Distracted1

Day5

We check out of Valle degli Dei which really means we just find the first person who works there, give them the amount agreed upon in the emails when we made the reservation in cash, hop in the wee beemer and watch out Syracusa, here we come.

We didn’t have any weird adventures getting to Syracusa. We pretty much followed our map and our noses and with no more excitement than filling our tank for the first time, (these little euro-diesels go forever on a tank, you have to be careful to remember that they run on fuel at all!) we arrive at the hometown of Archimedes. Maybe we’re beginning to get the hang of this. We head for the island of Ortigia at the south end of Syracusa that we think is the old quarter with all the good ruins and stuff. Not a big town but definitely a tourist destination. We dodge the locals and the tour busses and locate a large parcheggio (parking area) that seemed to be near where we wanted to be. Parking is the pay first kind so we pay our 60 euro-cents per hour for 4 hours and put the ticket on the dashboard. We look at the map, turn in circles 3 times and since one direction is the sea, we go the other direction. We immediately find ourselves in the middle of a market. Everything from leather goods and toys to fresh fish and whole deli departments on wheels. Crowds of folks doing their shopping and merchants hawking their goods… very cool.     

We wander for a while and eat lunch.

We find a little shop where they sell pictures and stuff printed on papyrus ‘paper’. The little lady behind the counter responds to our questions about the stuff and gives us papyrus making 101 lesson right there in the shop. There is a stand of papyrus plants growing in a water feature down the street.

After a while we realize that the significant ruins and temples and stuff are at the other end of the other part of town. Back to the little silver car and we point ourselves through the middle of town. No problem. We arrive at the Parco Archeologico without getting even a little lost. We snag a decent parking place and get taken for two euros by a guy posing as a parking attendant. You have to walk past about a half kilometer of souvenir stands to get to the ticket office. Bah.

The ruins are well preserved and managed, (a rarity here). The Greek theatre is truly impressive, the ear of Dionysius is puzzling to me in that it is the cave left by quarrying stone for building the ancient structures but it looks so organic… there isn’t a straight line or corner in the thing. And it is huge !

Syracuse is the hometown of Archimedes, one of my historical heroes, the father of math and engineering and machines… right up there with MacGuyver in my book. Unfortunately the part of the Parco Archeologico with the tomb of Archimedes is closed and has been for a while. I cannot get very close. Bummed. They don’t really know where he was buried, it’s just called the tomb of Archimedes so … I guess it’s not so bad.

Syracuse turns out to be one of the prettiest and easiest towns to get around in so far. Very entertaining and almost relaxing. It is late afternoon when we head north towards Catania / Acireale area and our next B&B.

Day 4

Noto. This is a town of about 24,000 people. Not a big place. There are no areas restricted to cars though, like most of the small towns that we are familiar with. The traffic is impressive and we again have no good map. We trust our experience and head uphill which is where the old historic center always is… except in Sicily. We eventually ask directions again and are pointed in the direction of down… down a hundred and some stairs and then down a very downhill street. Presto, we are at the doors of the cathedral.

It is midday and the one thing that the Sicilian’s do just like the rest of Italy, is close up shop and lock the churches for the lunch/siesta time. 2 hours of it or so. We wander around taking pictures of the incredible baroque architecture until we decide we too should eat. Your basic cafe/bar, two panini and a pizzolo. Mmmm. Even the bar food is good. Soon things start to open again and we venture in to our first church. Santa Chiara.

  Lise and I take the 101 steps to the choir loft and then the roof where we can see most of the city and all the way to the sea.

Most of the churches are in an endless state of restoration. This is a process so slow that by the time that one restoration effort is concluded, another needs to be undertaken. Sicily is poor. Even the most beautiful and historically relevant areas are neglected and disrespected. The island needs jobs and industry before it can really begin to bring back the glory.

As if on cue, we turn the corner to find Assn Ada Ballet.  I may be on vacation but I can’t get away from ballet.

We shop, (Donna and Lise shop, John finally gets into his voicemail and responds to a couple of texts from work. He prefers this to shopping.) We go into the cathedral, we look for a restaurant that we can come back to later. And then… we have cannoli. Have you ever had a cannoli? If you haven’t had a cannoli in Sicily in a little pastecheria/cafe where they stuff it to order, than I don’t think you’ve really had a cannoli. We swoon. Two cafe espresso and a cappuccino bring us to our senses and we wobble smiling out into the sunlight again.

Back at the orchard, we decide to spend the end of the afternoon and evening on the patio writing post cards, petting the little orange cat that lives in the lemon orchard, sorting some of our photos and generally just enjoying the air we are breathing. Half a salami, cheese and grapes, a little left over tortoloni and we call it a day.

Tomorrow… Syracusa and I still need a haircut.

Day 3

The day begins with the long goodbye. Lidia and Alberto asked us to have coffee with them but we wanted to get on the road. There were pictures taken by all in all combinations and a ‘quick’ peek at the website with comments about the comments left by others. We say goodbye to the dogs… Fanny, Lise, Fred and Lulu… and we’re off.

Agrigento… no haircut. We did however find the Valle de Templi. Amazing ruins of more Greek temples. There was an interesting contemporary art exhibition in the Tempio della Concordia . It was cool to see how well the modern works fit in the ancient architecture. There are gardens behind the golden villa filled with lavender and rosemary. The place smells like a Crabtree and Evelyn. It is clear and sunny and 87 degrees and I swear to you that the sun is physically way closer to Sicily than it is to Michigan. Sunburn? yes. Exhausting? Yes.

So we are off to Noto. We have found the signage in Italy remarkably helpful in finding our way from street to street and town to town… until now. Sicilians seem to figure that since they know how to get from place to place, all they have to do is point and say something like “it’s hard to explain.” We have a good map that has served us well all over Tuscany, Umbria, From Positano to Como and all points in between. But in Sicily? The map seems to be how they imagine it to be. Signs would help.

So we are off to Noto. We have found the signage in Italy remarkably helpful in finding our way from street to street and town to town… until now. Sicilians seem to figure that since they know how to get from place to place, all they have to do is point and say something like “it’s hard to explain.” We have a good map that has served us well all over Tuscany, Umbria, From Positano to Como and all points in between. But in Sicily? The map seems to be how they imagine it to be. Signs would help.

We finally ask directions from a fellow we have since affectionately named Guido in our retelling of the story amongst ourselves. He points and gestures and repeats himself and tells us that it is difficult to explain and asks if we don’t have a GPS… We head off opposite the direction we were going, into the early afternoon. As we find ourselves with no clue if we are going the right way or not we simply trust in the fact that Guido told us that it would be very curvy and there will be a lot of climbing. Well… we seem to be headed up a mountain through a long series of switchbacks and so decide that we are going the right way. Half an hour or so later we hit the top of the mountain and find ourselves on SS115… exactly where we wanted to be. There is much joyous swearing. Onward to Noto and our next place. Valle degli Dei.

As we approach Noto, there is plenty of guessing and sure enough we see a sign… and it is a big sign with an arrow for Valle degli Dei. Not that hard to find and we are much relieved. A large villa with several small guest houses and a beautiful pool. Yes it’s in a valley so there are no sea vistas but there are lemon trees and pomegranate trees and palm trees and flowers everywhere. The grounds are beautiful. The apartment is decent but not great.

It is Sunday and we need supplies. We are informed that there is a place about 6 kilometers away that has everything we need and is open till 10pm. Great! We’ll hit the groceries, get a little something for breakfast and some snacks. We also decide to get something for dinner so we don’t have to try to find our way through Noto for the first time in the dark. Off we go. Again… the directions were way simpler than the reality and the lack of signage is a challenge for sure. Did I mention that the Sicilian drivers take “Italian driving” to another level. Perhaps we need to trust our instincts more because just as we start to convince ourselves that we are on the wrong road, around the next corner is Il Giardino ! Damn… we’re getting good at this. We were expecting a grocery, like a Krogers or a Spartan or Jewel or something. What we got was something like a Wallmart super center crossed with an outlet mall and a circus midway. This place made the worst Wallmart seem like a Zen garden. We did it though and found our way home in the dark too. Tortolloni, asparagus, a little wine, a little cheese… ah. I will never speak disparagingly about what it’s like to go to Meijer’s again.

There are lizards in Sicily. Those quick little green lizards that you see sunning themselves on walls and zipping under planters and into cracks. There are also geckos. These you see right at the top of the wall against the ceiling directly above your pillow when you get ready for bed. Donna was not amused. Lise explained that they eat mosquitoes and the little fellow was reluctantly allowed to stay.

Day 2

Lucca Sicula ! This is the town that my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother on my father’s side came from. Not a particularly pretty town. Mostly post war construction… obviously not a very wealthy town. But Chiesa Madre was a very pretty church

and we met a young man behind the counter at the cafe/gelateria who’s last name was Perricone and who’s father had gone to visit his friends in Pueblo Colorado. He had a picture of his father and his friend in Pueblo on the wall behind the counter. He couldn’t think of anyone named Ferraro in the town but he did know of a family named Corda (Great Grandmother’s family name) who lived up by the church. There were many old men sitting in chairs outside doorways or on benches on the sidewalk, just watching the day go by. We got a lot of suspicious stares (expected) but mostly pleasant greetings if we spoke first.

We didn’t expect a lot from Luca Siccula but I think we all enjoyed our visit. We had lunch in a town called Ribera where we visited the Duomo which was, oddly enough, reconsecrated in 1999 after extensive reconstruction/restoration by one Carmelo Ferraro Vescovo (Cardinal Carmelo Ferraro). This was the only occurrence off the Ferraro name that we have come across so far… except for a Ferraro brand sugar packet in the Rome airport.

Back to Sciacca where we freshen up and head into town to find… whatever there is. We mostly walk around down by the sea and find some very pretty architectural touches amidst the industrial decay and working fishing port trash and clutter.        We end up at a seafood restaurant in the port. Everything is very fresh and delicious. Lise wants the anchovies, but we are informed that there are no anchovies because it’s Saturday and they didn’t go out and get them. A half kilometer walk up hill to the car and we are home again by 9:30pm…

I need a haircut… perhaps we’ll try this in Agrigento tomorrow.

And so it begins. Three intrepid travelers, my wife Donna and myself from Grand Rapids and my sister Lise from New Orleans are off to Sicily. We met up in Newark where we boarded what turned out to be a ratty old Airbus 300 for Rome. 23 hours… half of which was trapped on a plane with 280 tour patrons and family reunions looking for their roots or crossing Italy off their bucket lists. Grand Rapids to Newark was easy. Newark to Rome boarded on schedule and the doors closed just in time for a storm system to roll in and shut down the airport, trapping us on the ground for the next three and a half hours. The crying child in the row in front of us, the clogged toilet and the surly stewards just competed the experience. Of course we missed our connection in Rome for Palermo. To their credit, their only credit, Alitalia had scheduled a flight just for the people on our plane that missed the connection. They had boarding passes waiting and we were on our way. We had a car reserved but we had scheduled it for nearly 4 hours before we actually arrived to pick it up. We reserved a Ford Focus… ended up with a BMW. Same price… it took a little bit of the edge off what was a marathon of misery that was the journey so far. It took 5 minutes to figure out how to start the little car but after that we were on our way.

First stop, Segesta and our first Greek ruins. A remarkably well preserved theater and surrounding buildings from the 3^rd century BC. Where we were treated to an impromptu song by some funny French tourists. There was also a beautiful Doric temple that has miraculously survived the wars and earthquakes and time itself from the 5^th century BC.

After an hour and a half our sleep deprived eyes were starting to see actual 5^th century BC Greeks so it was off to B&B Solaris in Sciacca. Here we meet the proprietors, Lidia and Alberto, their 19 year old deaf, blind, Chihuahua/dachshund mutt named Fanny and her progeny one of whom is named… drum roll please… Lise!! Our apartment (with kitchen and terrace overlooking the Mediterranean sea) is at the top of an outdoor 32 step spiral staircase. Our luggage is hoisted to the door by a little crane attached to the wall at the top.

Lidia and Alberto take a shine to Lise (sister) and bring us wine and beer and even go into town to buy us some arancini (big rice balls stuffed with vegetables, meat and cheese and deep fried.)

This, we decide is sufficient for dinner and by 9pm (three in the afternoon at home and 31 hours after leaving our house) we were in bed…