there’s just something about San Vito

San Vito Lo Capo is a small little fishing village on the coast of western Sicily where many Italians go to soak up the sun on their holidays. We decided to come visit this town because my Sicilian friend Vincenzo recommended that we should. Considering he is Sicilian, we trusted him and ended up in San Vito.

First I have to say a little blurb about the place we stayed because it was unbelievable!! We stayed in a very new hostel called Timbuktu hostel. Our host was named Marco and he had grown up in San Vito so he gave us all the information we needed about what to do, where to eat, etc. Marco and Timbuktu were FANTASTIC. The hostel was decorated so beautifully and everything was so new and incredible. There were about 10 guests in the hostel when we arrived but many of them were leaving the next day so we ended up being in the hostel mostly with just our roommate Freya.

Something crazy that happened when we met both Marco and Freya is that we discovered they both knew another hostel owner named Martina that we stayed with in Calabria. Our roommate Freya had checked out of Martina’s hostel the day that we arrived but we JUST missed each other!! It was so funny because we also knew many of the same people that had stayed in the hostel. To have the common bond of staying at Martina’s in Calabria was so awesome because its just an experience that you can’t really describe to others if you tried.

Our days in San Vito were some of my favorite days of this trip and maybe even of my life! We went on a boat ride along a national reserve which was so beautiful. During the boat ride we were able to stop and snorkel which to me was SO COOL. On the way home, our boat randomly turned into a dance party. The 40 and 50 year old Italian women were going crazy dancing to music that our boat was playing so naturally I joined in. It was probably one of my favorite things of all time!! Those Italians know how to have a good time that’s for sure.

The town of San Vito is really neat because its full of Italians on vacation. It’s interesting because usually when you visit places you are surrounded by international tourists but in this case, we were among the Italian tourists seeing how they spend their vacation. The little town was actually bustling with people during the days and at nights which was really fun. It was a different experience than any of the other cities I had ever visited before and I really loved it.

My favorite day of all in San Vito started with a bowl of yogurt and cereal (as all good days start). Our host Marco drove us through town and along the coast to drop us off so we could go hiking a natural reserve. Driving with the windows down and a world of possibilities before us made my heart so full of joy. Marco dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and we commenced our long trek through the coastline. The coastline was just beyond stunning. There were mountains surrounding the coast, interesting plants, and the most unique rock formations I’ve ever seen! The nature throughout the reserve was just so unique and different that I felt like I was in South Africa. It was seriously so cool. We saw only a few people our entire afternoon of trekking which was really neat to feel like we were in the middle of nowhere. At one point, we ended up high up on the mountainside next to a pack of bulls. The bulls were giant but Freya insisted they weren’t violent creatures so we felt at ease.

Finally we finished our hike but we were still in the middle of nowhere so of course we had to hitchhike home which is always a highlight for me! The couple that picked us up was so kind and I was actually able to understand a lot of what they were saying in Italian so I was so proud of myself.

The day ended with us grilling eggplants, tomatoes, and mushrooms on the barbie since Freya is a master griller (she’s from Australia so its in her blood). The eggplants were so good and we just had a wonderful meal laughing about different things here and there.

Of course no night is complete without gelato but this night had an extra special treat to it… We decided to get our hair corn rowed by the Senegalese women because we had been joking about doing in the whole time. It was one of the funniest and greatest things we did because we were almost crying with laughter at ourselves when we looked in the mirror at home.

So as you can see, our time in San Vito was filled with friendships, laughter, and so much beautiful scenery. I was sad to leave this little piece of Paradise but knew that we had many more adventures coming our way.