Sicily Small Luxury Hotel

T Magazine: Stone Soul Picnic

An island can be paradise or prison, Aruba or Alcatraz or both. Or neither. There are tourist islands and desert islands, islands of treasure or target practice, tropical atolls and frozen specks, islands for Gilligan or Godzilla, Dr. Moreau or Dr. No — even metaphorical islands, which no man can be. Each is a petri dish parenthesized by ocean, fermenting its unique varietal of weirdness.

Take Favignana. Favignana is a particularly weird little archipelago off Sicily; the island appears as a stark stone iceberg piercing the azure Mediterranean. This vista was once awash in Roman triremes and Carthaginian blood. Later, there were Moors, crusaders, Fascists and fishermen. One recent summer, it was Giorgio Armani. His personal black-on-black battleship crowded the harbor like a toy in a bathtub.

There’s a fresh breed of invaders taking root between Favignana’s gnarled olive trees. Hidden among the crumbling stone ruins are new spas, boutique hotels and restored stone villas belonging to such members of the fashion crowd as the photographer Glen Luchford and Miuccia Prada. After years of isolation, tiny Favignana, they say, is bracing for its transition from Podunk to posh. Not that you’d know it.

Stepping from ferry to dock in the wincing light of midday, a late-summer visitor is presented with a compact harbor of wooden fishing skiffs, several cafes with plastic tables and the island’s only gas pump. The line forms every morning. When the pump runs out of gas, the attendant simply waves his hands and walks away.

Behind is the church where you go after you are born and after you die. There is the main piazza, the cafes that blossom to bursting in summer and an ancient warren of spaghetti-like streets paved in stone. It is a small town, but you will get lost anyway.

Follow one road and find a beach or a quarry or the remnants of a Fascist gun position. Another road leads to wave-washed cliffs and a lemonade kiosk shaped like a giant orange. Still another ends at a 19th-century tuna center. The anchors lay stacked, rusting pig-iron tons neat as a Sunday grocer’s shelves. But the big boats are gone. Their stone berth was purchased, it’s been said, by the lady Prada. There are rumors that it may soon be a museum.

Always, above everything, is the mountain and the fort. Depending on whom you ask, it was built by Phoenicians, Romans, Moors, crusaders, Vikings or aliens. There is no sign to the fort, no guide — why would there be? It is visible from everywhere but best viewed from the shaded patio of the cafe at the harbor. Eventually, you will get there. On a small island, it seems, you will see everything and meet everyone, sooner or later.

Bike Tours Italy * Tour Italia on a Bike | World Travel List Trip ...

Bike Tours in Italy

What better way to experience the Italian countryside than on a bike tour in Italy? Whether you are looking to tackle some challenging climbs in the Appenine hills on a bike tour in Piedmont or cruise along the pristine coasts of the Adriatic on a Puglia bike tour, there is a cycling vacation in Italy for you. A bike tour in Tuscany will find you cycling through Etruscan villages, past undulating green fields of wheat and olive groves; while a Giro d’Italia bike tour places you on the front line – riding the very same routes as the pros and watching them fly by on race day. All of our bicycle tours in Italy feature stunning vistas, small country roads, luxury accommodations, and of course, our signature gourmet cuisine and local wine from the region’s vineyards.

Tuscany Bike Tour

In Tuscany you feel like you’re cycling inside a photograph.  Each day you will bike through vineyards, glide along pastures of green fields and olive groves, and climb to ancient villages perched atop the rollings hills. On our bike tour in Tuscany you will visit medieval fortresses, cycle through Etruscan villages, and view Renaissance masterpieces. Off the bike, you will sample some of the finest wines this region has to offer – Brunello, Super Tuscan, Vino Nobile, and Chianti Classico – and delight in a special visit to our friend and winemaker, Vittorio Innocenti, for a tour of his private cantina . You will encounter some challenging hills on this journey from Montepulciano to Chianti, but your hard work will be well rewarded with delicious Tuscan treats like freshly-rolled pici pasta, pecorino cheese and local olive oil.