5 weeks in Italy

The Aeolian Islands, beauty and relaxation. We spent 6 nights on the islands, taking the Liberty Lines hydrofoil out to Salina and lounging in Malfa the first three nights.  I do mean lounging, we walked a little, swam, watched the sunset from Pollara one evening (the west side of the island) and I finished my buddy's book Radio Silence , its a good read about my friend's experiences and struggles with war and peace.  He's a great guy and I am thankful to have served with him and call him a friend. The time on Salina was fun, here's a few shots: Instead of umbrella and chair rental here they rented air mattresses due to the premature sand. Sunset from Pollara. Timelapse of the sunset: My Pollara friends. View from our apartment in Malfa, not too shabby eh? Some nice smoked fish, with warm bread and chilled butter (ice is a rarity), some mussel and potato stuffed ravioli and swordfish in Malfa. Spiaggia d...

We travelled from Caltagirone to our next stop of Castelmola by way of Bronte .  Bronte is famous throughout Italy for one thing, it's pistachios.  The Arabs brought the pistachio to Bronte and the foot of Mt Etna, ever since then they've flourished into the lifeblood of the town.  That volcanic soil of Europe's largest volcano provides just the right nutrients for a nut like no other.  As you travel the beautiful country of Italy I highly recommend dishes & gelato and other things which contain Bronte pistachios.  So we stopped in a bar in small town Sicily's Bronte after driving around a bit to find the right place to purchase some pistachio products.  We ordered a couple espressos and they were delivered each with a piece of pistachio cake, tasty!  They had a few products for sale but I was searching for more variety and honestly more volume.  I asked the barista where I could find more of these products, in my broken Italian, she smiled ...