Ciao ragazzi 😎 Happy Tuesday! (yes, this newsletter is a day late)

It's me, Giorgio! That's the name an Italian man elected for me after being utterly confused by the sound coming out of my mouth when stating my name a gazillion times.

GOOOORRRRRDDDDOOOONNNNNN!

"Oh Giorrrrrrgio" he said 😂

Anyways, I hope everyone is having a great start to the week. We are still kicking it in Sicily, the Italian region that has become Aimara's new love interest. Anyone who opened the newsletter hoping for some juicier gossip is probably upset right now. Sorry to disappoint you, but she's sticking with Giorgio 🙋🏻‍♂️

We're currently hanging out in Catania - Sicily's second largest city. It has been a beautiful surprise, we've felt very lucky to call this place 'home' this past week. Check out these views from our lovely Catania apartment:

Catania is our very last stop here in Italy. Many times our trips end with immense appreciation for the places we visit, but also a general feeling that it is time to move on. However, this time we had such a memorable grand finale here in Sicily that we don't feel quite ready to leave.

Let us explain why...

Charm epitomized in Southern Sicily

We spent a week exploring the area around Syracuse (Siracusa). Syracuse's historic center is called Ortigia. And it's technically a separate town. Which is weird... but let's not dwell on technicalities.

Ortigia:

This was without a doubt one of the most beautiful places we visited in all of Italy. It (Syracuse) was once one of the most important cities in ancient Greece, and in typical Sicilian fashion, the city changed hands from one empire to another for centuries.

Today the historical center is packed with grand buildings influenced by whoever happened to be ruling Ortigia at that time. But this is definitely not just a town for fans of history and architecture, it's also a buzzing spot with fun little shops, plenty of great restaurants, and a beautiful waterfront where you can watch the sun go down from a cozy bar.

10/10 - would recommend Ortigia to anyone and everyone.

Fun fact: there are a bunch of Sri Lankans in Southern Italy. And sometimes you just need a break from pizza and pasta 🤣 we went to town on some chicken curry, veggie roti and kottu in Ortigia... twice! The food was SO good and the people so kind. It left us reminiscing of our recent trip driving a tuktuk around Sri Lanka.​

Crushing the world's best sandwich 🧐 (for research)

Mixed among the fish stalls inside Ortigia's local market sits Caseificio Borderi, an unassuming little shop that serves the world's best sandwich.

The house speciality at this family-owned restaurant is the stuff of legends. It includes homemade smoked mozzarella, fresh ricotta, Sicilian caponata (marinated eggplant & other veggies), sun-dried tomatoes, flamed coppa ham, rucola, pistacchio pesto and more!

Though this all might sound super intense, it was actually very well balanced. And the quality of the ingredients was on another level. So while our research will continue, our current hypothesis is that this is, in fact, the world's best sandwich 🏆

Take a look...

The owners here were awesome, proudly showing how they prepare their famous sandwich and sharing the history of the shop. They noticed that we were filming and making photos for social media and treated us to the entire experience! And we even got some local wine and cannoli for dessert. Seriously the kindest people ever!

if you ever visit Ortigia, for sure take note of this place!​

Noto:

We also took a little day trip to a small town called Noto, a masterpiece of baroque architecture. This was particularly thrilling for me because baroque is my favorite architectural style next to mid-century modern.

Just kidding, I know nothing about architecture 🙃 But I do know that Noto was a total delight and worth checking out for anyone thinking about coming to Sicily.

Sicily's second city left us smitten!

How many times on this trip have we claimed to have a new favorite place in Italy? At least three times, so far? Well, it's happening again. Catania really is something special.

Most people don't spend a lot of time here, often heading straight from the nearby airport to Syracuse or Taormina. But skipping Catania is a total mistake, trust us on this one.

First of all, the fish market here is pure theatre. Every seller appeared to be perfectly selected by a casting director. They were yelling into the madness about their products with soggy cigars dangling from their lips. I really can't wait for the Catania video to go live (whenever that will be), because words will never do this experience any justice.

Beyond the fish market, Catania just has a great vibe. It feels a little like Napoli and Palermo in the sense that it is absolutely not polished, but it just has a soul. Don't sleep on Catania folks!

Catching Catania's most beautiful light show!

Guys - volcanos are unbelievable. How are there mountains that spew melted earth out of their tops?

We were so fortunate to see Mt. Etna (aka mamma Etna) in all her glory, shooting hot lava into the night sky. Even though she's the most active volcano in the world, it's not a given to witness a spectacle like the one we saw. And the contrast with Catania's Christmas decorations made it even more special.

This show went on for hours and the entire city seemed to just stop and watch in awe. SO COOL!

Mt. Etna is Aimara's new favorite' thing.' It has convinced her that Sicily is where she belongs and where we should settle down one day. Seriously! So stay tuned, maybe there will be a 'House Hunters' episode of us in Sicily in the future!

Still no new video 😞

At this point, are you guys even surprised? We've been hustling like crazy to wrap up all of the video content for this Italy travel series that Aimara has had no time to edit. So forgive us that there isn't a new video to share... maybe not even until after the holidays.

But you shouldn't be on Youtube this month, anyways. 'Tis the season to spend time with loved ones and embarrass yourselves at the office holiday party.

But ok, if you reaaaaaaally want to watch YT videos, browse our channel here and click on something. Leave us a comment and stuff. Let's chat over there ;)

Keeping it cool in Taormina 😎

Taormina - so hot right now 😎

​

This gorgeous little town is just an hour away from Catania. It has become one of the more en vogue places to visit in Sicily. So much so that we read summer time in Taormina can be a complete disaster of humans crammed into the small town. That is made worse by the fact that cruise ships also come here.

All that said, early December was a lovely time to visit. We enjoyed incredible views of snow-capped Mt. Etna from the Greek theatre (they sure knew how to pick their real estate), and we just enjoyed poking around town for half a day.

November's giveaway is now live!!

We want to buy you coffee this month! That's why we're giving away a $50 Starbucks gift card :)

This is a very small way for us to say thanks to the people who watch our videos.

We make it super easy. You just have to answer 3 questions correctly. The answers to these questions are in our latest YT videos. If you're interested, here's the link to enter the giveaway. (make sure you're also following on IG and subscribed to our channel)

We'll announce the winner on December 15th. Thank you for watching our videos ❤️

What's next for us?

Believe it or not, next Monday's newsletter will be sent from sunny Florida. Weirdddd.

On Wednesday we'll pack our bags and swing by Amsterdam to check in with my opa (grandpa). But we'll milk our last 48 hours in Catania. Here's what we have on deck for the next two days:

• we will be climbing the world's most active volcano today. The same one that was spewing lava like it was nobody's business the other night. Oh, and by climbing I actually mean taking a 4x4 tour up the mountain.
• one final push on our carb-loading diet.
• goodbye aperol spritzes.
• sobbing into pistacchio flavored gelato.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading about the Italy adventures these past two and a half months! If you're traveling to Italy next year, you are going to love what's coming up in January! We're talking about Italy videos, reels, free PDFs, ultra-detailed paid PDFs, IG posts, blog posts.. we've got you covered for Italia!

We truly appreciate you being here 😎

Thanks for reading!

Aimara & Giorgio

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