Explorations from Catania

We allowed ourselves to wake up without alarm today. With the shutters closed, it was a late wake-up and breakfast. We left after 1000 for a drive down to Siracusa where we walked to its historic centre Ortygia.

Ortygia had at its heart an old Greek temple now used as its Cathedral.  Apart from that it was a mix of touristy commercial and day-to-day Sicilian living.  We ended up at the fort at the tip which we entered for a visit.  We rushed back to the car as we had parked for with all the coins I had (about 1h30).

We added some more coins for an extra hour.  Kim wanted some lunch but I was still super-bloated.  None of the nearby choices appealed to him (too crowded and unlikely to turn us around in an hour, didn’t have tea etc).   We eventually found a simple outdoor place with grilled seafood and meats.

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After a long wait, we managed to order a grilled sausage sandwich and I a cherry-tomato salad.  My salad came and it was just so gorgeous with olive oil and salt.  It was an eternal wait for his sandwich with several follow-ups.  Kim was getting grumpier and grumpier.  And when it came, it wasn’t quite cooked on the inside.  Kim gave up; they waived the charge for the sandwich and the two covers and we left.

Kim wasn’t in a mood for more driving after the lunch disaster.  But he did change his mind and we continued for another hour or so to Modica, where some friends have bought an old place and are reconstructing.

Arriving in the Modica area we couldn’t work out why there were so many different arrows all pointing to the old centre.  Then the sat-nav took us across a very highly elevated bridge across the valley, looking down at the city, down the opposite side of the valley.  Aaah!  Now I understand … we had entered the address of our friends’ property which was on the opposite valley rather than on the near side or in the valley floor.

We looked for their property and after several mistaken identities we found it.  The facade was there but much of the back was being rebuilt.  There was a sign confirming the details of the construction project with their names on it.

Their place looked right down on to the town and the Cathedral.  It was a beautiful view.  We continued down to the valley floor in town where we had a cuppa tea outside San Pietro.  When it was time to pay for the two cuppas, the waiter said “Chink”.  Then I realised it was “Five” in Italian!

San Giorgio the Cathedral wasn’t far on the map but it was uphill and luckily we drove there for a look inside and out before continuing back to Catania.

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Learning from yesterday’s difficulty in finding dinner places (not much of an eat out culture), we stopped at an area full of megastores near the airport.  We ate at a franchise place called My Sicily which did paninis and a salad bar.  It was very good except that I was till bloated.  Something wasn’t right but I wasn’t sick sick.

Once we had refuelled ourselves, I introduced Kim to Decathlon.  This sportswear and sportsgear discounter shows how much New Zealand is a rip-off when it comes to these kinds of products.