Catania, Sicily

Three years ago we made two trips to Sicily. We went in March and loved it so much, we returned in October that same year. This is a record of our second trip. We stayed with the same hostel people on both trips except this trip the main hostel was full. It's always full because it is so cheap, 46 euros for 2 people. It's run by a Dutchman and his Sicilian family and it is close to the train station. They own another apartment 50 meters away and that was where we stayed. Not much of luxury but look at the view. The main hostel has no view but this annex had this view of the sea and the train tracks. This time we felt like locals, we knew where everything was. It was raining that first morning when we went in search of breakfast. Arancino, that was what we were looking for, the Sicilian specialty of rice balls filled with ham or mince beef. We first tasted Arancino in Naples, the year before this trip. We took bites out of the Arancini and realised we should have taken a picture first, we put them down, took the picture, that's why you see that they have biten into. An hour and a half away from Catania, on the bus is Piazza Amerina, a little nondescript hilltown with no claim to fortune except a few miles away they found a Roman villa. It was covered in mud and restoration has been going on ever since. Villa Casale Romana, as it is called. It is a huge complex and restoration work on the tiled floors is going on.
The amazing seafood and the bread should be plenty reason to visit Sicily. I'm glad we stayed here because this area is not touristy, it caters only to the working locals and next to the hostel is this great restaurant. I never found out why Sicilians bake their bread in the afternoon, so when you go out to dinner, there's freshly baked bread at every corner and they make the most delicious bread. I simply adore Sicily.
While there is an airport in Palermo and there's another one in Trapani on the west coast, the main airport in and out of Sicily is in Catania.