It’s been scorching hot this summer in Sicily, but we’ve been trying to lean into island living (ok, and beat the heat!) by hitting the beach as often as possible. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve mostly been going to Fontane Bianche. This past week, however, we tried to branch out a bit more.

Cassibile Beach 

Third time was a charm for getting to this beach at last on Saturday, after our first two plans were scuppered by thunderstorms and sickness. It is actually very close to Fontane Bianche — they are the same exit off the highway — but while Fontane Bianche has had a lot of seaweed in the areas close to shore lately, Cassibile was crystal clear! I seriously can’t get enough of swimming in that blue blue blue water. Also like Fontane Bianche, there is a long stretch where the water is very shallow, which makes it a great place to play safely with the kids. There are also some cliffs you can climb to jump off of, but I ended up chickening out because I didn’t know exactly where I should be jumping. I’ll go with someone who has been next time!

We could park in a lot practically right next to the beach for 15 euro; not cheap, but it was worth it for not having to haul our stuff far. I will admit that we missed the convenience of being on a lido (beach with chairs and umbrellas for rent and usually services like a restaurant and changing rooms and bathrooms). We’d packed a cooler for lunch, but didn’t give enough consideration to how tricky it would be to assemble and eat sandwiches on our towels with two kids who seemed to have a mission to rub sand on every square inch of them. It was otherwise perfect though, so our plan is to buy a couple of chairs and an umbrella of our own to bring next time! I highly recommend this beach.

We had so much fun that day (and were so sandy) that I forgot to take a picture. Sorry!

Bonday Beach Lido at Giardini Naxos 

I’ve been meaning to check out the beaches at Giardini Naxos, a town located just south of Taormina, for a while because our landlord has a house there and has spoke highly of it. It is also only 35 minutes north of us (compared to about an hour to the south of us for Cassibile/Fontane Bianche) so I was hopeful that it might be a good weekday destination when I don’t want to drive far.

Unfortunately, we didn’t love it. It is much more rocky than sandy, and the “sand” was mostly gravel that was painful to walk on. It as a bit like a once-gravel parking lot that hasn’t been redone in a long time– some sand from where the pebbles have been crushed but also small and mediam-sized rocks that could be quite sharp.

It was a hot day so the gravel was also scorching hot — I legit think I burned my feet when I tried to walk on it without sandals at first.

That could have been remedied by wearing water shoes, but the water — while clear and beautiful — dropped off fairly abruptly and was quite deep already only a few yards into it. There also seemed to be somewhat stronger currents, so I had to keep a tight rein on the kids in their floaties.

My kids did LOVE hunting through the rocks to find seaglass, and at one point Owen actually said “this is BETTER than a sandy beach!” because of it. I don’t want to make it sound like a terrible trip, we met up with some friends and had a very nice time and if we we were better prepared with water shoes it would have been less of an issue. We also thought the town was pretty cute and we had a nice lunch after we left the beach. On the whole, however, it just wasn’t as little kid-friend as Cassibile or Fontane Bianche.

They still had fun! Rental for these chairs and the umbrella was 15 euro, by the way. 

A note about parking: because my GPS was on the fritz, I ended up on the opposite side of town from where I was aiming. That side, which has a lot of lidos, had me freaking out because there was virtually no parking to be found. Once I got myself in the place I was supposed to go — further south toward Recanati — the parking became basically easy. If you want to try Bonday Beach Lido (located near the Hilton) I’d suggest parking on Viale Jannuzzo. There was plenty of street parking and you could use a credit card to pay at the machine, 1 euro per hour. From there, it was a fairly quick walk to Bonday.

There are still plenty more beaches I want to try, such as the lidos in Catania, but thus far Fontane Bianche and Cassibile have been our favorites of the ones within driving distance. (We loved Cefalu too, but it is too far to drive for just a day). We have some visitors coming next month and we can’t wait to bring them there!

The post Exploring our island: two new beaches first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Exploring our island: two new beaches appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

The weather has been beautiful (and HOT!) here in Sicily, and we’ve been keeping busy! Our main goal on a daily basis is to leave the house, as even though it is about 10 degrees cooler up on our mountain than it is at base, it is still broiling. We have air conditioning, but currently the main AC system isn’t working so we only have air conditioning units in specific rooms to use. It isn’t a huge problem, but it is is better to be out of here during the heat of the day when possible. Plus, what’s the point of being on an island if you aren’t going to go enjoy it?!

As anyone who knows me in real life knows, I don’t so much tan. At all. Ever. But if there was ever a chance that I was going to tan, it would definitely be this year. If only because I become so freckled that they just sort of meld together into a tan.

What we’ve been up to: 

1. The beach! 

The beach is basically why we were excited to come here, and it has finally been warm enough to go! We’ve been going to Fontane Bianche, a sandy beach (many of them near us are rocky) about an hour south of us. We always cough up for a couple of chairs and an umbrella — 17 euro for the whole day, worth it not to have to haul our own. It is a pretty spot! 

We took some new people who we are sponsoring to Fontane Bianche last week, and we all decided to have lunch at a place right on the beach. The food didn’t end up being anything too special, but it had a great view! 

2. The pool! 

The base pool is open, and for the last couple of weeks we’ve basically been living in it.

The kids are taking swimming lessons right now, and so far it is going pretty well. Owen is making great progress! The last couple of lessons with Fiona have been a bit rocky, but overall she is also doing surprisingly well considering she isn’t even 3 years old yet. Today was a bit odd because she was “too scared” to go in with just her teacher so I had to join the lesson, but once in she repeatedly tried to kick away from me and from the teacher because “I swim without floaties BY MYSELF.” So now she seems to be a little too confident.

3. Eating all the granita

Ahh granita, how do I even begin to describe you? It is a frozen snack (I hesitate to say dessert because I’ve recently learned that people here eat it for breakfast as well) that is sort of between sorbet and a slushie. It is less solid than sorbet but you don’t drink it like a slushie? Anyway, it comes in a lot of flavors but the most traditional (according to our tutor) are pistachio and almond, though lemon, strawberry, coffee and chocolate are also common. I prefer stawberry, Chris likes pistachio, Owen is obsessed with lemon and Fiona is all about the chocolate. It is eaten with brioche on the side and all four of us love those too.

Anyway, we’ve been hearing about granita for ages and finally got around to eating it and well, now we’re obsessed.

We’ve also learned that this annoying whistling noise that we’ve been hearing for months? It’s been coming from a guy with a granita/gelato cart who whistles to summon people for their snack. As you can imagine, being able to just run outside our gate to grab some granita has not helped our habit.

4. Hanging with friends 

Of course, we’ve been doing all of the above with friends as well! I am feeling so lucky that all four of us have found great friends to hang out with. The kids are never happier than when we are doing a play date with their little buddies, and it is even better when people are meeting up with us at the pool! As a bonus, several of our friends happen to own a trampoline!

5. Sitting in traffic 

Ok, maybe I’m being a little dramatic. But not very. I feel like we’ve spent half our lives stuck in traffic lately as there has been a ton of construction and a ton of accidents on the highway. Blerg!

But just for fun, here are some other sights from driving around recently …

Goat traffic! We always stop and let them get around because apparently if you hit one of them you’ll find out just how pricy goats are.

Why yes, that is us driving through a bunch of smoke. The side of the highway was on fire (the flames were right there) but everyone just drove on through. According to my friends who have lived here longer, this is a pretty common sight. I’m not sure whether the fire was on purpose since are constantly burning brush around here, or the result of someone flicking a cigarette out the window. 

Only in Sicily!

The post What we’ve been up to lately: summer edition first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post What we’ve been up to lately: summer edition appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.