So What’s the Deal with those Ceramic Sicilian Heads?

Anyone fortunate enough to visit Sicily, could not fail to notice the beguiling ceramic Moor heads, brimming with foliage, adorning gardens and balconies all over the island. Sicily is famous for its ceramics, designed in classical maiolica, but what may be lesser known, is that it was the Arabs who introduced this craft to the…

Meet the Italian Grandmothers Making the World’s Rarest Pasta

Pasta makes everything better. This we know. But in the ancient villages of Sardinia, where the art of handmade pasta is practically a sacred ritual, there are ancestral, mouth-watering secrets that even the finest fettuccine can’t hold a candle to. We’re talking about the most beautiful and intricate shapes you’ve never seen; braided, stretched, twisted…

Don’t be a Tourist in Sicily

Sigmund Freud called it “the loveliest region of Italy: a stunning orgy of colors, scents, and lights…a great delight”. Searching for the perfect Autumn getaway? Look no further, because our latest eBook from the Keyholder’s Library is here! Start planning your trip to Sicily now.

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Wander through the Sicilian Village in a Cave, Frozen in Time

In the province of Trapani, Sicily, there’s a portal through time about eighty meters high and seventy meters deep. Nestled inside the natural opening of two mountain peaks, lies a tiny village, consisting of quaint earth-colored houses, a chapel, stables, workshops and one cobbled main street. The village “piazza” of Grotto Mangiapane is located at the mouth of the cave where…

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Oh just a Phallic Bar in a quaint Sicilian Town

In the hidden romantic town of Taormina, Sicily known for its turquoise beaches, quaint shops, and views of Mount Etna, lies a curious and unsuspecting restaurant known as Bar Turrisi. The locals will tell you only that it is the “world’s strangest” or “most interesting” bar– and a must-see when in Taormina. At the top…

The Most Beautiful Car Race that Ever Was

It was the kind of race where if a car broke down, the driver would have been invited inside by locals for spaghetti. The track, littered with horseshoe nails, meandered through the tiny twisting streets of quaint Sicilian mountain towns while villagers watched Ferraris speed by at 100 miles an hour, perilously close to their doorsteps. The Targo Florio…

This Empty Sicilian Town is Giving away Free Houses

There are records at Ellis Island in New York showing that between 1892 and 1924, the small Sicilian town of Gangi lost about 1,700 of its residents to the American dream. They abandoned their homes to board trans-Atlantic ocean liners, sold to the prospect of a better life by shipping agents pushing emigration in the region. Those…

The Godfather Bar, Still Open.

Once upon a time, Michael Corleone sat on the shady terrace of a local Sicilian bar after a day of hunting with his bodyguards in the mountains. He began to enquire with the bar owner about a beautiful girl he had seen by the roadside. The man quickly realised that Michael was describing his own daughter and…