We’ve now been in Sicily for approaching four years, and I’m still surprised by how much of this gorgeous island we still have to explore! Last month, we visited Sicily’s southern coast and had a wonderful first post-lockdown weekend in Marina di Ragusa. Our goal was really just to find a house with a pool and near a beach so that we could socially-distance somewhere other than our own apartment for a bit, but we ended up really enjoying the town of Marina di Ragusa overall. It’s a very cute and very clean beach town, which we’ll definitely be returning to!

But first — a quick update on Italy’s lockdown. It’s been a while since I posted! I’m pleased to say that Italy’s very strict quarantine has helped reduce the number of deaths here to around 20 per day as of late, with a couple days dipping into the single digits recently. While any deaths at all are a tragedy, it is a substantial relief to see our numbers falling when they peaked at nearly 1,000 deaths per day a couple months ago. In Sicily, we’ve been even luckier with very few cases. Consequently, things have really opened up here. While we are still taking precautions — tables are further apart at restaurants and lidos, people are all wearing masks indoors, some kid-centric things aren’t opening yet — in other ways, it is starting to feel more normal. We’ve been able to see friends, eat in restaurants, go hiking and, most importantly, hit the beach a whole bunch! After so many weeks stuck mostly indoors, it has been wonderful.

We don’t know what the future will hold here, and are crossing our fingers that the numbers continue to decline even now that people are getting out and about. In the meantime, we are going to soak up every bit of outdoor summer fun that we can!

I will say, however, that while we are grateful to be getting out these days, it still is hard not to know when we’ll be able to see our families. This week in particular has been sad because we were supposed to be with my parents and siblings in the south of France, a reunion trip that has been under discussion for literal years and planned for the better part of a year. We were initially hopeful that we’d be able to reschedule for August, but the huge spikes in cases in the US has resulted in the European Union’s decision to bar Americans for the moment, so there is just no way of knowing when it will be possible. Likewise, it doesn’t look like Lochie and I will be going back to the States in September for a visit as I was hoping either. We also always do a trip or two each year with my in-laws, but obviously we can’t even look at dates since we don’t know when travel will resume. I know whining about a lack of travel during a freaking pandemic is just generally not a good look for anyway, but since we’ve moved here we’ve been lucky enough to see our families a few times each year. Rarely have more than a few months gone by that we haven’t had a visit from family on one side or the other, whether it is our parents or siblings or even extended family members. We’ve also gone back to the States three times since we got here. This is absolutely the longest we’ve gone without getting to see people (in person, that is — we are so lucky to live in the age of video chatting!) and it is hard.

But back to Sicily. In June as things started to very gradually open up, Chris and I decided we wanted to just get a house somewhere so that the kids could swim. Usually we spend every summer in the pool, but the ones we usually go to were obviously still closed at the time. Chris did a search of the whole island and wound up selecting this gorgeous house near Marina di Ragusa, in a small town called Punta Secca. It was fabulous and the owner (who lives next door) was extremely helpful. On top of that, all four bedrooms had air conditioning, as did the common rooms. For as insanely hot as it gets here, finding a house with that many AC units is actually quite rare in Sicily.

If you prefer a hotel, our friends who have two small children of their own highly recommend the Hotel Miramare! It is right across the street from the beach and has an excellent pool and breakfast, they report.

While our trips are usually fast-paced and GO GO GO, for this weekend we took it easy. I got out to take a walk each morning and the kids did a lot of swimming in the pool.

In the afternoons, we hit the beach. We opted for the public beach right off the main square in Marina di Ragusa. The water clear and shallow for a long way out, which is always helpful with little kids.

The big excitement one of the days was capturing three crabs we were all fighting (or … something?) in the water, then creating a small habitat/jail for them on the beach for a while.

We did not do a lot of eating out while on this particular trip. Since we didn’t know what to expect about how much would be open (turned out, a lot) we ended up bringing a lot of snacks and foods we knew the kids would like so that we wouldn’t have to go find a grocery store. Since swimming and sun take a lot out of kids, they fell asleep too early in the evening for us to have dined out anyway. However, if you are wondering where to eat in Marina di Ragusa, we do have three recommendations:

Takeaway pizza: A Regola d’Arte. Easy, fast and cheap. The fries were also excellent.

For lunch: Ara. A burger restaurant near the area’s main square. It had some of the best burgers we’ve had in Sicily, plus an amazing range of arancini with different types of fillings. 10/10 would recommend.

For treats: Crema&cioccolato. Oh man, if you go nowhere else — please go here and order a caffe con panna for me. It’s a cold coffee with the most amazing cream on top, and apparently this is a Ragusa-specific drink. (I tried to order it here and it did not go well; we got the explanation later from a Sicilian that it isn’t a thing here). The ice cream and granita were also both great.

Quite a few of our friends have gone to Marina di Ragusa recently, so I may add to this list as I hear of more awesome options from them. In the meantime, here’s a few more cute kid pictures to send you off with.