Yesterday was Etna and Taormina — the longest drive day, the most physically demanding sights, and a late return. Today is structured to recover from yesterday and prepare for tomorrow's Ragusa+Modica run.
We get a day where nobody has to navigate cobblestones or restaurants. The teens get a pool day. The rest of us get to sit. And in the evening, instead of asking everyone to drive 25 minutes to a restaurant, eat for two hours, then drive back at 11 PM — a private chef comes to us and cooks a multi-course Sicilian menu in the villa's kitchen. Caponata, fresh pasta, locally-caught fish, almond dessert. €80–150 per person. ~€600–1,000 for the seven of us.
Book the chef 4–6 weeks ahead. Cesarine (Italian home-cook network) and Take a Chef both serve the Syracuse area. The villa host likely has a contact too.
No times because nothing has to happen at a specific time. Except the chef.
No alarms. The terrace, the kitchen, the pool. Make breakfast from supermarket eggs, ricotta, and the bread we bought at the Mercato Monday.
Pasta-making, caponata, panelle, cassata. Half-day, ends with lunch. Everyone participates at their own pace — sit and chop, or stand and roll.
Booking: Ask the villa host, or use Cesarine (Italian home-cook network) or search for Syracuse-area chefs on Eatwith. Same provider as the chef-in dinner ideally.
If we did the class, lunch is what we made. If not, leftovers from yesterday's drives, market cheese, the last of Monday's bread.
Optional: Augusta is 10 min from the villa. Old fortified town and Castello Svevo. Less than an hour to see. Easy mobility-wise. Skip if anyone wants to stay at the pool.
Negronis on the terrace. Olives. Almonds. Wait for the chef.
Multi-course Sicilian menu: caponata, fresh pasta, locally-caught fish, almond dessert. Chef will likely want a few hours of kitchen prep — confirm arrival time at booking. Some chefs bring a sous; some don't.
Eat outside if the night is warm enough, which it should be. Long table. Slow service.
Chef cleans as they go and leaves the kitchen tidy. We collapse into chairs. Tomorrow's a long day — Ragusa and Modica — but starting later than today's would have been if we were driving back from Taormina at midnight.
15 min from the villa. The old fortified town sits on a peninsula. Norman castle. Less than an hour to see. Quiet, baroque, accessible. Good if anyone is restless or wants a tiny excursion without committing to the full Catania day on Saturday.