Perry Real Estate Agents – Sicily Team Building Event 2016

Sunday 15th May 2016 saw all the Perry staff (now totalling some 21 employees) journey to Sicily for the first time together as a team building exercise inspired by an excellent start to 2016 and Perry Estate Agents continuing success as a whole. This trip was instigated by Robert Spiteri Paris (Director) and his father, Perry (Founder and Managing Director) with all of our staff taking time out from their busy schedules to enjoy a well-deserved break and cultural tour.

Our excursion started early on Sunday morning as we all made our way to the ferry terminal at the rather uncomfortable time of 5.30am! The catamaran service is operated by Virtu Ferries and we effortlessly arrived in Sicily an hour and a half later to begin our day, hosted by our flamboyant local guide Loridana. First stop was the fishing village of Marzamemi for some breakfast followed by some gourmet shopping at the wonderful local delicatessen called Campisi which “is a leading manufacturer of fish products including raw tuna (bottarga), red tuna, traditional Sicilian sauces and the popular Pachino tomatoes – homegrown in this area of Sicily.”

Next stop saw us head to a local winery, known for some of Sicily’s most notable varieties, namely Nero D’Avola and the dessert wine Moscato di Noto. During this demonstration, we had a full introduction to the making and bottling process including a historical view of older methods right through to the more modern techniques utilised today. Luckily for us, this culminated in a wine tasting session accompanied by some exquisite local produce including various cured meats, cheeses, rustic bread and delicious olive oils.

Fully inspired, we headed off to our next destination, the majestic Unesco world heritage city of Noto, which (luckily for us) was celebrating the last day of its Spring flower festival (L’infiorata di Noto). This annual feast for the eyes features “thousands of flowers” all expertly arranged throughout the city. Noto suffered tremendous damage in the notorious earthquake of 1693 and was consequently rebuilt to be the capital of Baroque architecture in Sicily. This is certainly evident in some of the breath-taking buildings such as Palazzo Ducezio (The Municipale), the church of San Carlo and Palazzo Villadorata with its spectacular balconies.

After our walkabout in Noto we headed to an ‘Agroturismo’ called ‘Agri Milo’ in the beautiful countryside area of ‘Villa Vela’ for a typical Sicilian lunch which featured about 20 antipasti courses of wonderful regional delicacies (many of which were grown or produced on the farm) including various cheeses, meats, olives and freshly baked bread, followed by pasta and rosemary infused Porchetta. This was inevitably all washed down perfectly with the local wine!

From this scenic countryside location, we made our way to Syracuse on the coast, an ancient city dating back some 2700 years that has come to “epitomize Greek culture in Sicily” especially in the old part of the city called Ortygia with its remarkable churches, amphitheatres, and architecture. We had a couple of hours here to savour the picturesque backstreets and buildings and as the day drew to a close we headed back to the ferry at Pozzallo, bound for our return trip to Malta and all agreed what a great day we had experienced. A big thank you to Perry and Robert for organising this and to all the staff for taking part! I’m sure we will all be looking forward to the next opportunity to do this again!

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