Thursday Travel Throwback: Sicily

Hi there!

Ever since I talked about my upcoming vacation earlier this week, I’ve had travel on my brain. Earlier today I posted a photo on Instagram from my vacation in Thailand last year:

I started thinking about how I’ve mentioned some of my trips on the blog, but haven’t gone into good detail of some of my favorite travels from before I started Foodie Loves Fitness. I thought it might be fun to relive them a bit and do a few recaps, and so for the next month until I go on my Euro trip, I’m going to do a Thursday travel throwback post – starting today with Sicily!

Growing up in the heavily Italian-influenced state of New Jersey and having a heritage of being half Italian, I had always wanted to go to Italy. So when I saw that my college was offering a study abroad program in Sicily, I jumped on the chance and made it happen. Five years ago during the summer before my senior year of college, off I went on the trip of a lifetime.

To describe it in a word, my time in Sicily was magical. I studied the Italian language and Italian cultural studies, & went to school in the beautiful town of Taormina, but also got to see other parts of Sicily while I was there.

Though I was a straight-A student in college, while studying abroad I slacked a little as far as the cultural studies classes went. All I wanted to do was soak up as much of Italy as I could, and spend as little time working on writing papers in my hotel room as possible. Looking back, I’m happy that I had that attitude – no regrets!

Some of my favorite memories of Sicily include…

Hiking Mount Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe:

The above spotty picture does it absolutely no justice, but there was lava flowing near us. It was amazing!

Clearly I was a happy girl on the mountain that night.

Obviously the food was fabulous in Sicily. Between the pasta, gelato, caprese salads/sandwiches (think I ate that every single day!), and minestrone soup with fresh bread, I was in heaven! Everything was so fresh. (I even tried fish there a few times, but quickly decided that pescatarianism wasn’t for me.)

I was about to turn 21, but since the drinking age in Sicily is nonexistent there were plenty of these…

My poor liver.

The above picture is quite possibly the scariest photo of me in existence, but it’s too funny not to include! And speaking of wine, my time in Sicily is when I started to really be interested in the winemaking process – shall I say, the start of me being a wine enthusiast.

I became really close with two girls on the trip with me (and later was a bridesmaid in one of their weddings). We met a local restauranteur…

…who took us to visit some wineries one day. We did wine & cheese tastings with winery owners, drove through beautiful countryside, and got to see some behind-the-scenes stuff at a few of the wineries. It was one of my favorite days of the trip.

One weekend, the three of us ladies decided to take a trip to these tiny islands called The Aeolian Islands. The trip started off pretty shaky: I remember us all being hungover, feeling sick taking a boat to the islands, then me realizing that I forgot to bring my travel guide. My one friend who speaks fluent Italian couldn’t understand the locals on the islands well because their accents were really different. We couldn’t find a place to stay, and I think we all started to freak out a little thinking we’d be sleeping on the streets…but then it turned into the most awesome weekend I had in Sicily.

We found a great local bar where no one spoke English, yet the only music played was 80’s American classics that everyone knew every word to. We met locals who took us on their boat around the islands. We stayed out so late, that we went right to breakfast on our way back to the hotel after the bar. We found hot springs, and dipped into very stinky mud baths…

…which left us smelling foul for days! I still have the dress I wore that day, and it STILL smells weird about many washes. But it was worth it for the experience!

I also journeyed to the city of Palermo, which has cool architecture and beautiful churches.

I’m so thankful to have gotten the opportunity to study abroad. The experience made me fall in love with Italy, realize how much there is in the world that I want to see, and also feel so appreciative of the things I take for granted with life at home. For instance, I washed all my clothes in a bathtub, spent way too much time trying to connect to the iffy Internet at cafes and my school, and certainly missed my man (then boyfriend) and family.

While everyone else on the trip kept saying they felt like they were losing weight from the tons of walking we did every day, I knew that was not the case for me and my slow metabolism – despite my efforts at doing workouts in my hotel room all the time. I think I came back to the U.S. around 7 pounds heavier, and I remember saying to my mom, “I’ve never been fatter, but I’ve never been happier!”

I have so many amazing memories from Sicily that I’ll never forget!