2018 - Four Weeks in Italy
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The Hendersons 2018 - Four Weeks in Italy - Sicilia |
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2018 - Four Weeks in Italy |
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8 Maggio We slept well enough, the sound of the engines sort of lulling
us. The ferry docked in Palermo about 5:30 pm, it took a while to offload, then
we drove the short distance to our hotel, the Ibis, which faced the waterfront.
Traffic in Palermo is horrible. We ate dinner in the hotel, very noisy because
of tour groups. We didn't do any sightseeing, knowing that the next day would be
long. 9 Maggio Up and out of the hotel reasonably early, with a brief stop at
the Capuchin catacombs. Pretty sobering, a reminder that from dust we are and to
dust we shall return. Interestingly, the remains are grouped: Professionals,
trades people, children, clergy – a class system carried into the grave.
The drive to Siracusa was uneventful except for the many
detours for road construction. Our hotel was in the Centro Storico, but we were
able to find a temporary parking place, I walked the short distance to the
hotel, then the manager, Domenico, came with me to the car, took our luggage and
gave directions to the parking lot. The hotel, Allegro Italia Ortigia, is next to the old Jewish
quarter and has been beautifully renovated to keep the look and feel of the age
and history, but has modern comforts and conveniences, such as a loft with a
kitchenette. Our friend, Deborah, was due into Catania around 6:30 and we
were able to drive straight to the airport and pick her up, then back to
Siracusa. We walked to a little restaurant nearby for dinner. The food was fine,
but the service was terribly slow. 10 Maggio Our first stop after breakfast was a short tour of the Jewish
ritual baths in the hotel across the street from ours. The baths were discovered
by accident when the owner of the building decided to convert it to a hotel and
in the excavation process they found the baths, probably 500 or more years old.
The baths, mikveh, are fed from underground streams as they must have fresh
water. It took two years to clean out the mud from the baths, then fit them for
tourists. They are the largest ritual baths in Europe. Next was our Montalbano excursion. We drove to Scicli, which is where the exterior scenes around the police station are filmed. There aren't a lot of references to Montalbano, but the town is tidy and picturesque. We had lunch of arancini.
Next, we drove to Modica, thinking we'd see a chocolate
factory, but it was just a small shop. We picked up our first car ding, making
our car officially Italian. Someone (not Tom) refused to yield, making a small
mark in the left front fender of our car. Back at Siracusa, Deborah and I did a bus tour. The hop on hop
off tours are a brief overview of the cities but tend to be superficial.
Siracusa has so much history, it would take months of serious study to learn
everything.
Dinner in Siracusa again, this time in a little restaurant
next to a church which once was a synagogue. 11 Maggio Our next destination was Trapani, with a stop at Agrigento. This is an amazing place with archeological monuments dating from the time when Sicilia was part of Magna Grecia. Even though we spent the better part of three hours at the site, we only saw a portion of the whole. Some of the temples are beautifully preserved. There is an olive tree said to be more than 1000 years old.
The presence of Greeks in Sicilia and southern Italy is
surprising to many. Some of the largest of the Greek cities weren't even in
Greece. We had an easy drive to Trapani, especially considering that
our hotel was in the Centro Storico. Using Google maps, which are more accurate
than our car's GPS, we were able to drive straight to the Piazza del Mercato di
Pesce, where we were to turn over our car to a parking attendant. Our hotel was another suite hotel, Badia Nuova, so it was
spacious and comfortable. We walked to a restaurant several hundred meters from the
hotel, Il Sapori Antiche, the food was wonderful. 12 Maggio Tom and I went to a bookstore and bought three children's
books in Italian for Cassidy. Tom was a bit tired after so much driving, so he stayed put,
but Deborah and I went by bus and cable car to Erice, said to be the most
beautiful hill town in Sicilia. It is beautiful with outstanding views of the
countryside.
Our trip back to Trapani had a bit of a misadventure, when we
asked the bus driver for our stop, he directed us to another bus, which we
boarded, only to learn that it merely went up the waterfront, turned around and
headed directly back to the starting point. Turned out that we should have
stayed on the first bus. Fortunately, that bus was still at the stop, so we
boarded it and got back to our digs. Dinner at Il Sapori Antiche again, very nice. 13 Maggio Our next destination was Catania, where we needed to stay so
Deborah could catch her flight to Nice. First, though, we stopped at another
Greek archeological site, Segesta, where there is a well-preserved temple.
Problem is that it isn't known whom the temple was supposed to honor.
Then on to the biggest misadventure of our trip so far,
Monreal. Somehow our GPS got hopelessly confused and we ended up far distant
from our destination in some of the smallest streets we've ever encountered
anywhere. It was extremely tense especially maneuvering around with Italians
honking impatiently. I got out of the car and asked a couple for directions.
They thought I was French because of the French plates on the car. They were so
kind. Deborah spoke with them and the husband offered to drive down to the
cathedral area with us. His name was Salvatore and he certainly saved us. Once we finally got within walking distance of the cathedral,
we stopped for lunch, then toured the amazing Norman cathedral with its
thousands of mosaics. It is quite unlike any other church we've ever seen.
We drove to the Catania area, Acireale, which is where our
hotel was located. More chaos trying to find the hotel. It wouldn't have been so
bad but the street we needed to take was one way, the wrong way. Deborah and I
walked to the hotel, I got a map, then I walked back to the car and directed Tom
to the hotel. We had dinner in the hotel, it was good enough, but too salty for me. We did have a nice chat with some Italians who live in the area. One of the women works for the US government on a Navy base in Catania. |
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