Our week at the Il Borgo Villa, Sicily

September 23, 2023

We flew from Bari, the capital of Puglia, to Catania, Sicily on the evening of September 22 and took a taxi to our hotel in the heart of Catania’s Old Town. Our travel agent, Martina, had booked the place but not told us what to expect.

It was the most outlandish accommodation we have experienced as well as the most humorous and appealing. For starters, there was a huge, ceramic black foot in the middle of our room, not to mention the life-size ceramic sculpture of Spiderman outside our door, as if standing guard. There was pop art in all the public rooms and on every shelf and wall space. We wandered around smiling at everything. The hotel was on a pedestrian only street with several restaurants. We selected one and had a delicious meal of fresh fish and pasta. We were joined by the first of our selected group to arrive, Jayna and Craig Ashcraft, Ken and Julie Zuckerman and Jean Creasey. They had all arrived early for our group gathering and we were happy to have them join us for dinner. We were all giddy to finally be together in Sicily after a year and a half of planning. We lingered over dinner a long time umtil we were all getting sleepy. We crawled into bed giggling about the foot at tne end of our bed.

September 23, 2023
Breakfast was on the plant bedecked terrace overlooking a piazza. It was the usual European breakfast of cappuccino, cheese, lunch meat, fruit, yogurt and fresh breads. Each day we try to eat less, but are not very successful. Thankfully we don’t eat like this at home, or we would be blimps. Then we went for a stroll around the old town and observed that our hotel was literally on the same street as the busy and entertaining Fish Market.

The Fish Mongers are all shouting about their products and wanting us to taste and buy different fish. Above the street was a roof of colored umbrellas that provide some shade and rain protection. Then we followed Rick Steves walking directions and saw several ancient buildings as well as churches and underground antiquities.

Back at the hotel by noon, we checked out, got some lunch, picked up the car and headed for our villa for a week called Il Borgo. It was a half hour drive south of Catania in the middle of orchards of fruit trees and grass land. It definitely contained the required 12 suites, public areas and large swimming pool. It was just a bit more rustic than I expected.
Mark and I busied ourselves deciding where to locate each of our 21 guests, putting name tags on each door and laying out T-shirts Mark had designed and made for everyone. Before we knew it, our first guests appeared and by 6:30 everyone had arrived, except Judith Ciphers, whose flight plans delayed her until mid-day on the 24th. The weather was very warm and the pool very inviting. As people arrived they put on their suits and hung out in the water. Everyone ordered cocktails and the party began.

By 7:30 we gathered in the courtyard for dinner. The villa staff provided us with a delicious buffet with typical Sicilian dishes. The sky sprinkled on us and most of us moved under cover. Al Dover gave a lovely welcome thank you to Mark and me for hosting the week. It was very touching. Then I talked about housekeeping matters and Terry McAteer talked about the planned activities for the week. I was thrilled that everyone had arrived safely and were already enjoying themselves. Success. We had been so busy chatting that we forgot to take photos. Sorry.

September 24, 2023

We woke up to a sunny and warm day. Breakfast was at 8am. Some of us stayed by the pool while 8 of us went to the beach at Agnon Bagni Beach about 12 minutes from the villa.

The water was a comfortable temperature and we had fun bobbing around. Liz and Jean went for long swims. I thought the beach was pretty dirty and a bit disappointing. The pool was a much better place to cool off. Some of us worked out with Roxanna back at the villa.

We changed, ate a fast lunch and drove in several cars to Syracuse for a walking tour led by Terry. It included Greek antiquities in the middle of the modern city, the ancient city walls, the large and lovely Piazza Duomo and the Cathedral, which had originally been a Greek temple, later replaced by a muslim mosque and finally by the Roman Catholic Church . We attended Mass in the Cathedral at 7pm and dinner at a nearby reserved restaurant at 8pm. The food was terrific. All went as planned by Terry. Love that boy.