Southern Sicily

If you're not entirely sure where Malta is, it's just south of Sicily and northwest of Tunisia. Eisenhower spent time in Valletta planning the invasion of Sicily in WWII. Most people don't know this, but the Sicily invasion was on an even bigger scale than the D-day invasion 10 months later.

When I discovered a passenger ferry sails daily to Sicily from Malta, I immediately bought tickets and booked a Sicilian rental car.

Eight Sicilian towns were leveled in a 1693 earthquake, the subsequent and collective rebuilding earned these towns UNESCO status. We visited 3 of them Scicli, Ragusa, and Modica. Other than the impossible parking situation, these towns made for a fantastic road trip.

It took a few minutes to get used to driving on the left yesterday in Malta, today in Sicily it was back on the right, but if you want to drive on the left it's probably OK, it's a free-for-all, you just do whatever. Oh, and your hazards blinking means free parking anywhere you want.

After lunch in Regusa, there was still time to visit Siracusa, aka Syracuse. Siracusa is a 2,700-year-old city and played a key role in ancient times when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world.

We're now back in Malta, but so glad we decided to suffer through the 5:20 wake-up call and 17-hour day to visit Italy. I had one of my favourite Italian dishes, Linguine Vongole, and also had an authentic Sicilian Arancini and Pistachio Gelato, obviously.

I attempt to make Linguine Vongole from time to time, it's a tricky dish to make, but whenever I have it in Italy I'm reminded, like most Italian cooking, to keep it simple.

Outside of Syracuse is a Commonwealth War cemetery, mostly British soldiers, but four Canadians as well. There are 4,000 Canadians buried at the Canadian War Cemetary further north near Mount Etna.

Italy is ALWAYS a good idea.