Recently I went on a group trip to Italy. We started in Sicily, began at the west coast, and drove (via bus) to the east (and eventually to the mainland), with stops at places of interest. As part of this trip, we went to Erice, a medieval walled town. After sightseeing - there is a castle at the top of the town, among other places of interest - we had lunch.
Our local guide, Dimitri Donati, had arranged for all of us to have an authentic Sicilian meal at Prima Dea, which he said was one of the best restaurants in Sicily. We all (40 plus of us) trouped upstairs to the dining room. We had festive multi course meal which included pasta with tomato sauce and swordfish and red and white wines. Some people had a thin slice of ham and a section of melon as their appetizer. The service was very good. It was very evident that they had a very good selection of wines.
The décor was delightfully local: there was a small "rug" of bright mosaic tile on the floor of the entrance on the first floor and similar ones upstairs on the floor and on the walls. In the room upstairs where we ate there was a petite mural on one small wall, and framed paintings on other walls, most of them showcasing Erice, its stone buildings and arched entrances. read more