TRAVEL MAIL32 Mail Today, New Delhi, Sunday, January 27, 2013 TRAVEL MAIL32

NEW JERSEY-based Beth Whitman begantravelling when she was 20. She didn’t justwant to travel — she wanted to make a liv-

ing out of it and along the way inspireothers to pick up that bag and leave.

She has been doing so for 25 years.And she has had a hand grenadepulled on her in Cambodia andbeen threatened in Nicaragua.

TRAVEL ON THE

WEB

www.wanderlustandlipstick.com

ANDREA PERULLO believes she was bornwith a gypsy spirit. For her the world isher country and she wants to explore all of it. She has been to 50 countries in sixcontinents. She is a Chinese medicine doc-tor based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Goto her website www.mybeautifuladven-tures.com for some top-quality eye relief

AS BEAUTIFUL AS IT GETS

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

RelivingContinued from page 31

A photoart enthusiast who hastwo rooms full of cameras, Dil-wali warns rookie trekkers aboutthe dangers of dehydration inthe mountains, “lack of water inyour body can easily kill youbefore the cold does,” he says.

Here’s another customisednugget of wisdom from him: Thebeauty of life, especially in theHimalayas, is not in the destina-tion, it’s in the journey. The mom-ents you’ll remember are not ofjust when you get to Kedarnathor Badrinath, but it is also in thesights that you see on the way tothe peaks that you want to see.

Ashok Dilwali captures a solitary sadhu meditating at Gaurikund in Gangotri

SICILY HAS just madean offer you can’trefuse. And no, you arenot likely to find adecapitated head of ahorse by your side

when you wake up tomorrowmorning — that’s what Siciliansdo when they migrate to Americaand get greedy.

The offer is to travel to Italy’s sunniestpart, where people exude the warmth ofthe sun, to sample wines that have becomethe rage across the world. The plump red,Nero d’Avola, is gaining new followers andthe sulphurous lava spewed intermittentlyby Mount Etna, one of the world’s mostactive volcanoes located on Sicily’s eastcoast, pump those enriching minerals thatgives the soil the power to nurture theseductive Nerello Mascalese grapes grownat a height of 1,200m.

Unsurprisingly, it was Jancis Robinson,one of the English-speaking world’s finestwine writers, who first suggested in herweekend column in Financial Times thatthe “brooding cone” of the Etna may justbe the “Burgundy of the Mediterranean”.In the last five years since the time shemade her observation, the popularity ofthe wines of Etna, and of Sicily in general,has seen a significant surge. It’s been a dra-matic turnaround in the image of theregion that was not long ago dismissed asEurope’s wine lake — it produced bulkwines that others used to shore up theirs inbad harvest years.

Delhi, with a little help from the IndianWine Academy, got to savour the lusciouspossibilities of Sicilian wines this pastweek when a delegation of the region’s topproducers landed in the city to presenttheir offerings at a masterclass conductedby Susan Hulme, Master of Wine (MW).An MW is the wine world’s equivalent of aNobel Laureate — just 280 men andwomen from 23 countries have qualifiedfor the title since the first examinations forit were conducted in 1953 — but Hulme(www.susanhulme.com) wears her great-

ness lightly. Sicily, Hulme said, “is very dearto my heart”. Her romance with the regionstarted when she went there as a teacher ofEnglish as a foreign language after graduat-ing from the University of Warwick withhonours in English Literature. “I felt likeI’d come home when I first landedin Sicily. The people are aswarm and welcoming as theSicilian sun,” Hulme said.

Sicily has about 20unique wine varieties —from the Grillo andCarricante (fruitywhites oozing charac-ter) to the Perricone,the Cerasuolo and of

course, Nero d’Avola, all fruit-forward reds.“They are like a breath of fresh air in a worldfull of chardonnays and cabernet sauvi-gnons,” Hulme said, adding that they standout for the wine lover because they are “notmassive” and therefore “allow space for

food”. Wine writer Michele Shah(www.micheleshah.com), who is

one of the most ardent pro-moters of Italian wines

around the world, saidSicilian wines stand outbecause they are “moregenerous, more open,more playful”. It is easierof match such wineswith food, especially the

There’s a new reason to visit Sicily — the rising popularity ofthe luscious wines from the slopes of Mount Etna. Delhi gotto savour the wines and discover the roads that lead to them

Sicily’s castles and cathedrals atop steep hills (above) are as strikingas the vineyards that flourish on the slopes of Europe’s largest activevolcano, the brooding Mount Etna (above, right). The region’s wineestates also produce some of Italy’s finest olive oil (right).

VOLCANICROMANCE

For the winetourist, Sicily is a

matrix of over 20 localgrape varieties and 100

different terroirs

CHECKLISTASHLIN MATHEW checks out the best deals and must-visit places

Summer’s not too far away

What’s your plan for the summer? Ezeego1.commight just have the right itinerary for you.Along with Contiki Holidays, Ezeego1.com hascome up with special summer packages for theyouth (aged between 18-35). ‘The Little Hopper’is a nine nights and ten days tour covering Paris,Swiss Alps, French Riviera, Florence and Romepriced at `94,526 per person. All tours includeairfare, accommodation and meals. Visitwww.ezeego1.com for details

Pampered with grape in Goa

DID YOU know there’s more to grapes than wine?At the Kenilworth Resort & Spa in Calcete, Goa, aunique grape therapy is offered . The spa ritualstarts with a foot bath followed by grape and canesugar body scrub. This is followed by an aro-matherapy massage where grape seed oil is one ofthe key ingredients. And as if this is not enoughthe therapy is completed with a warm wine bath.If you want two hours of complete bliss, head toKenilworth and enjoy the grape therapy at `9999.Visit www.kenilworthhotels.com for details

After Rameshwaram and Tirupati, DaiwikHotels, India’s first specialty chain of four-

star pilgrim hotels is all set to woo pilgrims inDwarka with its new property. Daiwik Hotelswill host 120-140 keys with a mix of superior,deluxe and suite accomodation options. The fullservice four-star facility will offer a multi-cui-sine restaurant, banquets and an ctivity roomfor kirtans, bhajans and discourses. Maybe it’stime for you to embark upon a pilgrimage.

FOR ALL those seeking a quick impromptugetaway, SOTC has announced the launch

of ‘Zero Planning Holidays.’ You just have toidentify your preferred holiday destination fromavailable options and SOTC ensures that within24 hours the holiday is planned. Thailand, Bali,Mauritius, Maldives, Macau, Hong Kong, SriLanka and Fiji are the international destinationson SOTC’s list while those opting for a domenticgetaway can choose from Darjeeling, Manali,Yelagiri and Ooty. Visit www.sotc.in for details.

If you have information to share on travel deals and hotel packages, mail it to

ashlin.mathew@mailtoday.in

Love with a Moroccan twist

HOW about taking off to Morocco this Valen-tine’s? At Amanjena resorts in Morocco, you can enjoy a candlelight dinner in the onyx-columned restaurant. Or have a private dinnerset in an olive grove within Amanjena’s outdoortent, under a starlit Moroccan night. Prices fortwo start from £1,900 (`10,11265) per night. Visitwww.amanresorts.com for details.

33

THE Vacation Gals are three profess-ional travel writers — and mums — whoare eager to share their favourite desti-nations for family trips, girlfriend get-aways and romantic escapes with all.Usually Beth Blair, Jennifer Miner andKara Williams travel around NorthAmerica, Mexico and the Caribbean.They write about their experienceswhile on their many sojourns.

www.vacationgals.com WELL-HEELED LIFE

Himalayas through RoerichBut of course, the exact

moment of a blanket of cloudsembracing Nanda Devi beforemoving on, or a shot of Leh’s highmountains emerging from underthick clouds, is what the photog-rapher classifies as a Roerichmoment. “Photographing land-scapes is so much better thanphotographing people onshoots,” says Dilwali, “There’sno one dictating anythingto you, no requests totilt you head a little tothe left or a little tothe right, no instru-ctions on howmuch to smile —you’re just left in

awe of the sheer majestic land-scape in front of you.”

Dilwali, who believes that badweather is a photographer’s bestfriend, has ventured into therange from all places possible —from Leh, through Himachal andArunachal Pradesh, along theIndo-Tibetan border and Sikkim.

He has been to everyHimalayan peak you

have ever heardof, and has

even campedunder theshadow ofMountEverest atone point.

“I’ve been regularly visitingLahaul since 1986, and every twiston Lahual’s roads have alwaysbeen stunning,” he says. Whilethe Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet,he promises, will draw you inwith its air of spirituality andbeauty, the rainforests of Aruna-chal will leave you spellbound.

“The thing that is really fasci-nating about the Himalayas isthat every month lends a differ-ent personality — the colours ofthe landscape change with thepassing of summers, winters andautumns,” he says. Before thesnow melts away, head to themountains for your own Roerichmoment.

When you’rein the Himalayas,

lack of water in yourbody can easily kill you

before the cold doesThe photographer Ashok Dilwali poses with his trustedcompanion amid the many pictures he has taken

TRAVELLING is Mark’s lifelineand not so surprisingly he hasbeen to 80 countries in all thecontinents. He blogs about themost memorable destinations.And being a keen photogra-pher, he has pepped up hiswebsite, www.travel-won-ders.com, with great pictures

Mail Today, New Delhi / Chandigarh, Sunday, January 6, 2013 Mail Today, New Delhi, Sunday, January 27, 2013 TRAVEL MAIL

occasionally problematic Indianfood, because they don’t have theaustere tannins that overpowerwhat’s on the plate and yet have thecomplexity to speak for themselves.There’s place for both the wine andthe food on the table — one doesn’toverpower the other.

Carrying forward this theme,Sicily’s wine ambassador and one ofItaly’s most critically acclaimed pro-ducers, Diego Planeta (www.plan-etawines.com), said his wines sell in70 different countries because of“the very good balance of price andquality,” which he says is true ofmost wines from his part of the

world. An Indophile who’s been vis-iting this country since 1972, travel-ling mostly by train to “know India”,and a fighter for the protection ofthe geographical appellation of Bas-mati rice, Planeta said Sicilian redsare “ideal” for Indian food.

For the wine tourist, Sicily — itproduces as much wine as Australiaand has as much land planted withvines as Chile — is a matrix of 100different terroirs that offer the mostamazing diversity. Take Etna, forinstance. This tiny region’s foremostwinemaker, Giuseppe Benanti(www.vinicolabenanti.it), remin-ded us at the masterclass that the

number of producers in Etna hasshot up from five to 60 in the past 20years. It is possible for you thereforeto visit Mount Etna and knock on 60different cellar doors.

And Sicilian wine producers invei-gle you to stay on in their stunningestates where talented chefs serveyou the best of the local cuisine. Youcould check in at Le Foresteria ofthe Planetas (www.planetaest-ate.it), or take a guided tour acrossthe Benanti estate and pray at theancient chapel sitting there, orstretch yourself at Regaliali, thefarm villa dating back to the 19thcentury in the estates of Tasca

d’Almerita, whose scion, GiuseppeTasca, spoke ecstatically of themouth-watering acidity of his winesand the silky edge to their tannins.

Tasca said his cousin spoke Eng-lish with an American accent becau-se of the number of tourists whocame from across the Atlantic to thecookery school his aunt, Anna TascaLanza, ran on the estate. “You toocan be a part of the experience,” hesaid, rolling a cigarette. “Sicily is allabout warm people, good food andgreat wine, and the best way toenjoy all three is to check into a wineestate resort.” Carry those wordswith you when you fly to Sicily.

Sicily isall aboutwarmpeople,good foodand great wine,and you can enjoy allthree by checking into awine estate resort

— GIUSEPPE TASCATasca d’Almerita

Sicilianwines standout becausethey aremuch moregenerous, more open,more playful. It iseasier of match suchwines with food

— MICHELE SHAHFood and wine writer

Our winessell in over 70countriesbecause of the very goodbalance ofprice and quality. This istrue of most wines fromour part of the world

— DIEGO PLANETAPlaneta Wines

I felt like Ihad comehome when Ifirst landed in Sicily. Thepeople are aswarm and welcoming asthe Sicilian sun

— SUSAN HULME Master of Wine

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SICILY FOR STARTERS

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