Lóistín saoire ar cíos in Buccheri

Please before booking always contact me, also we can move the experience starting time and date to suit you. Don't be shy drop me a message for any information. The secret love pool, one of nature's pearls, is located on the edge of the ghost town of Ancient Noto which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1693. We will go through the town, now reclaimed by nature, visiting the most important remains of derelict buildings, testimonies of the flourishing past of one of the once most important cities of Sicily. Then we will take an easy walk along a 2800 year old road that will take us to the bottom of the canyon where a stunning stream with lots of fresh pool, waterfalls and lush nature will blow your mind away.

We want to invite you to have a typical homemade sicilian meal in our beautiful countryside, surrounded by olive trees and unspoiled nature! We’ll eat outdoor under a big olive tree, otherwise indoor in our stone house if weather won’t allow. You will discover the real taste of genuine food, because we don’t use industrial ingredients! Before cooking we will take a walk in our land to gather some of the ingredients we will use, such as fresh vegetables from our organic garden (tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant, zucchini and the huge “Giarratana” onions in summertime) and wild herbs that we'll teach you to recognise. We will tell you the story of our old stone house and how we restored it slowly by ourselves. We will be happy to answer all your questions about our lifestyle and our land! After that you can help us cooking: we really love to cook "scacce" (our tipical street food), homemade pasta and pizza with organic flour from an ancient stone mill. Our favourite condiments are sauce from our tomatoes and of course our extra virgin olive oil from "Tonda Iblea" olive trees. During lunch you can taste organic "Nero d'Avola" red wine (or fresh "Insolia" white wine in summertime) from a prestigious local winery near home. I declare that this activity meets the guidelines for food handling based on the Five Key Points for Safer Food Program of the Pan American Healt Organization. Other things to note If the weather will be too bad (sometime it happens also in Sicily!) probably we won’t be able to take a walk, but we’ll still have lunch with our products and we will spend more time in the kitchen.

We will visit one of the oldest and most prestigious oil mills in Italy: the Oleificio Gulino, founded in 1880. Within the mill, during the month of October, you will participate live to the olive oil process. During the other months, a video will be projected on the big screen that will illustrate all the phases of olive oil production and ecosustainable re-use of olive processing by-products. Consecutively, will take place a tour within the oil mill next to the machineries, where the characteristics and the functions will be explained. Afterwards, we will do a professional tasting of the award-winning olive oil "Erbesso" will follow; this olive oil has a wonderful smell and taste and has won over 130 international awards and recognitions. Furthermore, we will taste some flavoured olive oils with Lemon, Mandarin, Chili Pepper, Rosemary, Basil, Garlic, Porcini Mushroom, White Truffle and Barbecue and some seasoned bread with a wide selection of typical Sicilian products. If you do not have a car to reach us, we can arrange for you a transfer with driver. Costs are variable and depend on distance; write us an email whether you need this service.

In a uncontaminated and peaceful context in my country house, I will lead you to the wonderful world of "Scaccia", our typical street and holiday food. Scacce are a kind of focaccia (a sort of bread filled with vegetables and cheese). First of all we will make the dough for scacce using durum wheat flour from an ancient stone mill that grinds only grains from sicilian heirloom seeds like Russello and Timilia. We will add "criscente" (homemade sourdough starter that I inherited from my grandma) and our extravirgin olive oil. I will teach you the tricks for a well-balanced "sfoglia" (the thin layer of bread), tasty and crisp. While the dough grow, we will cook the vegetables for the stuffing: eggplants, onions, spinach, potatoes, broccoli (depends on the season). All vegetables will be organic from our garden or organic market. Then we will make two different kind of sfoglia, one very thin for tomato scaccia and another thicker for other scacce. At this point we can fill and bake scacce. At the end we will have lunch with our handmade scacce, drinking delicious organic Nero d'Avola wine. If the weather allows, we will have lunch outside, in the garden, under our big olive tree! I declare that this activity meets the guidelines for food handling based on the Five Key Points for Safer Food Program of the Pan American Healt Organization. Other things to note If you don't have a car, you can take a bus from Ragusa (or from Catania) to COFFA, provided by Interbus Etna Trasporti (check their website for schedule). There we will pick you by car for free.

Together we will prepare the natural soap. We will use the "cold process" to make the soap, which is also adequate to use in a house in the city. This method will allow you to make soap very easily and in no time. We will use olive oil, macerated oils and infusions prepared with medicinal plants from Sicily. I will teach you several recipes to make body soap, shampoo and soap for both solid and liquid laundry. Together we will make one of these kind of soap, and at the end you will take home your first self-made piece of natural soap!