Sicily Day 1 - 5/11-5/12/17

6:30pm Pacific US time 5/11/17 - well, the flight took off over an hour and a half late, which means I will surely miss my connecting flight, since I only had an hour and a half layover. At least another flight leaves about 2 hours later, which I am assuming they will get me on. And that is exactly why I get as close to my destination as possible on my first flight, because the closer you get, the more likely there are more flight options to the final destination. So this means I probably won't arrive in my first stop Siracusa until after 8:00pm local time. Never missed a connection before....always a first for something I suppose. I would gladly have given up the rare miracle of the middle seat next to me being empty to not have to deal with this mess. The poor lady next to me is trying to get to Albania and there is no other flight out and she is also going to miss her connection.

Nearly 11pm Sicily Time - back at the B&B after what feels like endless traveling. Turns out I was automatically rebooked onto the later flight to Catania - thank goodness. Made it through the Rome airport easily as I have before and even had some time to get an Italian SIM card. Once you have an Italian phone number, you're really Italian, right? That's what I thought. The second flight took off a bit late but the airport is so small that I managed to make the 6:40pm bus to Siracusa, which naturally was also late. Long story short, I made it to my lovely B&B Aretusa Vacanze by about 8:30, after nearly 24 hours of transit including 2 flights, a bus, and a taxi, and only a couple hours later than planned. The good news is that the middle seat being empty on the redeye flight means I slept better than I have ever slept on a redeye so I don't want to die.

After arrival and checkin I found some gelato, because that is what one does when one arrives in Italy, and had a delicious cup of dark chocolate and cinnamon. Then I just wandered around this old section of Siracusa called Ortigia. The streets are all lit up and the alleys lined with little restaurant tables. There was an interesting procession going through the main square. 

I saw a sign that Palazzo Borgia was open at night with guided tours and since my time is so limited I jumped on it. The guide was a sweet girl dressed in traditional garb and she kept almost tripping over herself. But it was neat to have the palace basically to myself and they even gave you a glass of sparkling wine. And with that it was time to try to get some sleep because I have an ambitious couple of days planned for Siracusa. 

About 20 pictures and a video are HERE