5 Best Restaurants in Mount Etna and Eastern Sicily, Sicily

Pizza is something Sicilians eat at least weekly, and Frumento has been the area standard-bearer of excellence since it opened in 2015. Choose from five different dough options (from a classic Neapolitan style to rye to ancient Sicilian grains) as your base, and then pick one of the 65 different topping combos. Ingredients range from the classics (tomato, buffalo mozzarella, salami) to things like capers from Salina, bottarga, 'nduja, and wild fennel pesto. The young owner is especially passionate about natural wine, and the list reflects that. There's a second location in Catania.

What Americans know as Sicilian pizza quite frankly doesn't exist in Sicily, but at this historic café and pizzeria that's been around since the 1800s, you'll find the real pizza siciliana. Though you can find the dish throughout the area, especially in Viagrande and Zafferana, Urna is said to be its inventor: they stuff tender calzone pastry with Tuma cheese, anchovies, and black peppercorns, and then deep-fry the half-moon delicacy. The result is a gooey, savory, flaky delight. Eat it in the outside garden or get it to go.

Walking through the gate of this little spot feels like entering a pizza speakeasy—it's located at the end of a cul-de-sac in the garden and ground floor of the owners' home (the name means "in a corner of the world"), and you'd be forgiven for thinking you've gotten the directions wrong. They use a slow, cold fermentation process to create crusts with deep flavors that they ply to turn out calzones and about 15 different pizzas each night. The menu is scrawled on a chalkboard (take a photo when you arrive for easy reference) and features beautiful combos, such as chicory with toasted breadcrumbs and black olives or pear and walnut with gorgonzola. 

For a casual night out with a tremendous backdrop, stop by for a pizza at Blanca, which sits on the terrace directly under the Norman castle with views of Aci Trezza in the distance. You'll see neighborhood kids kicking soccer balls in the piazza and couples out for their evening passeggiata as you dine on excellent pizza under the stars.  

Warm, inviting, and unassuming, one of Taormina's best pizzerias makes use of traditional grains to produce deliciously seared crusts with fresh, well-balanced toppings, plus fresh fish in summer, all paired with Sicilian wines. If a Nutella pizza doesn't appeal, there are a host of ice creams and granitas for dessert. You cannot fault the view.