Archive for June, 2010

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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 19 – Lecce is made from stone (some of it carved extravagently)

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Beautiful sunny morning and had to head out to get out breakfast (using a voucher) from the Cin Cin Cafe. Ordered a coffee and asked for pastiocotto’s – liked them very much. A sort of light, crumbly, almond cake filled with light lemon cream/soft custard (the closest we’d have to this would be something like a vanilla slice, but you can’t really compare them). Hmmm.

Lecce’s a nice compact old town good for wandering around, making sure you keep looking up to see what’s above street level. Lots of amazing porticos, doorways, balconies, carvings, windows and sculptured bits. The town is built mostly of a stone called St. Pietro (something) and has a nice golden, creamy glow in the early morning light, but fades out when the sun is overhead. Went to find a supermarket and wandered through the outdoor market set up along the est side of the old castle. Lots of household goods, flowers & plants, clothes, shoes etc., and I nearly bought something but they didn’t have my size. Did a few laps/blocks before we found the underground Carrefoure supermarket and then back through the public gardens where we heard a whistle and saw a uniformed person having a go at a young person for littering. We’d also seen a parking inspector blow a whistle while reaching for his book to write a ticket and within 5 seconds a woman appeared and hopped in the car and drove away. Very interesting that you get a warning just before they book you…

Lecce is also know as the Florence of the south with a distinct baroque flavour to many of the buildings. The decorations on a few churches here is to be seen to be believed. Way over the top, and so much detailed carving and sculpture, all thanks to the talent of the brothers Antonio and Guiseppe Zimbalo. We just made it to the Basilica de Santa Croce before they shut at 12:00, and the old church is a highlight – the more you look at the facade the more you notice in the intricate detail.

Had a little rest before heading out again in the quiet afternoon to wander the streets. Found the three old gates that would have been built into the walls of the old city. Enjoyed the meander through the mostly deserted streets while siesta was happening and managed to get into the duomo just as it opened again at 5 o’clock (unfortunately we couldn’t get into the crypt with its 98 columns). Things started to get busy with lots of people coming our for their stroll and much gelato was being consumed. I can’t understand how all the expensive boutiques survive – but then maybe they don’t need to sell much at their prices to turn a profit…

Tried some more local cuisine for dinner and ended up in the vaulted second floor of a restaurant and took a while to decipher the menu. An Italian gentleman at the next table helped us a bit and I ended up with a steak, Maryann some gnocchi and Wendy some slabs of fried cheese! We had a giggle over that and did share some of our food/flavours around so Wendy wouldn’t get too much carbohydrate in her diet. The cheese was nice enough, but it was really just two chunks/medallions of pan fried cheese the size of a piece of thick sliced toast bread, but round. We asked for a 1/4 of house wine and got what looked like a jug big enough to hold a quart (2 litres)! It didn’t hold that much but had more than the couple of glasses we expected.

Wedding seem to happen at anytime and on any day. We’ve seen the red carpet rolled down the stairs in front to cathedrals, orange Hummer’s carrying the bridal party, lots of flowers, organ music and Ave Maria’s and also saw a stand full of paper cones of rice for guests to throw at the happy couple.

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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 16 – Catania and up the hill to see Etna & her craters

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Dear reader – yesterday’s post is a reflection on how much information you can find out if you spend a few hours on the interwebs, talking to people in the tourist office, and going to the train station information counter – not much! Maybe we are just trying things that are too tricky – like not going from one major centre to another, or stopping in one town for a few hours before going on to another. But that aside, yesterday we caught the bus at 9:00am for the two hour ride to Catania, got to our accommodation early and dumped our bags and headed back out to the train station via the city centre to try and find out how we can get to Lecce overnight. We’d heard that there was a train with sleeper, but apparently there isn’t. There was also no train to Lecce overnight on Sunday either. Catching a bus could work, but we thought it might be a bit hard on our travel weary bodies to sit up all night. We decided to think some more about how we might accomplish the next leg of our trip…

Wandered back into the centre just as the duomo opened and we checked out the some great statues/carvings, particularly the crypt/mausoleum/sarcophagus of Bellini (famous opera composer who died young). Then went and visited the Greco/Romano teatro – amazing to see this old theatre just off the main street and tucked away in amongst houses etc. It had actually been built over with houses and an aerial photo from the 1930s shows homes built along the curve of the theatre, but none of it to be seen. They’ve done a great archeological job digging the theatre out of the residential development and have also created a nice museum out of one of the houses that was built into the old external wall of the theatre. They’d found some amazing artefacts when excavating the theatre, lots of oil lamps, coins, some nice glass and pottery items. I keep finding it amazing that people just built layer upon layer without a seeming to be interested in the history contained below. Had a picnic dinner while planning a trip up Etna for the next day.

This morning we did some more interweb searching to check the options for travelling tomorrow – we want to visit Taormina for a few hours, back on the train to Messina, cross the Straits to Villa San Giovanni, then maybe stop in Cosenza and then try and cross the mountains to Crotone… All got a bit frustrating and we wasted a couple of hours getting nowhere again! Slightly disappointed we’d missed the morning markets, but we had to head off to the bus terminal because we had to catch the 11:20 bus to Etna. Bus took us to Nicolosi and then we had to change to another to do the next leg up the mountain where the car parks are and lots of tourist shops. Amazing to drive up through lava flows and to see how the lava solidifies in basalt/blue stone and has a layer of flaky crust on top. We decided to catch the chairlift up to 2600 metres and then take a jeep/bus up to 3000 and have a walk around with a guide, while Maryann stayed behind at Rifugio Sapienza. We sat in a small six person gondola and drifted up the mountain over the grey scree of volcanic detritus which mostly looks like grey dust. Beautiful blue skies with great views down to the city and the coast line. It was quite fresh and windy when we got out (thankful we’d brought our jackets) and wandered around for an hour with our guide telling us what sounded like the same story each time about eruptions, destruction, vents, craters etc. We walked through a little one with some steam venting and could see the yellow stain of sulphur around another vent hole. No molten lava or anything, but slightly scary to think it erupted only a few years ago with a display of fireworks for a few days. Wendy found that under the rocks little lady birds were hibernating and wonderful to see their colours contrasted on the grey rock. On the way down in the chairlift we smiled at some people walking down in the grey dust, up to their ankles in the sand/rock. Back down the mountain on the bus and a free ride as the ticket machine was broken – we got lots of shrugged shoulders from the driver and other who hopped on while we were coming down got on for free too.

Back at the bus/train terminal, we went back to the train info and managed to score a helpful lady with fairly good English who got us sorted for some train trips tomorrow. We decided not to do the overnight trip and found some accommodation in Cosenza which would mean we only had a 5 hour train the next day (but not over the mountains as we’d hoped but via Sibari). We had a late dinner at small restaurant that didn’t have an inside – all the tables were set up in a small piazza behind the kitchen. The maitre d’ was a cheerful enough fellow who help us translate the menu and we settled for the 15 euro tourist menus that would get us a drink and a primo & secondo dish. Our waiter couldn’t smile, and seemed to be working under sufferance – seem lots of people take no pleasure from serving others. Strange. Not everyone behaves this way, but it seems many have this disposition. The soccer was on a TV and the muted blarping of the plastic trumpets filled up the small square. We had some nice pastas but didn’t appreciate the maitre d’ always asking, “Molto bene?” (fishing for compliments). The girls tried a mixed fish dish, and while palatable it didn’t have much flavour, class, or style, and more than its share of bones..

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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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Day 12 – Rooftop for breakfast & dinner and a dash of Archimedes

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

It’s Tuesday afternoon (15th of June) and we’re enjoying a siesta during the hot afternoon. Great to have a freshen-up shower, sit in the airco for a bit, and have a power-nap (don’t quite need the full siesta thing) to get revitalised for the late afternoon (sera) and evening. Also a good time to copy the photos onto the netbook so I can photoshop a few, and add them to the blog posts. Enjoying that we have wifi available in our room. The town was well lit up last night and washed in a yellow glow, makes for very pleasant strolling in the evening. There’s way less traffic on Ortygia so we weren’t bothered too much by the fanging scooters and barping three wheeler trucks rattling up the road like we had at the Ostello in Piazza Armerina.

This morning we went to the markets on the way to the bus stop, calling into the info point for tourists just to check some details and also asked if we’d happened to have left our old copy of ‘The Rough Guide to Sicily‘, and yes we had and we got it back At the markets we enjoyed hearing the guys yelling out – reminding me of the block calling out, “One dollar, one dollar, one dollar.”, at the Victorian markets back home. We had some fun buying some food at a stall where the vendor handed Wendy half a canoli (to taste) and then proceeded to tempt us with all sorts of lovely food. He had an amazing assortment of cheese and we settled for some smoked (strong bbq flavour) mozzarella (there’s a picture of something similar in a crate below – yes it is chees & not bread). We also stocked up on a few of those canoli, bread, olives & sundried tomatoes (in antipasto mix), fresh tomatoes, cherries & bananas. All good fun and we got a bonus taste of a roll with cheese, ham and tomato when he learned we were from Australia. Maryann picked up that many of the stall keepers only just tolerate the tourists with their cameras – they kept asking, “How many photos do you need to take?” to unsuspecting people poking their Nikon & Canon lenses at them.

We then had to wait for a bit to catch the bus and joined other waiting passengers while the bus drivers all congregated on the footpath, no doubt discussing more important issues, before one decided it might be a good time to take the bus for a spin. We sat opposite a rather rotund lady whose denim dress was bulging at the buttons to the point of imminent bursting – her size probably due to a life-time’s indulgence of all that good food we’d seen. We didn’t have tickets and the driver didn’t sell us any, just said, “It’s okay”, and waved us back to our seats. Lo & behold, we hadn’t gone a block and two inspectors hopped on the bus. Here we go, I thought, a nice big fine of lots of euros coming up. But no, they just wanted to know how many tickets I wanted to buy – sweet! And the tickets were going to last for two hours so we could actually use them to get back later.

We then visited the Archimedes Museum and had a great time conversing with the retired teacher who runs the place. We got a complimentary coffee and chilled water (much appreciated after a bit of a walk in the sun) and an explanation of a couple of things Archimedes did with pulleys and levers. A set of church bells started playing a tune (quite complex actually) to mark twelve o’clock noon and while we thought it sounded nice, a bunch of dogs started howling along with the sound. Well, maybe they thought it sounded nice too – and were just trying to add their musical compliment to the bells. We then wandered around the rest of the ‘park’ checking out full-size replicas of some inventions and machines of war. Well curated with excellent English on the boards and a nice summary of the importance of Archimedes and his work. When you think of what this guy was able to develop along with his screw (without end) and the ‘Eureka’ moment – quite an amazing guy. I’m hoping the image below (photo of one of the info boards) will go fullsize when you click on it, as it’s worth a read. We gave the archeological park and Greek theatre a miss as we’ve seen some and will probably see more…

The girls went out for a shop and we enjoyed an antipasto dinner on the roof-top terrace. The weather is so much milder in the evening and a stark contrast to the heat this morning as we had breakfast – had to sit under an umbrella at 8:45 in the morning! Took a turn around the island and still amazed that people are still heading out for an evening meal after 9:00 pm! Quite enjoying all this travel – must work out a way monetize it so we can keep doing it – too much to see and so much to learn.

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Day 11 – on the bus(es) to Syracusa and nice to be back by the seaside

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

The people at the Ostello had kindly agreed to have breakfast ready for us at 7:15 as we had to catch the first bus to Catania at 8:00 am. (the next one not till 11:15). There was a crowd at the bus stop and the bus ended up being full. Good to have a seat – wouldn’t have liked to stand up for the hour and a half trip to Catania. We negotiated a few back roads before hitting the main highway. The weather was very hazy/overcast and bright and we could see a faint outline of Mt. Etna as we skirted around it to the South. A fair few young people up the back of the bus with us and three particularly giggly young fellows who kept dropping English words into their conversation – carrying on like pork chops most of the time… They did know enough of our language to ask Wendy to open the window as the airco wasn’t up to keeping us cool.

Missed a connecting bus to Syracuse by 10 minutes, so had to wait 50 minutes for the next one – no problem – gave me plenty of time to buy tickets, find out how to get to Lecce by overnight bus (we still need to decide if we take the train or bus for the trip from Catania back onto the mainland and across the sole of the boot of Italy to Lecce), and buy some coffee & pastries (one filled with sweet ricotta and one with chocolate goop) which buzzed us up with caffeine & sugar. Into Syracuse around lunch time and had a kilometre walk down Corso Umberto and Via Roma to get to our B&B half a block back from the waterfront on the island of Ortygia. Nice to get out of the midday sun and turn on the airco. Noted the mini supermarket across the road for later…

Out and about later after a yummy lunch of bread rolls and the regular fresh antipasto. Easy to walk around but the glare is tending to wash the colours out of everything – not that there’s a lot of colour to start with, everything is mostly built of sandstone and marble. If you like you can take a boat ride round the island and on the southern side of the island there is an aquarium and a small beach. There is a wonderful treed boulevard and some construction work going on along the waterfront where boats can tie up. At the point where the bridges cross to the island there seems to be a marina hosting lots of fishing boats as well as some luxury private boats. Some nice shops with painted ceramics and it seems to be some artistic aesthetic around. Came across an antique shop that featured some very old ceramic jelly moulds and a poor Armadillo turned into a basket with its tail forming a handle. Some other nice stuff and some fantastic looking old keys, but they wanted ~57 euros for them.

A guy looking a lot like Seargent Schultz (or his Italian brother) drove by on his scooter and I wanted to get him to fill out a consent form to put his photo on the blog, but he just zipped past as quick as a flash. Had a lovely walk around the water’s edge, pretty well circumnavigating the island of Ortygia. Later in the day finding the duomo and the adjoining piazza. Enjoyed some more Italian cuisine at the pizzeria we spotted a little earlier and had a chat with an American guy on the next table who asked if we were “enjoying our little town of Syracuse”? Happens that he lives here four months of the year (bought a four story house and all) and does business in Italy. He knew all the restaurants and claimed that the town was lovely, clean and safe and that he’d much rather live here than Florence. Well, we had to agree with him that Syracuse had a very different feel to the towns of Agrigento and Piazza Armerina – they seem to be in much poorer areas and may not have the benefits that the tourist dollar brings.

Wandered home through the well lit streets (see next post for photo) and kept hearing the horn/trumpet sounds that are a part of the world cup. At the restaurant we’d seen that Paraguay had scored a goal and things had got quiet, but while checking out the duomo under lights, we heard a cheer and trumpets from a few blocks away (as the equaliser was scored). Wandered down and found a piazza full of people (with a few carabinieri hanging around the edges) enjoying the balmy evening and watching the game unfold on a big screen. Great atmosphere, and nice to enjoy their celebrations after the Aussie loss to Germany…

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