ate lots of cannoli, a good few kilos of ricotta, lots of fish, wine, more ricotta, olives, oranges, another cannoli, and more oranges. And that is all in one day (or so it seemed). I did Marsala tastings, olive oil tastings, fish farms, had a Palermian spleen and lung panino, and saw cheese made from the sheep to the final product all within about 12 feet of distance and a few hours. And a lot of waiting around for the Sicilians to show up, feeling suspicious if we were less than an hour and a half behind schedule, and making up conspiracy theories in the back of the bus about who all those men in suits and sunglassess were!

I left home with a 6 kilo bag and returned with 17. Everywhere we went we were given products and brochures. Here are just some of the
products I received!

Also, raw sheep milk is really nice if anyone's curious!