Day 10: Selinunte (2nd night)

IF READING ON YOUR PHONE, TILT SIDEWAYS FOR THE BEST VIEW:)

 September 27, 2023: This next morning we sampled the continental breakfast buffet and I settled on a croissant filled with Nutella (big smile on my face).  Didn't want to eat too much because we had a Planeta Wine tour which included wine pairings and lunch coming up at 11!

I was a little concerned about the 45 minute drive as the email and instructions repeatedly said, "only use this link for directions. Do not use Google Maps or other map applications." Hmm. Must be way off the beaten path and in Sicily...! Well we headed off and all seemed well until within 5 minutes of our apparent location out in the farmlands and vineyards, the road came to an abrupt end, dropping down into a rocky ravine. Aggghhhh! I knew it!!!

I called the phone number and got an immediate response at the Planeta main facility, but between her broken English and our broken Italian it's hard to say "Where the hell are we??!" So then we did the simplest of things. We pulled up the Planeta winery in Ulmo/Menfi on Apple Maps and it popped right up, routing us around the fallen roadway (which looked like it had been that way since WWII) and directly to the winery!

Well the place was just beautiful. Stunning. There was a 200 year old fig tree in the main plaza with ripe
figs available for the picking. Right next to that we could see an outdoor kitchen where cooks were preparing our tastings menu and lunch for later on. Just inside was a long table set for the food pairing and tasting.

We were met by our host who brought us to the showroom to wait for the other 4 guests. We really lucked-out. The other guests ended up being people that I so wish lived next door to us! The first couple, man and wife, were from Zurich. The second pair were partners from Portugal, though not originally. They all had such interesting stories!

The tour started with a walk through the vineyards where we saw the vines for the Nero d'Avola grapes which are the cherished red, robust-type grapes in Sicily. We ventured into the barrel and bottling rooms which were all fascinating with wonderful descriptions by our multilingual guide. Full disclosure: the other 4 guests spoke minimally 4 languages each, including Italian and English so we were were the only baby-brains who needed that second translation...

Finally, it was time for the wine & food pairing!  We had 2 whites and 2 reds paired with some yummy morsels, but the best part was the conversation with the other guests. Just amazing people -- the Portugal couple were great guys. And I thought I was worldly! One of the guys is in banking and was born in South Africa, but has lived in Argentina, New York, London, France and now Portugal. He chose Portugal because all of his life was spent in anglo areas and he wanted a little of the 'chaos' of the latin culture! The other guy was a self-employed marketing consultant who assists companies world-wide with improving their strategies...wow. 

I just loved the other couple, too. They're retired and have done a lot of traveling. 

They used to work for

pasta trapanese

Swiss Air, which is who we flew with to get to Sicily, and loved it. Very easy to talk to and we covered topics from retirement differences between countries, health benefits, taxes, travel, movies, wine and which country might be better to retire. They ended up joining us for lunch, though they hadn't pre-planned that. 

And lunch... just wow. It started with bread and an appetizer and then the pasta Trapanese (tomato, garlic, ground pistachio, cheese) would have been enough. But this was followed by the 'secondi' which was homemade sausage, red and white raisins and pine nuts with potatoes (very Sicilian)...and then fruit in syrup for dessert. Just perfect...too much... perfect...

Sausage, grapes & pine nuts

Our time at Planeta was at an end and we had a nice drive back to French occupied territory, oh I mean the resort. Tomorrow we'll be driving to Trapani!