Scopello

We were transported by a very small little taxi from our hotel in Palermo to the lovely agritourismo Tenute Plia in Scopello. The briefing for the bike trip was over shadowed by my hunger - luckily someone else was paying attention and we got written directions. The lunch was just fabulous - in fact, my mood improved so much with the good food one might have thought I was a bit manic. A hard napping session of 3.5 horus helped.

In the evening we headed into 'town' and saw the lovely wildflowers, bakery and the turning for the road to the Riserva Zingara. The bakery had these amazing 'sandwiches' made with fresh bread, tomatoes, olive oil, cheese and some green herb that are typical to the region. That and a beer completed our supper.

The next day we ate a lovely breakfast and headed off to the nature reserve. Only in Italy would the tourist shop sell perfume, nice perfume that smelled like the flowers of the nature preserve. The nature reserve was wonderful, we managed to hike almost the lenght of it before we had to head back. The winds were terrific - our friend felt as if she was going to be lifted into the air like a kite. DH and I had no such problem being such grounded folks.

The afternoon was spent with chef Tony in the kitchen of the Tenute Plia. Our hostess took us into the field to gather the artichokes, fennel, onions and fava beans that we would later turn into our meal. That was an amazing cooking class. Later that evening we were able to eat the meal we had cooked. It is hard to express in words how much we all enjoyed the experience.