Biting into a light biscuit filled with tiny pieces of fragrant, yet subtle aniseed tastes delicious; the exoticness of aniseed within a golden, oven toasted biscuit. 

I needed a tablespoon, plus a little more of this aromatic spice  to bake 40 or so ‘Biscotti all’ Anice’; a simple Sicilian biscuit.

  'Touched by the goddess' Sicilian vistas are stirring and beautiful. The writer Francine Prose, in her book "Sicilian Odyssey", talks of the Sicilian landscape as being gifted by the goddess, "the golden hills, the turquoise coast, the warm sun, the stands of wild fennel and orange...'

She also speaks of Sicily being a land of  the "most extreme natural and made man splendor...'

  Coloured, patterned and some time worn beauty Traditionally colourful, vibrant, glazed and nearly always patterned with swirls, geometric simplicity and detailed floral beauty, Sicilian tiles reflect the island's centuries old love of the art of ceramics.

Tiles line the floors of Sicilian dining rooms, sitting rooms, bedrooms, ballrooms and entries. They are laid on benches, stairways, stoves, kitchen splashbacks and laundry boilers; they are essential to a Sicilian interior.