"…if you’re not a foodie before you sit down with In Etna’s Shadow, I’d be shocked if you don’t fancy yourself a foodie when you’re done. At the very least, it should make you either quite hungry or put you in the mood for a trip to Sicily - or both.”

-- Read the full review at Why Go Italy

A land of contrasts, a land of contradictions, she is Sicily.  Her metamorphic landscape reinvents itself with the changing seasons: burnt amber-brown summer fields turn to radiant emerald green in spring. On three sides she is bound by sapphire seas simultaneously friend and foe. Europe’s tallest volcano, Mt. Etna (10,910 ft.), remains one of the world’s most active.  Brooding over Eastern Sicily, the smoke from her craters foils those who desire to see her in completed splendor, peak and all. Destructive, yet nurturing, Etna’s fertile soils support vineyards, fruit orchards, and citrus groves, in addition to fields of artichokes, wheat, and strawberries.

La Piana di Catania (the Plain of Catania) sweeps across the land, inland from Caltagirone, along the lower slopes of Etna to the north and the foothills of the Iblei Mountains to the south, before dropping into the Ionian Sea. The largest lowland plain in Sicily, it is renowned for its citrus, especially the blood orange. It was here, near the medieval town of Mineo, that I lived for two years. I am not Italian, I am not married to an Italian, nor are there any Italian ancestors to speak of. Quite simply, Sicily captivates and delights me. Especially the fruit of her bounty. From gelsi to gelato and carciofi to cassata, culinary adventures abound in Sicily, and these I share with you.

ISBN-10: 0982102313 / ISBN-13: 978-0982102312