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it’s all over and home sweet home…

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

We’ve arrived home safely (with all our luggage & after 24 hours of travelling) to familiarity and much colder weather. Cold, cloudy, overcast and the heating has been on at 21C – in we had the air conditioning set between 19 & 21C! Great to catch up with family again and have started telling our stories. We had a fantastic adventure, seen many wonderful things and have lots of memories to savour. We do keep busy and make the most of the opportunity to see and experience as much as we can while we are away. There’s lots of rushing around and the days are filled with walking so we’re tired but will be buzzing from it all for a while… I’m keen to complete the blog posts of the trip (had started a few when the netbook was stolen) so please keeping checking for updates. There’s still a couple of weeks to come and there will be more photos as well.

We’ve really appreciated the comments of support on the blog and elsewhere, thanks. Everything’s worked out so far, with emergency passports & credit card arriving in time for us to head home – now I have to work on an insurance claim. Work again tomorrow, but that’s OK – will be good to get back into things and see what’s happened while we’ve been away. Ciao for now.

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Day 23 – On the trains to Riomaggiore via Firenze, Pisa, La Spezia

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Our room wasn’t a B&B so we had to make our own breakfast and enjoyed some ‘Grancereale’ with some Muller bianco yoghurt. We wanted to see the frescoes (apparently to rival those in the Sistine Chapel) in the Basilica of San Francesco (must find out what makes a church a basilica) which opened at 9:00, so headed out early and followed the girl into the ticket office after a security guard unlocked the doors. Had to wait while the computers booted up and then enjoyed the peace and quiet in the old church with only a few other people. Wonderful to see the old paintings in the Bacci Chapel (which houses the fresco cycle of the ‘Legend of the True Cross‘ (painted in the 1450s) and thankful that we could read the explanations about them as they didn’t follow any recognisable Bible stories. It’s a same that these wonderful artworks are so fragile being painted on render of stone work. Most of the paintings we saw have been restored as time, neglect, and probably cost, have meant they had deteriorated badly.

Did another lap of the old town and through the Piazza Grande which looked different in the morning compared to yesterday evening. They filmed ‘Life is Beautiful‘ in Arezzo and have some signs depicting scenes from the film in the places where they were shot. Might have to watch the film again and look out for the recognisable landmarks we’ve visited. Up the sloping street to the cathedral with a marvelous interior and a few people practicing some singing in accompaniment to the organ. It sounded lovely and then we realised that a wedding was imminent as people were congregating outside and photographers where taking photos of couple (parents of the bride & groom?) as they were entering the church. Amazing that all this goes on while tourists and other church goers/users are wandering around…

Down to the station in time to catch a train that would allow to to make a couple of other connections during the day and would get us to the beginning of the Cinque Terra mid afternoon. Changed trains in Florence and had to wait a bit for one that would stop in Pisa and managed to catch another train within five minutes in Pisa that went to Turin but would stop in La Sezia where we needed to change again before stopping in Riomaggiore. Lugging the bags up & down stairs is testing my shoulders a little but it’s manageable. The trains that you can walk straight onto are good, but the ones with a couple of large, high, narrow steps are tricky to negotiate with 15 kgs in each hand. After Pisa we were close to the coast and could see the scars of marble mining/harvesting in the mountains near Massa & Carara.

In Riomaggiore it was a hot climb to the accommodation office, from where we had to climb even further to reach our rooms just of a piazza with a church. We had to climb up a set of narrow, steep stairs (minding our heads) to get to our little apartment (sharing a balcony with a couple next door & their little baby) with kitchen and washing machine. So, taking advantage of the facilities a load of washing went in, and we decided to cook our own dinner and eat it (wormy pasta, pesto, sausage, roasted pine nuts, tomatoes and mozzerella, along with some with some Rubentino Chianti) on the three people only balcony, before checking out the ‘Lovers Lane‘ (first section of the Cinque Terra walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola. Very pleasant to do this at the end of a hot day with the sun going down over the headland behind Monterosso 8-9 kms away. It’s all very picturesque alongside the water and in the quaint towns built in steep hillside of valleys, but it’s starting to get busy with other tourists (and the locals are taking every opportunity to cash in) – I can’t imagine what it will be like during peak season in a few more weeks…

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Day 22 – Arezzo through the mountains to Roma and then north towards Florence

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Had time after breakfast for another quick lap of the town on the lookout for some bread. The town is sprucing itself up for a visit from the Pope on the 4th of July so lots of painting, scaffolding and closed roads which we think is getting on the nerves of many of the locals. One of the main thoroughfares was closed except for a narrow pedestrian access, and had a bunch of guys re laying the cobblestones. While we were watching i commented to an old guy next to me that it looked like hard work. He nodded and asked if I was American, and I noted something familiar in his accent. I said no, “I’m from Ourstraarlia” (Australia). He then told me he’d lived there for 20 years, “In Lilydale”. We had a chuckle and swapped stories for a bit. He’s been back in Italy for 35 years etc. etc.

Apparently Sulmona is the capital for ‘confetti’, which is Italian bonbonieri used for decorating wedding tables for guests to take home & is a symbol of fertility. It’s basically sugar coated almonds and made up to look like flowers and other decorative motifs.

A very scenic train ride through the mountains to Rome and stopped in Tirbutina station – had to wait 40 minutes for the train to Florence which would stop for us at Arezzo. I found a bench and sat down with our bags while the girls went off to check out a bookshop. Very interesting to sit at a big railway station and watch the goings on. There was room next to me for a person to sit and it was variously occupied by, a young lady who immediately started smoking so i made my displeasure obvious by turning my back to her, a couple indian guys (one sat on the end/armrest), a young student who read her notes for a bit, a young bloke who was busy checking through the contents of his bag till he found what he was after, a middle aged lady who was dressed up very nicely and became very occupied with her fingernail polish and began picking off bits where it was peeling, another young lady who was working nearby at the SKY booth (selling cable TV I suppose) and who managed to talk on her mobile for about 15 minutes (raising her voice and wildly gesticulating most of the time), an large elderly lady who got comfortable but moved fairly quickly when a nearby bench was vacated by a middle-aged couple who said goodbye to each other and went their separate ways. Behind me on a bench that backed onto mine, similar movements of people were going on. A young family with a couple of kids eating gelato, a couple who where very interested in other, two female back-packers taking a load off for a while, and a few others I didn’t notice. There was one bench occupied by a single person (who may have been homeless), who had filled the bench with lots of plastic bags, blankets, thick jacket etc. She just sat there, doing a little looking around but not really very interested in what was happening. Short, rotund, wearing a white T shirt a little overdue for a wash, navy track pants, white socks and blue canvas shoes, she peered at the world through glasses that seemed a little too thick. At one point she asked a young girl who had sat on the next bench, to mind her stuff while she went off and came back with a sandwich. I don’t think any one walking past had considered taking any of her things. In amongst her stuff she found a drink bottle that was wrapped up in some paper and bags. After having some, spent a long time and was very particular about wrapping it all up again. Bag within bag, and all needing to be tied up with a double knot and then finally wrapped up with newspaper. An interesting half an hour and I also managed to read a bit of my book before the girls came back with some gelato and we headed off for binari 10 for the train.

On our train to Arrezzo we met a guy in our section of the train who was reading a book on neurology. He’s an artist who makes traditional paper mache masks and was on his way home to Firenze. Great to have a natter about life, philosophy etc. Good fun trying to understand each other… He actually helped us out because we had to ring the accommodation place and the temporary help (Dana) couldn’t speak english and we needed to find out where to find the key.

We got out of the wrong side of the station at Arezzo, but that was OK because we found a good supermarket. Walked across to the old town and found our accommodation after picking up the key from Dana at the Bar San Libertino (when we leave we have to put the keys and the balance of 30 euors in the letter box). A small apartment with two rooms and a bathroom guess the kitchen was for when the regular owners were home). We were on the second floor on a corner with one window looking out over the street and the other over a piazza with a church in it! Had a picnic in our room and headed out for a wander. An amazing looking town. Beautiful belvedere looking our over the old city walls. Nice garden at the top of town behind the cathedral. There’s an escalator that takes you down to a huge car park outside the old city walls… The Piazza Grande is an open, sloping square (a lot like Sienna’s) where they have an annual jousting tournament (rather than a horse race) against ‘the Sarasan’ who is a dummy set up in the square and the ‘knights’ score points if they hit the target/shield or break their lance. The Saracen pivots when you hit his shield and he has a rope in his other arm that can swing round and hit the jouster who then loses points. It must be a hoot, with lots of pomp and pageantry as each of the four quarters/sections of the city are represented. Wandered back towards our lodgings and listened to a little live music in the Piazza San Francesco and then down to the Porto Libertino to see the Chimera statue which is a copy of an Etruscan bronze they found when digging at the wall/gate. A mortally wounded lion with a goat sticking out of its back, and with a snake for a tail (maybe a version of the St. George & the dragon myth?)…

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Day 21 – up amongst the mountains to Sulmona via Bari & Pescara

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Enjoyed our night in our trulli, up early, and a coffee was made in the pot on the stove while I went and found some pastries down the street. Had to go to a restaurant for our breakfast (like in Lecce) but we got more that a coffee and croissant – we actually had bacon & eggs! Excellent service – being waited on by three attentive guys that wanted us to come back for a meal (but we were leaving town later in the morning), and we indulged from the buffet with cake, cereal, & yoghurt. Most of the old town streets had developed into an open-air market and we had time to wander around the transformed car parks looking at shoes, clothes, linen and fresh produce. Lots of interesting things to see, and I noticed the fellow (below) arranging the celery, but Wendy didn’t…

Travelled to Bari on the train and bought tickets to Pescara (*note to reader[s] – you should be following our travels on a map or atlas as it will do wonders for your geography) and thought we’d got some window seats but didn’t. Slightly upset because these tickets cost 25 euros each and our compartment had five people in the six seats while two compartments next to us had one each! This was an InterCity train and you get a reserved seat which is where you have to sit. A young guy and also a girl shared our space – they didn’t talk, but we did and once we pulled out our large ‘Rough Guide’ map of Italy we were able to engage with her and chatted about our travels. In Pescara, raced around trying to get off the platforms and had to go down and out & back in again before I could tickets for the next leg while the girls waited on the platform. Not very well sign posted for travellers in a rush. The next train that would get us to Sulmona was in five minutes, so a mad dash back up, and down, & up again, as we had to move across platforms. Had about a minute spare! Just a little bit too exciting – but good to be on the right train. A very scenic ride to Sulmona with the train weaving along a valley and through tunnels and following an elevated roadway.

As we pulled into one of the stops along the way, a young bloke seemed to be loitering behind Maryann who was standing at the window. He seemed to be undecided about something, and as the train pulled to a stop, rushed past us and gave something to a girl behind us, said something, and jumped off the train. He had given her some sort of note (written in rough block letters and finished with ‘CIAO’ (yes, dear reader I did sneak a look over the back of the seat). The girl read quietly and then rang a friend and had a chuckle about it, and then she got off at the next stop. We can only imagine what the note may have said. It was nice that the third train trip for the day wasn’t as crowded as the previous two. A fairly long day on the trains today and a couple more to go before we get all the way up & across Italy to Riomaggiore, the beginning of the Italian Riviera at the Cinque Terra.

Caught the local bus up to town and got off the bus a little too early (someone misunderstood our question) and asked a lady for directions and she turned out to speak very good english. She’d been born in Sulmona and married an Englishman and had come back for a visit because the Pope was coming. Checked into our digs and took a turn around the centro and enjoyed the atmosphere with everybody out doing their stroll. Groups of old men chatting and gesticulating, old ladies on the benches clasping handbags in their laps. Past the fountain, under the ancient aquaduct, and through Piazza Garibaldi with lots of scaffolding and chairs piled up getting ready for a big event. Later we checked out three restaurants on the map before we found one that was open and tried some pasta. I had mine served but the girls were still waiting after I’d finished! Apparently the waiter mixed up the order and a couple on another table got the girl’s cabonaras, and they had to wait while they made up some more. We didn’t find out about this till later though, and were a little annoyed that we paid then 4.50 euros for service and no apology!

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Day 20 – Lecce to Alberobello and a detour underground…

Monday, June 28th, 2010

We were served by the same waiter for ‘breakfast’ at Cin Cin this morning. He is from Afghanistan, been in Italy for seven years and speaks reasonable English. He said it was a struggle to get ahead as the waiter job just covers living expenses and he’d like to go to university. I dashed off to the supermarket for some supplies while the girls went to see if the book shop was open. The bookshop didn’t open till 10 and then closes at 12 and re-opens from 4 – 9. Crazy hours for business from our point of view. We heard a telephone ring nearby and saw one on a pillar of the verandah, and a guy wandered over from his taxi and answered it. It was the local, plug in your own phone, taxi rank just outside Cin Cin. Rather odd way to get your fares, but obviously effective… I’ve been collecting photos of manhole covers and noticed one with the old roman symbol (fasc/community) of some sticks bound together with leather and including an axe, representing the strength in numbers of those with a similar cause. The fascists used this as their symbol early last century and strange to see it on some manhole covers…

Picked up some coffee and more pasticaotto (our most favourite pastry so far) on the way to the station and then took a little time to find platform (binari) 6 for the FSE (regional) train (rather than Trenitallia). The sottopassaggato (underground walkway/subway to the platforms) only had platforms 1 to 5 listed but someone told that 6 & 7 were on the other side of a train waiting at platform 5. So, walked to the end of the train and walked across the tracks to the next set of platforms to wait for the 10:26 to Alberobello. Enjoyed a quiet trip and the scenery of farms, olive groves dotted with trullis. Trulli are unique small houses with conical roofs made out of stone that the locals built to dodge the rates inspector. They’d dismantle them, taking the roof apart before he came, and declare that they didn’t have a permanent house and therefore shouldn’t have to pay the rates tax. We’ll be staying in one tonight.

Donato was able to meet us at his office early and he took us to number 34 via M. Nero which was our very own tiny trulli house. Sweet! Small living area with sideboard, cupboard & table, two alcoves with beds in them, a tiny kitchen and bathroom. On the outside, our home had three conical roofs and a chimney were the stove range-hood vents too. Very comfortable and homely.

Wendy had read about the caves at Grotte di Castejlana, and  with the help of a girl at the information point down our street, we worked out that we could get there and back before it got too late. In the meantime we took a saunter around the streets marvelling at all the little houses and their quaint rocky roofs. They are quite low to the ground and often the edges of the roofs are at eye level. I’m not sure of the construction process, but the flat slabs of stone are just layered up getting smaller the higher they go. Capped off with little flat round rocks they do look impressive. When two cones meet on the one house,  the two meld into each other, or there is a gutter to help direct the water out onto the street. It seems many of the houses that face onto the street have been turned into shops and people sit outside inviting the passerby to come in and look at the authentic regional artefacts and wares, or the view from upstairs form a window or balcony. I lost the girls for a moment and found them in a house/shop with the main/front room full of a weaving loom. The proprietress had made some lovely scarves and ended up selling us a couple. I noticed a hole in the ceiling with a ladder hanging out and she told us that that was where they sleep. No waste of space with an internal staircase here… One side of the town has  1000 trulli most of which are shops and the other side has 400 which are mostly domestic dwellings. We wandered over to the non-commercial sector and overheard one guy telling an Italian tourist who was taking a photo that he couldn’t live here any more because he was a victim, held captive by the tourist gaze. I could understand his point – people wandering around the neighbourhood taking photos of me & my house would upset me too! It is difficult to walk around and not take photos – it’s all very photogenic, but as a visitor/guest, you can show some discretion.

The  3 km round trip underground was just fabulous, and can easily compare with our Jenolan or Margaret River caves.
The tour in english was at the wrong time so we had to settle for an Italian one, but a couple of people helped out with translations. Met Andre (a retired businessman) who was from Florence and travelling around southern Italy (because it was cheap) and trying out a campervan. He spoke good english and had lots of questions about Australia. They are thinking about coming out for a visit and buying a camper-van and seeing a bit of the country. Also another guy with good english who had travelled a little, and been to see the caves a few times before. His grandfather’s brother had help the guy who discovered the caves explore them further and he kept coming along in respect to them. This guy’s wife bumped her head on a rock ledge and a guide raced up to a first aid box (a hundred metres along the path) and grabbed a bag of ice and went back to help her. By the time we’d got back to the surface she had a really nice egg on her head, luckily no broken skin.

Back in time and just made it to a small supermarket for some supplies for a picnic dinner of nuts & dried fruit, eggs & bread, and peaches & yoghurt.

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Day 18 – Cosenza to Lecce by train in the rain

Monday, June 28th, 2010

(Sunday 27th June – It’s been a while since the last post as interweb access is a little difficult, and we’ve been busy getting out & about, so here’s a few posts to try and catch you up.)There was very heavy rain overnight in Cosenza and nice to hear it on the roof, except for when it started raining inside the room… We were on the top floor and it was just a small leak that lasted for a few minutes and got mopped up with a towel – happy that it wasn’t over the bed!


Morning with blue skies with fluffy white clouds up behind the castle. During breakfast down in the kitchen with its long (like most of the of the side of the room of about 3 mtrs) white enamel wood stove with a modern gas hot plate installed, it started raining again and it now it looks like it’s here to stay for the day. We did venture out to get some supplies from a small supermarket and did a quick tour of the old town and visited the duomo, and then down to the confluence of the two rivers that join at one corner of the old town. Both were flowing well after the rain, and the water was brown with mud. We’d heard that a scenic steam train ride from here up through the mountains has been closed because of landslides – apparently they have had a lot of unseasonal rain. Seeing lots of tokens of love locked onto significant landmarks, I remember we saw this phenomenon first on a bridge in Vilnius on 2007. Padlocks with engraving or black texta left by couple betrothing love to each other.


Back to the room for bags and then down to the old station and bought tickets for the short ride to the new station where the intercity trains leave from. Met an American girl who was spending a couple of weeks travelling at the end of a year of study abroad. She’d been studying art history (in Italian!) and applied for a travel scholarship to see some of the churches in the south and was hoping to catch up with her mother in the next day or two. The train ride was great, travelling through some picturesque countryside with farms and orchards and olive groves galore. The train wasn’t  crowded, the people were happy and in good humour, and conductor was helpful. At one point we stopped on a siding and all the Trenitallia personnel hopped off the train and lit up a smoke – we apparently had to stop here to let another train through on the single track. The Italians do seem to smoke a lot (not inside of course) and at all ages. We clicketty-clacked through a wide valley lined with mountains, very cultivated with more olives, peaches, citrus, rolled hay bales, and cows and appreciated that the rain stopped. Lots of wind turbines sprouting in stands along ridges and rotating gently, and I’m guessing, supplying the electricity needed for all the trains. We changed trains in Taranto and again in Brindisi before getting down to Lecce in the early evening.


Found our way into the old city and our B&B where Tullio gave us the run down on how things worked, a quick survey of the old town and where we could go for some dinner. He gave us some vouchers for a cafe where we need to go for breakfast and have a 1.80 euro credit for a coffee and a pastry and he suggested we try a pastiacotto which is a local pastry from the Puglia region. He lived another floor up, on the roof-top terrace and showed us the view and landmarks from there. The room was nice enough but a couple of draw backs. You need to use your room key to turn on the lights, power and airconditioning. So, when you go out, nothing gets re-charged (netbook, phone, batteries etc.) and the room doesn’t keep cool. We grabbed a map and did a bit of a tour around the old town as the locals and heaps of Italian tourists were doing their stroll. Found the Roman amphitheatre (being set up with red plastic chairs and a stage for some dance recital), the Cin Cin cafe (breakfast destination), and some other landmarks that we’ll need to check out more thoroughly tomorrow.

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Day 17 – Taormina, three lots of train tickets and farewell to Sicily

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

We helped cheer up a guy in the biglietto office at the train station this morning. We asked for three tickets to Taormina and he thought we were done when we said we only wanted a one-way (solo-andata) fare, but then we asked for a ticket from Taormina to Villa san Giovanni. “Today?” he asked, “Si, tre biglietti,” we said. He gave us those tickets and said, “bye, bye”. “Non”, we said, “We also want three tickets from Villa san Giovanni to Cosenza for today.” That was it, his eyebrows rose and he cracked up and laughed, probably couldn’t believe we’d be crazy enough to do so much travel on a Sunday> Maybe he was also impressed that we knew what we wanted. We told him we were from Australia, and his mood had changed for the better as the last set of tickets were printing up. So, we were set for a day’s travel on the train (which will include crossing the Straits of Messina) and looking forward to checking out Taormina.

Happy that we could leave our bags in a locker at the very quaint (with a touch of the East about it) station at Taormina-Giardini Naxos before catching an expensive bus up the hill. Fantastic views of the Ionian coast (or probably better known as the Sicilian Riviera, as we took a winding road up to the town. Big boats anchored near the beach and a real sense of an over expensive tourist town as we wandered through the shop & souvenir stall lined streets. So many, books, maps, postcards, tea towels, T shirts, aprons, shoes/sandals, puppets, fridge magnets, flags, hats, nicknacks, jewellery, and ceramic plates, cups, figurines etc. (some of the painted dishes we saw looked very nice). All a bit sad really, and didn’t go to the Greek theatre because it couldn’t be worth 8 euros (as they warned us that most of it was covered up by a screen and seating used for the recent film festival). A plain pizza bianca (oil & herbs) was 5 euros for a medium! And it’s Sunday (Dominica) and the tourist office was closed and probably more Italians out for the day/weekend that usual. Did enjoy having a picnic in the gardens, the views, watching the punters strolling along, and glad we’re not staying overnight.

I got a little stressed (as I’m wont to) when we went to catch the bus back down to the station for the 14:22. The bus was supposed to go at 14:00 but the driver kept letting people on and it was after 5 past when we pulled out. We stopped a couple of times on the way down and these people had to put their bags under the bus, buy tickets – and the driver didn’t have any change (they never do), so people are hunting for coins in their purses, and I’m pacing up & down the bus praying the train is late. By the time I bolted onto the platform to get our bags out of the locker, the train was pulling in… The girls were going to hold up the train while I did the 100 mtr sprint with two 15kg bags that no one of my age should be doing. So, got on the train (probably to the amusement of the train driver & conductor who would have been more than happy to wait for me anyway), found a seat and then proceeded to wait at the station till I caught my breath and the sweat had dried, before we pulled out. I must learn to chill a little more… and be more like an Italian. I’m feeling out of place a little because I’ve got no style or dress sense and my wardrobe is functional rather than fashionable. At least my travelling compainions are attractive and they catch people’s eye rather than me.

Safely on the train and heading for Messina where they break up the train into ferry sized pieces, shunting in and out of the boat leaving a few carriages on board at a time, till they fill up the four sets of tracks inside the warm and fume laden bowels of the ship. Great to get out and up on deck for some fresh air and the crossing to Villa San Giovanni. Wendy suggested that we disembark and walk to the station as it was only a couple of minutes away, rather than stay on the train for 15 minutes and risk missing the connection to Cosenza. We smiled at each other as our Cosenza train left the station with still no sign of the train we were on… Enjoyed travelling along the coast for a bit before heading inland and noticed a change in the weather with some amazing cloud formations developing that looked like they might drop some rain. We were very thankful to be picked up at the new train station and driven into the old centre of town and to our lovely hostel. Enjoyed a wander around and had some local cuisine (pasta laced with pepper), home made wine and liqueur (a little like ouzo but not white). Had fun conversing with Pappa & his daughter and some other guests who were from Turin & Sardinia.

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Day 15 – trying to work out how to get to where we are going

Monday, June 21st, 2010

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Day 14 – More of Modica and an excusion to Ragusa (Ibla)

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Slept with the airco on all night and with the shutters closed, dark & nice and quiet. Straight after breakfast, first stop the Chiesa di san Giorgio which is at the top of an huge flight of stairs (250 steps!). Cool and quiet inside and some amazing relief sculptures in white marble in the main nave. Lots of reliquaries and an amazing silver and brass altar. Then walking further up to the top of town and the Chiesa di san Giovanni which was closed but is being restored, and looks fantastic on the outside. We were looking for a viewing point and were instructed by a local family sitting outside their home to walk another cinquanta metres to get to the belvedere. It was a spectacular lookout. Great 270 degree view of the valley and down across the roof tops to the main drag, Corso Umberto. Modica reminds us a lot of Matera which is also a valley with homes built on top of one another up the hillsides, although in Matera many homes are built right into the rock – here they seem to only use the rock holes for garages.

We wandered down through lots of narrow alleys and stairways, always winding, but always heading down. Some amazing vistas between buildings and down flights of stairs, now looking straight into a home through an open door, and then looking across a tiled roof with the ubiquitous water tank and rocks holding down the tiles along the roof edges, or through a gap between houses across to the otherside of the valley. Lovely smells drifting out of doorways from pots of pasta sauce being cooked for lunch, and voices wafting out of open windows as we walk below. Lots of purple of bougenvillia splashed here and there and little eddies of fallen, fading, tissue-like petals in triplicate, gathered in the corners of stairs. But it’s all very hot, hot, hot, out in the summer weather – 35C and rising I reckon…

Spent a couple of hours back in the airco room, snoozing, reading and writing before a late lunch picnic and then heading off around 3:00 for Ragusa. An amazing town with the old city on top of a ridge rather than built in a valley. Found the local bus to take us down to the Ibla (old town) with some help from a local guy walking his dog, and waited for a bit before being dropped off by a helpful bus driver, at the top of the long flight of zig-zagging steps down to where the old town begins. Wandered our way around and checked out the churches, providing respite from the heat and quiet place to sit for a while. The Chiesa S. Giorgio (St. George of the dragon variety) was a little different with red velvet drapes between the columns, grand chandeliers, great six foot high multiple/bunched candles, lots of St. George and some lovely relief carvings in a chapel. Fairly quiet out and about and stopped for a coffee before finding the lovely (botanical) gardens and enjoying the vista looking across and down the valley. Nice to see a few other people sitting in the shade and found an old medieval portal of the shattered old church of San Giorgio Vecchio.

While sitting on some steps on the edge of a piazza, waiting for the local no. 33 bus to take us back to the main bus terminal, we said “Buona sera”, to a couple of ladies and an old man who stopped for a chat. Lovely to have an exchange with people who are interested in who you are rather how you look. The women commented on Wendy’s (bella dona) looks and when we told the guy we were from Australia, he wanted to know about Maryann and where she came from. He told us to go and sit in the ‘villa’ (gardens) because it was nicer there. We explained we had been there and that is was beautiful and we were now waiting for a bus. They wished us good travels as they continued on their way down the street. Nice. :-) Heard the bub, bub, bub, of some large motorcycles bouncing around the piazza way before three Harley Davidsons puttered to a stop across from us. Similar looking models with fat rear tyres and a single pannier on the back left side, probably more about the bikes – you know, “Look at me” – but still heaps of cool. The three riders (2 guys & a girl) consulted a map for about 10 minutes, then took off and appeared about 5 minutes later. What the?

We were back at the bus terminal with at 8:35 with 10 minutes to spare, but no bus…, and still no bus 25 minutes later?! I checked the board and yes 22:45 was the time of departure, and it was the latest bus on the whole time-table. Then it dawned on me that 22:45 wasn’t 8:45 but 10:45! Dang – my bad. Now we still had one and a half hours to wait, and it would be late by the time we got back to our room – but, at least there was still another bus to catch… Anyway, found a pizzaria and enjoyed a couple of lovely wood oven pizzas (cooked by a guy who had been to Australia and had picked up some colloquialisms) on a bench next to a busy little roundabout. Noticed that hardly anyone used one their indicators when going around corners. Back to the bus stop for a twenty minute wait and then a fast drive home in the dark with an amazing view back across the valley to the Chiesa san di Giorgio which was wonderfully lit amongst the houses/buildings of Ragusa Ibla (old town). My travelling companions graciously conceded that there was a bonus to my timing faux-pas, in that we could see the lights of the old town. Back in our room just after 11 for a quick shower and crashing out after a huge day out.

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Day 13 – on the buses via Noto, Rosolini, & Ispica to get to Modica

Friday, June 18th, 2010

We planned for breakfast at 8:30 because we wanted to visit the tunnels under the duomo that were used as an air-raid shelter during WWII. Syracuse copped a pounding during the war and experienced lots of bombings before the allies landed and captured the city and there-after Sicily. We headed up to the breakfast terrace to an already warm day with that white glaring light. Our host looked a little worse for wear, seemed a little grumpy and was no where near ready for the eight guests on the terrace wanting something to eat. Following us upstairs had been the hired help (who had just come in) so we understood that she must have been late and was supposed to get things organised before 8:30! So, some tension amongst the staff – but a good breakfast was had.

We went to the tunnel entrance for 9:30 and read the sign that said it was open at 9:00, but no one around. Did a quick visit to check with the tourist office to confirm buses to Modica and then came back before 10 but still not open… We met a couple of older Italian ladies from Rome having a holiday in Sicily. They had quite good english (learnt through taking classes) and had been told by a superintendant that the tunnel would be open at 10. So we chatted a bit, and they told us how hard even they find it to travel around Italy. They told us about the some markings in the marble of the piazza that indicated an old Greek street that led to a spring, as well as the outline of an old temple and sacrificial alter/pit where animal entrails where deposited (we saw the bottom of this pit in the underground shelter!). We showed the ladies a madonna statue we’d seen around the corner which had been perpendicularly afixed to a wall and was facing upwards – a little weird. The tunnel visit was amazing, well curated with photos of people in the the shelters during the war and text explaining how they were used, and how things were organised in the town during the war. The tunnels led down under the duomo and piazza and then led out towards the docks/boulevard along the water. Also enjoyed that it was nice and cool underground.

Got to the bus station with ten minutes to spare and had some fun with the bus drivers. Our driver to Modica was in a playful mood and indicated we wouldn’t sell me a ticket and said he was heading somewhere else – this threw me for a bit because we didn’t expect them to muck around, but I realised what was going on we had some fun and I asked for ‘un biglietto to Australia’. Lots of laughs and carry on before we got our tickets to Noto – I even asked if we had time to go and get a coffee & he told me to go right and a hundred metres to the cafe. Raced off and got back in time to hop back on board to cheers from the other passengers. Enjoyed a canoli and espresso lungo as we headed off. We got to Noto about 12:15 and wandered up the main drag and saw some wonderful buildings but everything was closing so we could only sit in the shade and have our wonderful made-up rolls that Wendy had procured from the markets in Syracuse while Maryann and I went back and got the bags and dragged them up to the bus stop. Yum! It was so hot though – not ideal for wandering around -but we had a short walk to see that there wasn’t really much more to look at than the renovated main street. This has been a recent development with the local councils making an effort to rebuild and beautify the old parts of town – the dome of the cathedral in Noto collapsed in 1996! There are some wonderful town houses though, with amazing sculptures holding up balconies – interesting that these are meant to viewed by the person on the street, not those on the balcony… Then back on the bus, chatting with an elderly lady who didn’t care that we couldn’t really understand her, and a couple of stops (one in Rosolini that didn’t look like a very attractive town at all – lots of suburbs with tiny blocks of houses/buildings in streets at right angles to each other) and a bus swap in Ispica to get to Modica around 4:30.

Walked the 500 metres to our accommodation, checked in and got some useful advice from Thomas (our German host), had a shower and a nap, before heading out for the evening passeggiata with everybody else in the town. Very picturesque walking down the main street with views of the layer upon layer of houses covering the sides of the valley fading sunlight. Lots of people out and about, restaurants setting up, weddings being celebrated, children dressed up in black pants, white shirts and waistcoats all excited about a performance at the Teatro Garibaldi, and incessant traffic slowly making its way up & down the thoroughfare. This area of Siciliy has a lot of baroque architecture and the chiesa di san Pietro is a great example. The statues of the twelve apostles lining the broad terraced stairs leading up to the church with an elaborate facade and neat interior and a few of those statue things on a large base that carried around on poles by lots of sweating blokes on festival days. It was still 31 degrees (C) at 7:30 as we passed the flashing sign of the Farmacia. We stocked up at a supermercato and headed back for a picnic dinner on our terrace looking back down the valley as the town lights came on and a fingernail moon appeared in the darkening sky.

If you have read this far – enjoy this one last story as a little finisher – a dessert perhaps! All people have some basic needs which can sometimes be a challenge for travellers. Toilets in particular. It is sometimes very helpful to have a store of training experiences to draw on. One such experience could be acquired by travelling on a little bus in the Himalayas in Lahdak. If you had such an experience you would have learnt how to pee or even poo on an open hillside alongside your male and female travellers respectively – blokes to the left, girls to the right. Not a bush in sight but full view of every other traveller. This can be surprisingly intimidating to the urge to go, but if you can get over it you can do anything in this department. So beautiful Noto paid for its locked toilets and no services in eateries by forcing a traveller to press into action the afforementioned skill. The European version of the Himalayan pee for females is to wear a voluminous dress, to sit on a stone stair in a remote alley when all shutters are shut and people invisible. Discreetly arrange yourself and then relieve – an umbrella can be useful to pose or to act as a screen. A fellow traveller posing as a photographer can add an authentic touch. Although you may not get a lot of practice at this emergency measure it could be perfected with every experience. And if you think you are the only one who had to resort to this method, you only have to climb a few stairs to smell that others have gone before – mostly blokes and dogs! Enjoy your home plumbing! (Sorry, no photo – the photographer was too slow! [well, actually, he was being discreet ] )

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