Scenic Sicily: Seaside Town Of Marzamemi

Mr NQN and I have set off for our road trip in Sicily now that the official food tour is over making our way towards Palermo via some very scenic towns. The first stop is in a beautiful seaside town of Marzamemi. See what this gorgeous town has to offer (spoiler: great food is one thing!).

Mr NQN takes to driving in Sicily like a natural. It isn't without its quirks though: in the space of 200m/656 feet, the speed signs go from 70km (43miles) to 50km (31miles) to 30km (18miles) then back to 70km (43 miles). To further confuse matters, a car whizzes by doing 150km/93miles an hour.

"Mama Mia!!" I exclaim.

One and a half hours later we've reached Marzamemi from Scoglitti and exchanged one relaxed seaside town for another. Marzamemi is a pretty town with sorbet coloured buildings in apricot, orange, blue, pink and yellow. Bougainvilleas are abundant giving each building a burst of colour. 

I am absolutely famished as it is 2pm and I am worried we won't get a meal as everyone will be having a siesta. We park in the free parking area and head straight to the Piazza Regina Margherita in the centre of the old town area where many restaurants are located. We make a beeline to Il Borgo, the seafood restaurant located right on the water.

Marzamemi used to be the site of a former tuna processing factory and while it is no longer, tuna and the local Pachino DOP tomatoes are the top things to order while here. Il Borgo has both and we order the tuna steak with tomatoes and a swordfish steak. The menu is bilingual which makes choosing easy for us. Although I had read that service is slow and the food takes a long time to come out actually arrives in a timely manner, perhaps because we are here at 2 o’clock and most of the crowd has gone.

The tuna steak with olives and tomato is spectacular. The tuna is dredged in seasoned semolina flour and fried. Then it is covered with flavoursome mix of halved green olives, tomatoes and onions. This may be my favourite tuna steak ever.

The swordfish is done simply in olive oil salt with a wedge of lemon and some rocket. We pair this with a bowl of local pachino tomatoes sweetened from the sun.

A mama cat and her baby jump up on a customers lap, eager for some nourishment to grow. This cats are discerning creatures though and reject any bread pieces in favour of tuna and swordfish. When Mr NQN puts down a large piece of fish the kitten can’t finish it and leaves behind a small piece. Mr NQN points at it and instantly the kitten possessively swats away his finger with its tiny paw. The tiny cat is still mewing loudly demanding food but with all of the fish gone, I scarpetta some bread with sauce for it. It turns out cats also like scarpetta bread as much as we do.

After this we have dessert at Il Tuo Gelato. There are several gelato places in Marzamemi but this is said to be the best one in the main piazza area. Look for the pink building. This service is friendly and for €2.50 you can get two scoops of the gelato of your choice. We use mango and pistachio – both are delicious but the mango is outstanding.  

After this, we head to the beach. There are a few beaches in Marzamemi to choose from. We ended up making a trek to Calamosche beach. To access the beach you pay €5 parking and then €3.50 euro entry per person to the national park. You walk along red volcanic dirt and rocks for about 25 minutes walking on sinking dirt, before you finally reach the beach.

Whilst it was pretty, I realise that we are so spoiled in Sydney with beaches that are so easily accessed. If you do go, go early in the day to make the most of it and bring a book because there is no signal there.

We stayed at a B&B that was rated very highly but we had some issues and was very quirky. We quickly shower in a bathroom with colourful disco lights and make our way back to the main piazza for an aperitif before dinner and watch the sun set.

Dinner is at Casa Del Pomodoro or The House of Tomatoes. This is located outside the piazza area so the prices are a couple of euros lower.

With a name like that, the main focus is on tomatoes but when you first walk in, it is a store in which to buy all sorts of tomato products as well as gourmet goods from pasta to pistachio creams and fresh vegetables.

We start with a the arancini of the day - today's arancini is stuffed with pistachio and mozzarella. Holy heavens it's absolutely delicious and comes out warmed up. There is a very generous centre of savoury pistachio mozzarella filling.

The spaghetti is paired with a mix of fresh and sauteed datterino tomatoes, bluefin tuna bottarga, toasted breadcrumbs and organic olive oil with pieces of tonna rosso. Tonno Rosso is a bluefin tuna with an intense flavour. The tomatoes make the sauce remarkably sweet and I also appreciate the al dente texture of the pasta. I cannot stop eating this pasta and Mr NQN remarks that that's the most he has ever seen me eat a plate of pasta, it's that good!

Pinse is like Roman pizza and here they have a whole menu of pinse toppings. The Marzamemi pinse is a cheeseless one with tomato sauce, buzzonaglia di tonno, stewed red onion, onion, garlic and olive oil. The term "buzzonaglia di tuna" refers to the section of the tuna fillet located near the backbone and are the portions of the meat that stay attached to the spine and vertebrae of a large tuna. These have an intense anchovy flavour. The pinse is thick and crisp on the bottom with a sweet tomato and onion flavour to it punctuated by the pops of intensely salty buzzonaglia di tonno.

A few doors down is a tuna shop where you can buy a huge range of tuna products, mostly in jars of various sizes.

We had all intentions to have an after dinner gelato but we were too full so we box up the rest of the pinse for a road trip snack and go back to our B&B ready for our next stop: Taormina!

All food and accommodation in this post was independently paid for. NQN and Mr NQN travelled to Europe as guests of Vietnam Airlines.

Vietnam Airlines

Vietnam Airlines offers 23 flights per week connecting Sydney, Melbourne and Perth to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Vietnam Airlines is continuing to add new routes having recently announced new flights to Milan, Munich and Delhi.

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