SICILY, Italy — Sometimes I engage in a bit of indulgent self-reflection to better understand what makes me, me. I want to know who influenced my beliefs, values and traditions.

That personal anthropology previously led me to genealogy research. More recently, it has fueled my travel decisions. In October, I chose Sicily, an island that sits at the tip of the boot and is about the size of Massachusetts — an island that’s been part of Italy, technically, for less than 200 years.

I had Sicily on my travel radar long before the second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” was aired. The show is set in Taormina, Sicily, and has made the island a popular destination for 2023. I’m glad I beat the rush.

I spent two weeks traipsing the western third of the Mediterranean isle chasing the ghosts of my great-grandparents, Antonio and Rosa Marie Ciranni. Both were born in Sicily in 1872. They left for the United States in the early 1900s in search of jobs and a better life for their children. In 1908, Rosa Marie gave birth to my maternal grandfather in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town.

While I spent a day in the young Cirannis’ quiet hometown of Grotte (population 5,000), I also visited cities and attractions from the capital of Palermo on the northern coast to the ancient Greek temples in Agrigento on the southwestern coast. I was searching for local food traditions and other cultural clues that make the Sicilians different from mainland Italians. I found that in food,…