TRAVELANDLEISURE.COM 49
swept across Sicily in one restorative wave.
We spent a couple of days in Modica, where
the old town cascades from the Baroque Duomo
di San Giorgio down a steep cliff to a historic
boulevard below. On our first night, we followed a
tangle of staircases up and up, until we found
ourselves at the birthplace of the poet Salvatore
Quasimodo, a native son who won the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1959. On a glazed tile
mounted beneath a streetlight, someone had
handwritten one of his works, opening with a
sentiment that resonates in a long marriage:
da tempo ti devo parole d’amore... (“I have long
owed you words of love...”)
The next day, on a narrow pedestrian street
just behind Modica’s famous Ristorante Accursio,
we waited for the gastronomic equivalent of
Quasimodo’s compact and pungent verse to
emerge from the restaurant’s tiny storefront:
arancini, breaded and deep-fried balls of rice,
filled with bits of roast meat or cheese or pasta
sauce. These packets of concentrated flavor are
especially explosive at Accursio’s street-food
offshoot, Radici, but all over Sicily similar jolts of
simplicity made us hum with pleasure: the thin
sheet of tuna at La Madia, in Licata, barely grazed
by heat and dressed in olive oil and lemon; the
unctuous slices of cured meats at Salumeria
Barocco, in Ragusa; the sage leaves that an Airbnb
hostess picked and fried for us on the terrace of
her farmhouse in the Madonie mountains.
Sicily’s intensity and spectacle made us hungry
for more. One day, Ariella suggested that we skip
the trafficked coastline route and follow a slender,
quivering thread of road that cut inland, through
craggy hills and ocher fields. I agreed, and a few
hours later, when asphalt had given way to dirt
and then dissipated into a rutted track barely
visible to the naked eye, I stopped our little rented
sedan and got out to gauge whether it could
negotiate a particularly intimidating incline.
She mused that perhaps our choice of route
might have been a mistake.
No! I insisted. True, there was a chance that
the axle might snap. And, okay, we hadn’t had
cell service for the past couple of hours. And, yes,
turning right at the unmarked fork a couple of
miles back had been a pretty arbitrary decision.
But the weather was mild, we had plenty of
daylight, and this was hardly our first off-road
jaunt. Ariella chimed in that we were together,
so the worst that could happen probably wouldn’t
be awful. We drove on.
For New Lovers: Rome
Scrappy, passionate, and
oh-so-sultry, Rome is perfect
for a first trip as a couple.
There are grand hotels—the
recently opened Hotel de la
Ville (roccofortehotels.com;
doubles from $625) is
particularly alluring—but
Rome is also easy to do on
the cheap. The most
romantic meal in the city
costs about 20 bucks: head
to Salumeria Volpetti
(volpetti.com), in Testaccio,
ask them to make a panino
with whatever catches your
eye behind the counter, grab
a bottle of wine (they’ll open
it for you), and walk up the
Aventine Hill to the Giardino
degli Aranci for a picnic.
For When You’ve Celebrated
a Few Anniversaries: The
Dolomites
You’ve moved in together and
your shared bank account
has a reliable number of
zeros. Treat yourself! Take a
skiing trip to this mountain
range in the northeast, where
you’ll find a satisfying mix of
outdoor activities and winter
high society. Immerse
yourself in the scene, and
stay at one of the many new
luxury lodges in the region,
like the Lefay Resort & Spa
Dolomiti (dolomiti.lefay
resorts.com; doubles from
$315), in Pinzolo, or the Adler
Lodge Ritten (adler-resorts.
com; from $270 per person,
all-inclusive).
For Getting Away from
the Family: Lombardy
There’s something to be said
for taking a child-free trip.
Couples can nurture their
sophisticated side in this
northwestern region, one
of Italy’s most important
cultural hubs. Start in Milan, a
capital not only of fashion but
also of art—from the
Renaissance (The Last
Supper hangs here, after all)
to the avant-garde, visible at
the Fondazione Prada
(fondazioneprada.org).
Follow up with a few days
around Lake Iseo and the
Franciacorta wine region,
where you can sample
Prosecco’s more refined
cousin at top vineyards like
Ca’ del Bosco (cadelbosco.
com) and Il Mosnel (mosnel.
com). — Hannah Walhout
Italy Through the Years
When it comes to amore, this country reigns supreme.
Here, some getaways for every stage of your relationship.
Snowshoeing in
the Dolomite
Mountains.
STEFAN SCHÜTZ/LOOK/GETTY IMAGES
