One Great (Road)Trip in Sicily
Author Jo Piazza went to the Southern Italian island in search of the truth about her great great grandmother's murder — and she took her kids, too.
Welcome back to One Great Trip, where a cool and curious traveler shares a recent stand-out adventure — including some of the best things they ate, drank, and did — to help inspire your own travels.
The Sicilian Inheritance is a fictional tale inspired by Jo’s real life family lore. I got to read an early draft of the book and I ignored my children for an entire day in a frenzy to finish it. It’s not just how she adeptly weaves together two women’s lives from a century apart, or the overarching themes of female sacrifice and resiliency, or the fact that it was inspired by her great great grandmother Lorenza (LOOK AT THIS WOMAN.) It’s also — as it really always is for me — about the food. The cannoli, the juicy figs, the Busiate with wild boar ragu. Read it for the story, yes, but just know with 100 percent certainty you will want to book a flight to Palermo well before you flip to the last page.
Last summer, Jo spent a month traveling around Sicily with her husband Nick and their three children to research some finishing touch details, and also to do reporting for the book’s companion true crime podcast. Side note: as a former travel editor, this woman knows how to plan a trip.
Read on for some of Jo’s Sicily highlights, like the dazzling beach beside an old tuna fishery, the hotel with an olive grove and vineyard near ancient ruins, and the restaurant serving her favorite meal in Sicily.
Where: Sicily, Italy
In the summer of 2023 I took my whole family of five to the Northwestern coast of Sicily to finish research for my novel The Sicilian Inheritance. The book is a murder mystery and is fiction but it is loosely based on my own great great grandmother Lorenza’s murder in the Sicilian village of Caltabellotta more than a 100 years ago. I had finished the book based off previous trips to Sicily but I wanted to go one last time to really nail down the village where she was from, some dialogue and most importantly food. The challenge was that I was traveling with three kids under the age of seven so I also had to make it delightful for them as I “worked.” We moved around a lot to get a feel for different places, making sure each destination had family friendly activities and restaurants. (Let’s be honest … all restaurants in Sicily adore children and will want to pluck them from your arms and smooch them on both cheeks.)
Arrived by: Connecting Flight
We flew from NY to Rome to Palermo and then rented a car to head to our first stop.
Stop 1: Scopello
Scopello, a simple yet gorgeous beach town perched high on a cliff above the sea. The town itself has a couple of roads sprinkled with hotels and restaurants and a small town square that comes to life at sunset and stays hopping until well after midnight. You can eat a full meal on the cliffs overlooking the sea or fill up on aperitivo, pizza and gelato.
My favorite restaurant here is La Tavernetta for excellent sea views and great food without any fuss. I still dream about their thick squid ink spaghetti with salty toasted almonds. Also the wild black boar ragu.
The highlight of this part of the trip was definitely our boat trip into the Riserva Naturale Orientata dello Zingaro, a wildlife refuge and nature reserve filled with secret beaches and grottos. We also spent a ton of time at the Tonnara di Scopello, a hidden beach beside a beautiful old tuna fishery (now a museum) with crystal clear turquoise water and massive rocks for jumping into the sea.
We stayed at the Baglio di Scopello which was very simple but had an excellent pool and was a two minute walk to the town square. They also served a breakfast buffet with at least fourteen different cakes every morning. Yes, I tried them all.
Stop 2: Caltabellotta
Next up we traveled to Caltabellotta which is the town my relatives are from and where most of The Sicilian Inheritance is set (although I changed the name in the book to Caltabellessa). It’s an ancient village on top of a mountain that has been invaded and conquered and resettled for two thousands years. It is also home to my favorite Sicilian meal at Ristorante MATES. Do not bother asking for a menu. There isn’t one. They will bring you what they want when they want and you’ll like it. Trust me.
They’ll start with all the cheese and sausage and fried eggplants and panelle and then move onto the pasta. Pasta alla Norma (Sicily’s favorite pasta), Busiata Al Pistachio and a sausage ravioli in a white ragu, then two risottos (one simmered in a Nero d’avola) followed by pork stuffed with dried tomatoes and capers and beef braised in wine. Don’t worry, they aren’t letting you leave without some house made cannoli and they are going to keep your wine glass full for the whole three hours you’re there.
Stop 3: Realmonte
Next up we traveled South to Realmonte to stay at a gorgeous hotel on a winery and olive grove. The Borgo Giallonardo is just a five minute drive from the sea and grows the tastiest grillo wine I have ever had. The infinity pool overlooks the vines and olive trees. We took day trips to the Scala dei Turchi white cliffs where we ate roasted corn on the beach and covered ourselves in exfoliating cliff clay, and to the Valley of the Temples, the ancient ruins at Agrigento.