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Published: March 21st 2011
After leaving Pirapora, under the advise of Lauren and Gianni/Johnny, we decided to head to Acireale to celebrate Carnevale. Apparently this town has the most famous and elaborate celebration of Carnevale in all of Sicily, which we eventually experienced first hand. We initially had plans to stay only Friday night to experience the celebrations on Saturday and head to the next farm that evening, however after taking one step into Hotel Santa Canterina all plans changed as we started brainstorming ways to stay the entire weekend. The town of Acireale is adorable with small shop fronts, quaint piazzas with old churches, and bustling city streets...a combination of beauty and civilization Jon and myself had both come to miss. While the town was beautiful, the real motivator for the extended weekend trip was the Hotel Santa Canterina. I had no idea how happy a legitimate toilet and shower could make me. Arriving from the train station, we finally trudged up the steep hill to reception, covered in the dirt and dust from the farm (and I'm sure the smells as well), we were welcomed into the warmest and most comforting environment we could have imagined. Dark mahogany wood accents, paired with deep red and soft coffee walls decorated with Sicilian art elicited a true feeling of euphoria...and we were only at the front desk! A few short minutes later we were in our room with exposed brick walls, dark stained hardwood floors, a huge bed with a fluffy white comforter and big, soft pillows...and this was just the beginning. We had a balcony with our own terrace and view of the Mediterranean, with the option of breakfast in bed. There was a minibar! There were clothes hangers! The floors were clean and not covered in dirt, and we had CENTRAL HEATING!!!! Then the most amazing thing of all happened...I opened the bathroom door. I had reached heaven. There was a toilet with a toilet seat! A shower with 9 sprayers and a waterfall option that sprayed water from the ceiling, and the water was HOT! There were clean white towels, and bath mats, and hand towels, and the most wonderful, all natural shampoos, conditioners, body washes, and lotions (all of which we raided from the maid cart the next morning). To say the least we were living in luxury, and not an ounce of it was taken for granted. I felt like a kid on Christmas, but happier. I wanted to jump on the beds and take 12 showers. I called my mom and she could hardely understand me as I was speaking so quickly and with such enthusiasm...she had to get off the phone. It was at this moment that we realized only one night would not be sufficient, we wanted to bask in the glory of Hotel Santa Canterina for the rest of our lives! We didn't want to ever leave the room, and just when we thought things couldn't ever get better, we realized the hotel had a restaurant!!
After excessive water wasting, and primping on my part, we started on the long journey to the hotel restaurant. 35 seconds later we had arrived in the cutest little restaurant overlooking the sea (it was dark so we couldn't exactly see anything, but we imagined that it was probably overlooking the sea). Three of the four walls were floor length windows with rustic wood carved tables and mismatched patterned chairs. We were presented with dinner menus and the much anticipated wine list. After Pirapora we were both really craving good wine as we had only been subjected to fizzy grape juice for 5 weeks, so wine we did! The menu offered typical Sicilian dishes, mainly centered around seafood due to the close proximity to the sea, but we were both drawn to the pizza menu when the couple two tables over received their glorious looking and smelling pizzas. (Keep in mind that this entire time Jon and I are pinching each other to make sure we are truly experiencing this amazing hotel and restaurant). Anyways, after much deliberation we decided on 2 pizzas: mine was the Aquadelferro (named after the restaurant) which had tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto crudo, grated parmesan cheese, and mushrooms; Jons pizza was very similar with tomato sauce, mozzarella, hard boiled egg, prosciutto, and a blend of herbs. Both were completely amazing!! We then finished off dinner with a delicious warm chocolate torte. Dark chocolate cake, filled with a warm liquid chocolate center, drizzled with white chocolate and dusted with powdered sugar and coca powder. Sinful. I don't think smiles ever left our faces. We finished dinner and ventured back to the front desk to check on availability to extend our stay 2 more nights. Thankfully after my seemingly crack-induced phone call my mom offered to help us pay for an extra night (thanks Mom!) so we figured we would do Carnevale right and stay until the culminating celebration on Sunday night.
It was then that we got heartbreaking news. The hotel was full. Our dreams of a luxurious weekend in the Hotel Santa Canterina came crashing down. We wallowed for a minute, tried to think of ways to bribe our way into just one more night, and then decided to not let the disappointing news damper our one night of glory so we curled up in our warm bed, in our warm room, and had a great night sleep. We awoke early the next morning, thanks to our new farm schedule, and headed down to the restaurant for the complimentary breakfast. The fog was thick since it was so early, and we had the entire restaurant to ourselves. We helped ourselves to fresh squeezed juices, fresh fruit, delicious fresh baked breads and croissants, meats and cheeses, all natural yogurt, and a wide selection of herbal and breakfast teas. Again, we were in a stupor of the beauty of our environment, and our breakfast! A quick post breakfast laze and we were forced to pack up again and move on...but our dream of experiencing a full weekend of Carnevale had not died!
We headed down to reception to find alternative lodging, and decided to save some money and check out a new area by finding a hotel in Catania-the largest city nearby Acireale. After booking a room for 2 days at the Romano House, we trekked back to the train station and headed for Catania, hoping to be surprised again by a hotel that could stand up to Santa Canterina.
We hopped off the train at Catania Centrale to find that we "weren't in Acireale anymore." This area of Catania was congested, dirty, and made me feel slighty uneasy as we walked past seedy groups of men and broken down carnival rides and games. After much walking we arrived at the Romano House, luckily it was in a somewhat nicer area, and the reception had a very high class feel. Unlike our last hotel love, it was very posh and modern which we didn't find to be as comfortable as the earthy tones of Santa Canterina. The rooms were all white with cold marble floors, tricky lighting and the abstract furniture made us question our decision to stay the weekend...then we sat on the bed. It may have been one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in. Once you laid in it it formed a little cocoon around you weren't going anywhere anytime soon. No restling or tossing during sleep, it felt as if we were in a tempurpedic cloud, and I must say the bed at the Romano House trumped the bed at Santa Canterina. The shower was also wonderful, so we were very happy, and again thankful!
We spent the day exploring Catania, but it had a much more urban vibe than Acireale. There we many more people, it was much dirtier, and there weren't as many small shops and restaurants. After another lazy day of lounging in the heavenly bed and taking too many showers, we decided to venture far,far away (yet again) to the hotel restaurant. Unfortunately there was no pizza on the menu, but I did have an amazing squash and ricotta lasagna, while Jon had Argentinian beef filet with potatoes. While the dinner was wonderful, we we still feeling the pangs of missing our first hotel so we retreated back to the room to bask in the glory of our bed, and get a good nights sleep before Carnevale in Acireale the next day!
After logging too many hours in beds and hotel restaurants we decided we HAD to get around and check things out. Due to slight oversleeping on Sunday morning, we missed the Carnevale parade in Catania. We weren't aware of a parade, and therefore had no intentions of seeing the parade, but missing it did incite a sense of urgency to get to Acireale so we grabbed kabobs from a little hole in the wall and headed for the train station!
We were less than prepared for the scene that we walked into upon entering Acireale. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people filing up the main street towards the city center carrying huge bags of confetti, blowing horns and noisemakers, wearing hats, costumes, face paint...all things eccentric. Everyone was having a great time, children were running around covered in multicolor confetti, young people were taking swigs out of the bottles hidden in their back packs, and even the older people were celebrating with hats and noisemakers, all awaiting the parade of floats to enter the piazza. We unknowingly filed in line with the masses and headed towards our unknown destination. The streets were lined with vendors selling cotton candy, peanut brittle, noisemakers, and hats. Butcher shops had set up grills and were grilling sausages and burgers for the community. It was a truly amazing sight to see. People had come from all over to be here, and we were so happy that we had decided to stay the extra days!
The crowd was moving at a fairly slow pace, and since we didn't know where we were headed we just moseyed along, checking out the sights and waiting for something to happen. After about 30 minutes of walking we noticed a bright blue, flashing bug-like creature that seemed to be 2 stories tall and we deduced that we have arrived in the center of the festivities. The first float we saw was stupendous! Larger than life, and severely intricate, we started to understand the magnitude of Carnevale.
Throughout our night we saw some of the most stunning floats we had ever experienced. All parts of the floats were so artfully and skillfully constructed. All of the eyes blinked, each segment had movement, and each creature was covered in brightly colored lights. When the sun went down it was a majestic sight as the streets were full of people, vendors, light shows, and more floats than you could imagine. The pictures hardly do it justice, but they are worth seeing so we will try to upload them soon. The entire experience was surreal, it was as if we had just stumbled upon this extravagant celebration. By the end of the night we were covered in confetti and silly string, thanks to Jon in particular who reverted to an 8 year old, starting silly string battles with people in the street. I must say that I felt very loved when he defended my honor against anyone who sprayed me, quickly spraying them back and sometimes even throwing confetti! As we walked through the streets it felt as if the spirit of Carnevale had captured us, and I felt very close to the town of Acireale.
As we tired, and decided to head back towards the train station we felt it would only be right to have dinner at our favorite restaurant. So strewn with silly string and covered in confetti we walked to Aquadelferro to enjoy our favorite pizza and wine one last time! Following yet another wonderful meal we headed back to Catania to lay our heads, but when we arrived we didn't exactly feel like sleeping...it was then that we found the diamond in the rough. Approximately 2 blocks from the Romano House we stumbled into an Irish pub! Jon had seen it the day prior, but during the Man U v. Liverpool game (in which Liverpool happened to kick butt) it was closed and we decided it was a crap pub. Our opinions had changed after a day of Carnevale so we ventured in, had Jameson(s), and listened to an Italian band sing the classics of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Bon Jovi...interesting. Once the music became overwhelming we retreated again to our welcoming bed, and prepared for the following day's journey to the next farm! Leaving Catania we had made pact to visit Acireale and the Hotel Santa Canterina again one day, and a new appreciation of the lesson to not judge a book, or city, by its cover...you never know when you'll find a lovely Irish pub right around the corner!
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Hunter
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Sounds like a blast. A weekend to remember.