Weird World Variety with Matt and Jesse
A Podcast for every traveler. Funny and Family Friendly stories and news from around the world that just might make you smile.
Weird World Variety with Matt and Jesse
Sicilian Rhapsody: Caltanissetta's Culinary Conquests & Quirky Charm
Embark with us on an Italian escapade that promises to unlock the hidden splendors of Caltanissetta, a Sicilian gem rich in tradition and culinary innovation. Get ready to wander through picturesque landscapes and time-honored streets, as we reveal the best-kept secrets of this captivating town. From the debate about the pronunciation of 'grievous' that will tickle your funny bone to the insider tips that'll transform your travel experience, this episode is brimming with tales, tastes, and tours that will have you booking your next flight to Italy.
We don't just skim the surface; we provide a gourmet guide to Caltanissetta's top-tier restaurants and local eateries that are stirring the pot with their fusion of Sicilian flavors and international zest. From the veal tartare at Zaghara to the wild boar ragù at Villa Libertà, your palate is in for a treat. But it's not all about the food – we also lace up our hiking boots for a trek on Mount Etna and set sail on a serene boat tour of Mandela Bay. Each anecdote and recommendation brings you closer to the heart of Sicilian culture and the undeniable charm of Caltanissetta. Join us, as we share the stories and experiences that will make your visit unforgettable.
Hello there, nope, grievous, grievous. The most of America say Grievous. Yeah, they do, they usually do. You say that, but that's wrong. We just looked it up. It reaches.
Speaker 1:We don't pronounce and I was wrong. So I mean we don't pronounce anything, right, america? I'm convinced. Merca, merca, merca, not proper English. I don't even want to claim American anymore just because of the stupidity. Dude, I'm like nah, nah, I'm England, you know, but I fell across the pond, you know, or something.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, good morning everybody. This is weird. Good morrow, sir. Good morning morrow. This is Weird World Variety.
Speaker 1:If you don't know what this podcast is, we are very weird. Exactly, we are very weird. Every day we come back with some weird news or funny news or good things or secrets of the world that you may want to use in your travels, and that is our podcast. We basically just hope that and pray that our stupidness helps make your day better. Yeah, hopefully it makes you laugh. So we have and scratch your head at the same time. This is a very special episode. So last episode we did the special just for the boys edition, special Ed edition, the special Ed edition, and that was where we just kind of like talked about some things happening today with our technology and some other stuff, and we gave our honest opinion on it. Today we have another special Ed edition, but it's different. We are traveling around the world. We would like to help you in your travels. If you are traveling to different places and you come across these cities, we would like to help you in your travels and one way that we can help you is by telling you its secrets. So, if you visit this town or city, we give you the best tourist places to go to, the best restaurants to surprise and cave in at and the best places to experience. So hopefully we can help you do that today with a very special town that you found Because I was looking at the middle of the map and I was like, okay, here's the middle, let's find the middle of that.
Speaker 1:And oh, look at this name. This place has a remarkable history and a great location. It's also very big in the area of tourist destinations. Because he's like, oh, this is legit, this is, yeah, like what? What is the region that this is in? Jess, sicily, sicily, italy. So you're talking one of the biggest tourist destinations of Italy.
Speaker 1:So I thought this was more than appropriate and the name of the town is Calteni Setta, Calteni Setta, which we had to look up the renunciation of it, because that is how you say it, calteni Setta. I was mimicking the dude that was trying to do it. Calteni Setta, the Google translation. But yes, this is Calteni Setta, now, where we can find this village, slash town. Can we say it more like aggressively, or I mean, I don't care Calteni Setta, calteni Setta, calteni Setta. I just wanted to try. I had to see Calteni Setta. When I travel across the world, I want to give you Calteni Setta.
Speaker 1:So here is Calteni Setta, in the middle of Sicily. Now, if you look around it, there is a lot of different cities, but there's also a lot of scenery. I see a lot of Castle parks. I see a lot of greenery and forests, lakes and like that was part of the reason I picked it Really beautiful scenery, forests, yeah, it's pretty nice. Like this would be a town that I would say would be an awesome getaway spot. It should be on a magic garden, yeah, and honestly also a great first date location. Oh, dude, can you imagine like taking a woman there and be like and then tell your friends later Where's the county? Calteni Setta, calteni Setta, oh yeah, we went to Calteni Setta. I don't think she can get past the pronunciation. She'd be like what They'd be like where it's awesome, all right. So this if you look it up on the map, it's in Sicily, italy. We'll see a lot of green forests, like we said, around it.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing about Calteni Setta is was that it was established. Give me a second, I got to pull up my history here. There was this one the technology. The origins of Calteni Setta can be traced back to 406 BC, when Admiral I don't know how to pronounce this Nicaea, nicaea, what, on Nicaea of Halmikar siege force established a fort at this site, later called Castra Nicaea, which is Fort Nicaea, if you want to look it up. So ever since 406 BC, we can see traces of history in this area. Keep it going成. Appeals.
Speaker 1:The two biggest things that we're going to talk about today on this show is what you stuff, you digest, what you eat and what to do. What to do, because when you visit a city or you're traveling across the world, there's pretty much two things that you're gonna be interested in. You're gonna eat while you're climbing a castle wall exactly. There's gonna be a corn dog in one hand and a pizza and the other crepe. In one hand, it's very American. Crepes are good crepes, okay. Well, we're gonna talk about some of the food they got here. I'll add something to the hand when we see it. Yeah, we're gonna talk about some of the food we got here and we're gonna talk about some of the cool things to do in Calte Nezeta. Oh, I got it. It's time so for my thing.
Speaker 1:So let's start off first off. Okay, so this article we found was according to a gamboro rosso, which is this food site. Now, they could be biased. I don't know, they are very biased. They did pick out some fancy places. Now, mind you, we're gonna go over these seven and also some of the ones that we found on Google Maps that have high ratings. So here's the seven best restaurants in Calte Nezeta, according to gamboro rosso, where to eat in Calte Nezeta. To Leia now, this is that the? Is that the first one or is that just the? No, no, that's not the purple. Yeah, that's what I'm looking at. To Leia bold, yeah, yeah, okay. So they just okay. The reason why this is confusing us? Because the name of the restaurant area is the same bold print as the name of the yeah see as the name of the title. So all right.
Speaker 1:This brasserie, located in Villa Libertad, carlo Pecoraro now you're gonna have to bear with us. No, I'm just trying to pronounce it, you're gonna have to bear with us establishment serves excellent food, showcasing the discovery of new flavors and traditions in an intimate setting. The menu feature traditional dishes accompanied by international recipes, bringing new taste to the heart of Sicily, while maintaining the concept of simplicity associated associated with the format in the kitchen. Can it wait? I skipped, sorry. There are no chefs, but rather a collective of young talents. What do you, man? Hey, look at that young talent. They're bringing in young people there we go, who convey their passion and love in every single dish. The wine and beer list predominantly features Sicilian products to highlight the local area while not neglecting the rest of Italy and abroad.
Speaker 1:Open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. Lunch and dinner, not breakfast, oh man. So I can't get up at 5 am and eat there. In the cover photo, their fresh Papa Rodel with wild boar ragu. That sounds like a stomach ache. So this one right here a little bit honestly, does that? Is that? That looks interesting. I would try it. I would try it now. It now be before worn. They did say there's no chefs per se, but they do have young, talented individuals who are doing the cooking. So might be a 50-50, I don't know, but it sounds good to me. I'd try it. I would try it. Yes, definitely, we're going there because you know, worst case scenario they mess up. You're like, oh well, I'm so eating. Yeah, exactly, all right, jess, you got the next one.
Speaker 1:Zaghara is what I would try to say. It Zaghara, located within the hotel villa flora release, on a natural terrace overlooking the hills of the casino area. Chef Marco Calabrese, breezy, offers, breezy, breezy. Offers dishes of regional and local. Or Marco breezy, marco breezy. Good, I forgot, we're left off now, thanks. Offers dishes of offers, dishes of regional and local origin, presented and in modern style, with great attention to high quality local ingredients. Among these they must try is the veal tartare, crispy egg, yolk, summer black truffle to my purse cheese, hazelnuts and balsamic pearls pearls, well, that's not delicious.
Speaker 1:We in pearls now, okay, yes, the in Bariq cellar, where exclusive tastings and dinners are available upon request, houses a meticulous, a meticulous selection of wines from Sicily, all over Italy and around the world, including a preference for champagne. Okay. So what I open daily, what I've gathered so far with this city is especially in Italy and this is a big thing with Italy period but especially in a count in a set up. They are big on wine, like nearly every restaurant has wine selections. So, yeah, that's, if you're definitely looking for a place to try wine, add, count in a set. That's your list. Looks like there's a lot and there's the picture that it.
Speaker 1:That was exactly what they described like what? Like an open soap that they're eating, yeah, on a bed of pearls. Look at that. It's like glass, but it's food that's delicious. I would try it. Unusual, I would try. I would try this dish too. Look at this. Good luck saying that, joe Vince Machelli in Susina I don't know if I pronounce that right, that was cookies, honestly, cookies in a casino. Maybe, I don't know, in the city's expanding area today, it doesn't matter. We're gonna go there and we're gonna eat and have a good time in the city's expanding area called Cala Ghetto of Enchata.
Speaker 1:After learning of the butchering trade in his father's and grandfather's shop, his ventura's dad yeah, pretty much opened his restaurant to share his great passion for me with guests. It's a place where people can eat well, feel at home, enjoy dishes of both local and foreign meats selected directly from his butcher shop. In the kitchen, angela Ruizzo shares Cala, cala hero I want to say Cala hero, his vision creating always new recipes that now Valarys valorize me first. I've seen that. I've never seen that word before either. Their guest expectations. The name derives dumb Americans. The name derives from the type of animal, the Geovincia, meaning heifer, heifer, heifer, yeah, that's why I mean that Cala Ghetto's grandfather used to used in his butcher shop and which he himself and that makes sense which he himself uses in his restaurant.
Speaker 1:Don't miss the meatballs made with selected minced meat and a particular processing method. And your wine list here's the wine list featuring Sicilian and Italian wines is extensive, as is the selection of craft and non-craft beers. Every day, open for lunch and dinner, closed on Sundays. And you really miss meatballs, though. No Chick-fil-A Sundays. I mean, meatballs is pretty good, meatballs is pretty good. I would definitely try that dish.
Speaker 1:Can you miss them? I don't think that you can miss them. I mean if you haven't had them for a while. I don't mean miss them as in like. It depends on how, like they decorate it. They might be able to disguise it if it's covered in a leaf or something, maybe what fried ice cream? Fried ice cream. I don't think you never had fried ice cream. Now I kind of I will take you today and we will go out for a Okay, that's kind of defeat the program, no, but I'll take you sometime this week you can have some fried ice cream. It's, that's blasphemy, but yeah, we, we have fried ice cream here as well. There you go, good luck with that one. I, sandro's Papa, I mean Alessandro Papa, sundress Papa, his papa's involved, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Vla region, regi region, is the restaurant of chef Alessandro Papa, not his Papa. His cuisine is based on research, seasonality to make it through this, of ingredients from local farms and breeding farms which he works with, without neglecting origin and tradition, giving life dishes closely linked to the land and local culture. Among these, it's worth trying the suckling pig. You Attention to the needs of his guests also offers list for those with gluten intolerance and vegetarian pause. Giving an extreme title like that, which may be funny to us and maybe not be funny to them, is what also brings you in to try it. Okay, let's be honest in the marketing is on point. All right. Hey, let me get some of that suckling pig. I would definitely go there to get the suckling pig cube, because I have no idea what that is and it sounds awesome. How bad could it be? Yeah, I mean anything, anything meat wise, and that direction is probably pretty good. Every, every version of pig in my experience has been great. So, yeah, anyway, the restaurant.
Speaker 1:The restaurant has a wide seller, curated by the chef and his wife, sylvia, who, in addition to being a Smellier let's look up the definition of that I don't know what that. That means. Do-do-do-do is so ignorant. Yeah, they're using. They're using all these fancy words and we have to learn. So we're gonna learn today, we're gonna learn, they're gonna learn us. Meaning a Simele a wine professional, wine steward is trained and knowledgeable. Wine profession, yeah, so wine professional, basically, that makes more sense Also takes care of the service and welcomes guests.
Speaker 1:The restaurant is open every day for lunch and dinner, and on Sundays only for lunch. This one is open on Sundays for lunch. There you go, um, not a lot. We haven't found anything open for breakfast yet. I can't really know breakfast. Well, they must sleep in. They might, they might, I don't know. All right, we've got, I've got, I think I think we've got One more. Yeah, one more. What? Yeah, this is the last one on this list. Those, this one's for a different area, see, all right, last one on the list is Sabia. Is that seven, though? And two, three, four, five. No, that's what I said. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Sabia in Gala, the birthplace of Archistratus. Well, it's Italy, what'd you expect? A poet from the second half of the fourth century BC, whose work, the life of gourmand, is considered the first gastronomic guide in history. You'll find that Sabia restaurant chef todo Contania, known in the catering world through Appetiting appetiting I don't know, it's probably not right, but has recently begun a collaboration with the La Rosa family and managing his restaurant. His cuisine is Mediterranean.
Speaker 1:There we go, original and innovative, featuring both meat and seafood dishes hey, there's, there's my seafood Along with some vegetarian options. It's characterized by a constant quest for balance and harmony between the flavors of land and sea. The menu is a la carte I prefer the land and there are also seafood and meat tasting menus Seafood and meat tasting menus that change with the seasons. Among the must-taste dishes on the menu is saffron risotto with Seafood and sage flowers page flowers. I wonder if we're doing a sage Probably, who's called, whose color recalls the golden beaches of the gala.
Speaker 1:The dining area features an open kitchen and vintage deep design details. The wine cellar offers Sicilian and national labels. Open for dinner from Tuesday to Saturday, open for lunch on Sundays and closed on Mondays. You gotta know that schedule. Nobody likes Mondays anyway, so they're just skipping it. Look at us. We're recording on a Monday, yeah, day, I mean today.
Speaker 1:All right, the Last two. We don't really have time to go. Let's, let's do a few more, because we're we've got. We won't. We don't have time to go into detail on these, but let's list. We've got Dintro Le Marra, austria, copentana and Nia. I have no idea, but is in the village of butra butra and inside the Arab Norman castle. So there's, there's another one. If you want to eat inside a castle, there you go. Oh, yes. And then the other one is Reese's. It's in Reese's a Reset Reese's. No, you're right, it's probably Reese's Muffle. La Torreia, maybe La Teri, that's that sandwich looks there. It does look pretty sweet. That's this one's a bistro, bistro sandwich. That looks amazing. So yeah, I would definitely try those two.
Speaker 1:Some other restaurants we got on Google here before we let out with our next section, rattle them off. Yeah, I'm going to the Restaurant, a centro storico. It's got some high ratings Pizzeria, a gusto, sal and Pepe that came up on our list. La Medina I don't make. We thought salt and pepper when I saw that La Medina. Here's some other ones. Jess, go ahead. Loomi, the Cecilia, rist Rante, rist Rante, laurie, bella, papa Alessandra I think what I was when we mentioned Yep, yep, rist Rante, I'll eat Torino, there you go. I Pizzeria too, I guess the second Molina restaurant.
Speaker 1:And then we've got to Leah, which we talked about, to Leah is there? Yeah, la Pia dinner, dinnerina and granny and pasta and many more. I mean, there's, there's a ton. So go check it out for yourself. And it looks like there's a grouping of restaurants, probably like six or seven in the north end and then down in the south end. We've got three or four out in the middle of the country in different areas. So go check it out.
Speaker 1:You can get to them all by looks like highway 640. So SS 640 takes you north and south. It brings you through all of them. Basically. So, yeah, very easy access, very awesome place to go try out and it is very beautiful. And so we're going to talk about some things to do in how to do this. I forgot about that already. So just some rattling off, some things to do that you might want to do with your meals, we have number one. Or, for your meals, another food and drink place is at Casa de Silla and they're governing that from like $100.
Speaker 1:This is from TripAdvisor. We probably skipped the rest of the list. Yeah, this from TripAdvisor. You've got your tours. So we've got one tour, mount Etna and Taormina, catania, which looks awesome, looks like a beautiful scenic tour. The imagery is sweet. That's why I picked it.
Speaker 1:Mainly so many great pictures, private tour of Mount Etna in the coastal village of Taormina and compete after convenient pickup at your hotel. See lava flows and craters before visits and Mount Etna, then explore the elegant town of Taormina, the views, the seas and the mountains. There you go, you can see lava flows, that's you can reserve for a group up to eight for about 500 bucks per group. So 500 bucks to get you up to eight people, that's pretty good price. That's pretty good price for a full day tour. Heck, yeah, we've got our next full day. I mean, that's pretty much all day. Like you're talking a mountain, it says eight hours. Yeah, how much is it? Yeah, eight hours, pretty much all day. So there you go.
Speaker 1:If you have another idea in mind, there is like, say, you wanted to just spend part of your day on Mount Etna. There is a morning trip at no morning trip. So you want to spend a little bit less money, go in the morning. It is about 65 bucks per person. The max duration is six hours, but you can go in the morning and have the rest of your day. So there you go, says.
Speaker 1:Mount Etna can get quite warm, which is mostly what people like. Right Today, if you want to know what the temperature is like, it is mid sixties, in lower sixties in Calteness at that time. That's so cold dude, probably cold to them. It might be. This is quite warm, though they must still consider it warm.
Speaker 1:This trip is perfect for hikers of all abilities and allows you to see Mount Etna from many different angles. And what would you say? Your ability is Pretty advanced, mine's probably mediocre. Here we go. How about now, at least? How about, if you didn't want to hike, we've got a boat tour. Totally, this bay, mandela Bay, looks pretty awesome. It looks gorgeous. It kind of looks like a scene out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Oh, this is a pretty Okay.
Speaker 1:So if you don't know boat tours, this is a pretty good price for this amount of time because they, if you've never booked a boat tour before, they do it by hours. So they'll have three different packages available and you'll book by how many hours. This is 98 per adult for four to five hours. That'd be pretty crazy. So you're talking like a five hour trip for a hundred bucks. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. And especially if you look at, like in America, what our fishing tours are, it's ridiculous. It's like three to 500 bucks, so terrible. Leave America again, let's see what you get. So with this, you get a private boat tour it looks like a local who's doing it, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:You get to see Palermo Palermo, which is, I believe, the city from the sea, and get the tour with Angela. You get to spend all day on the sea sailing. So there you go. I wonder if that's Angela. Probably not. I mean, four to five hours is considered a half day trip, so that's pretty good. For a half day trip, a hundred bucks. So yeah, and then we've got what else? We got, jess, highlights and hidden gems with locals.
Speaker 1:This is Palermo, palermo, the city we were just talking about. I'm pretty sure I almost clicked on that initially, did you? Yeah, cause I was like, oh, pal, palermo. I was going to make a joke like, ah, pal, we're all Palermo. Well, this looks like a tour of the city. You get three hours for 95 bucks, and what's included with this? We've got Local and private experience. Okay, so they're gonna take you around the famous attractions as well as trevors You'll never see on the regular tours, plus the traditional outdoor markets. So Not a super long amount of time, but you get to experience their tourist destinations and the hidden stuff and some of their Outdoor markets.
Speaker 1:So, genuinely, this wouldn't be my favorite. I'd want something more, but I I am not bad if you're a tourist in the area. How about this one, the Godfather and Ormina tour from missing? Oh, I almost clicked on reserve. We're gonna go today. All right, now this is cool. Look at these. Feel full cactus, beautiful.
Speaker 1:I wonder how they feel about tourists. Do they love tourists in Italy? I'm not sure. I probably not, because I can totally see people being like Haha, push in, the cat die. I don't know. I don't know like. I know certain things about certain countries, but I haven't been to every country so I don't know how each country especially in 2024 how they take tourism. I know that for a while After the COVID pandemic, Japan was not open to tourism, tourists or not.
Speaker 1:I'll look it up here in a minute. Let's go over this. So we've got a guided tour From a Sina. You got a day trip Including Taramina. Okay, yep, about six hours, so that's pretty good. For a hundred bucks you get a six hours day tour and you get to see attractions like filming locations where they film the godfather, and UNESCO World Heritage which that would be super cool Says private vehicle. So if you know the godfather movie, here you go. Here's your chance to see personally some of the locations that they filmed from.
Speaker 1:We've got more tours for etna. We've got palmerna tours and then, of course, the etna winery tour. If you are interested in wines, they have tons of wine tasting experiences Starting from a hundred bucks to looks like almost 300 bucks. So there you go. That's honestly that's all I got on count in a set to. So if you want a little that a huge place, but it looked interesting to me. So it looks very beautiful. It has wine and restaurants. It's great. It'd be great, like, if you're especially an outdoors person, the whole area is surrounded by parks and mountains and forts and castles and yes, so. And then be able to take sea tours as well, like to go on a boat tour and stuff like a dream, sounds like a great getaway.
Speaker 1:So if you are in the very area of Italy, or if you're planning a vacation Italy, consider, yeah, it seems pretty cool, it's fun to say it. You could be like, hey, where did you go? And you tell your friends we went to count in a set. They're like, oh really, what is that? Why not say five? Bra, let me tell you about All right, well, you know, that's a wrap for me.
Speaker 1:Next time we're gonna dive into. So next episode we're gonna dive into some more Weird and funny news, cuz man, do we have some? And also, before we go, the chiefs won the Super Bowl. I Don't know nothing about that, bro. Well, I can tell you this the most famous NFL couple in history won the Super Bowl. I don't even think the chiefs one, I think Taylor Swift and Kelsey. They set it up, dude. It was such a setup, bro. It was such a setup you're telling me that they didn't plan for the most famous couple in NFL history right now To win the Super Bowl. Come on now. I never expected her to get with a football player, that's for sure. Like they have those they have just unusual because you have the T-Swift fans, and like she's brought in millions for the NFL, you think, yeah, that wouldn't be a thing where they just play in that like, come on now.
Speaker 1:And it was a perfect Cinderella story. It was, the chiefs were down, I'm telling you, the chiefs were down and behind and then in overtime, the Patrick Mahomes runs it in and gets a touchdown in the wind and everybody celebrates and Taylor Swift comes down and kisses her fiance or whatever, and blah, blah, blah, fiance, I don't know, boyfriend, boyfriend, her boo, her boo, which they had usher singing my boo. So there you go. You can't write this stuff, bro. We're seeing it. We're seeing it right road at first.
Speaker 1:And then you know, listen, my friends make fun of me all the time because I say the NFL's rigged. I was like it did. You think they were gonna let the most famous NFL couple lose the Super Bowl? It probably is rigged because the Brown should not be. I mean, there's got to be at least a few good players on the Browns. I know reason they should lose every time. Right, bro, the Bears, chicago Bears have been to the Super Bowl once in NFL history. He was gonna have all the glory, right? You can't make this crap up. You totally can't. It sounds good. Oh, it's bad. If you ask the NFL what they are, if you ask the NFL what they are, they have said multiple times and I tell this to my friends all the time they just roll their eyes.
Speaker 1:The NFL classifies themselves as a sports Entertainment company. Not a sports company, not a sports industry. Sports Entertainment. Yeah, you know who else is an entertainment industry WWE. Like, come on, it's not. It can't get more obvious. Now, I agree that a lot of players are talented Okay, and a lot of the crazy plays that we see on TV are because they're so talented, but you cannot tell me that they don't even have at least an idea of who they want to win Because of sports betting and all that.
Speaker 1:You can't tell me that. You can't tell me, ever since sports betting was invented, there's always been a mafia behind it. Wow, it doesn't matter what it is like. Look out throughout history, anything that's involved sports betting. There's been some organization behind it, I wouldn't surprise me. It's like going to the casino and saying that they don't have it rigged, like, come on, bro, I mean they totally. The house always wins. Nope, the house always wins. I mean, we won a few times, yeah, but they're not letting you walk out of there. Come on now with the big buck, exactly If they do. And if they do, it's because it's pocket change to them. Otherwise every casino would be shut down on this side of the planet. Yeah, so anyway, all right, enough my rant. That was funny. Besides NFL news, we've got a ton of weird news and stuff coming up for you guys, so please stay tuned. Thank you for listening. And from the WWE, thank you so much for listening and being weird. Keep it weird, everybody. See ya later. Oh, oh, oh.