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recommended reading list

If you are contemplating a trip to Sicily, you’ll enjoy your trip more if you know more about this fascinating island.  Here are a few of our favorites to get you started.

On Persaphone's Island

On Persephone’s Island: A Sicilian Journal By Mary Taylor Simeti

This is one of my favorite books about Sicily and I ask all of my clients to try and read it before the trip, if possible. A useful historical perspective on Sicily’s blend of civilizations.

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Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-five Centuries of Sicilian Food By Mary Taylor Simeti

This book is a “must-have” if you are interested in Sicilian food, culture, and history. Featuring authentic recipes that validate Sicilian food as the most interesting in all of Italy. The real deal.

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Palmento- A Sicilian Wine Odyssey

Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey By Robert V. Camuto 

Camuto writes with the curiosity of an adventurer about the magic of Sicily….how it takes you in and feeds not only your body, but your soul as well. An insider’s look at the emerging, masterful wines of the oldest wine region in Italy. 

The Leopard- A Novel By Guiseppe Di Lampedusa

The Leopard: A Novel By Guiseppe Di Lampedusa  

Set in Sicily in 1860 at the time of Italian unification, this classic transcends historical-novel classification. Bring it with you on the trip if you can’t read it beforehand.

The Stone Boudoir- Travels through the H

The Stone Boudoir: Travels through the Hidden Villages of Sicily By Theresa Maggio  

No ordinary travel book, Maggio paints a luminous portrait of the enduring Sicilian landscape and culture. 

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Blue Guide Sicily (9th Edition) By Ellen Grady 

Superior in comprehensive detail and quality of information. The maps are excellent and it even has a glossary of architectural terms that apply to the many styles throughout Sicily.

The World of Sicilian Wine By Bill Nesto

The World of Sicilian Wine By Bill Nesto MW and Frances Di Savino

This book provides wine lovers a comprehensive guide of Sicilian wine from its ancient roots to its modern evolution.  Offering a guide and a map to exploring the different wine regions of the island and its indigenous grapes.

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Death in Sicily By Andrea Camilleri

Beloved Sicilian author Camilleri, created a series of books that are much more than crime novels-they are a way of Sicilian life where food prioritizes over everything else, even solving a crime.  Death in Sicily is a collection of the first three books in the Inspector Montalbano mystery series. His writing about Sicily is magical and transporting.

reco reading list
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