Sicily Day 8 - Catania 5/19/17

Pictures HERE 

4:15pm: back at the b&b for a little rest since I had a full morning and afternoon. After breakfast I went over to the Bellini opera house. It is beautiful but kind of strangely built into its surroundings. Unfortunately it looks like it is not open for public tours or visits, despite conflicting information out there. Then I went over to another Benedictine church that was closed yesterday. They gave you a little tablet with headphones for a free walking tour. Pretty neat but I do not have the patience to listen to five minutes about each part of the fresco, sorry. If I had listened to the whole thing I might have been in that fairly small church for almost an hour! Also went over to the Castle, which now houses the city's museum. 

Walked back through the fish market again a little, because it is just so cool, and got a couple of cookies at a pastry shop by the Duomo. It is funny, I would never eat a meal from a place on a main square but that seems to be the best place sometimes for a gelato or pastry. Anyway, one was an almond paste cookie covered in pistachios and the other was a chocolate shortbread filled with pistachio cream. There are either almonds or pistachios in everything here, I feel really badly for someone allergic to tree nuts in Sicily!

Then I started walking up the main shopping street, Via Etna - called that because at the end you can see the Volcano. I meandered and found another market, La Fiera, this one is just as chaotic as the fish market and is half produce, half crap like clothes. What great fun! I had read about this trendy sandwich/burger place called FUD and it was near up where I was, so I went there for lunch. They have funny Italian-english transliterations of everything, like "Stil Ouater" for the water bottles and "cis" for cheese. I had a "classic" - prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato, olive oil, and oregano on a homemade roll. Classic indeed except everything was sicilian. With a glass of rose sparkling wine. Great place and not horribly expensive given its trendiness! They have a tapas restaurant too but I am not going to trek back up there later to go to it.

After lunch I made it up to the Bellini garden, which is a big public park, and then past that a little there is the university's botanical garden, which has a large section dedicated to preserving Sicilian plants. The entrance is free and I was talking to the guy at the info desk and he seemed impressed by my Italian. One thing I have noticed in Sicily more than other parts of Italy is that they respect more here if you try to speak Italian. In Venice or Rome or Milan one you mis-pronounce the Italian they just respodn in English and here they usually do not. I love that! 

Anyway, meandered back down the mile or so on Via Etna and stopped for another cup at Cioccolato & Gelato, this time coffee plus their pistachio ottoveli. Still not sure what ottoveli is but I googled it and the only real matches are this shop so maybe they made it up? Then I came back to the b&b to rest up before going back out later. Which is good because by 4pm I had already walked well over 20,000 steps. Yikes!

9:45pm: back at the b&b after dinner. Set out around 6pm and wandered the area around the opera house a bit. Found a cool glass shop where the owner makes everything and bought a necklace and bowl. There was also a cool little square that had been decorated with art. In fact there are a lot of bars and weed places and hipster things in general in Catania it seems. 

Had dinner at De Fiore, run by an old lady who cooks everything whom you can hear yelling in the kitchen from the dining area. I had read the service was slow but there was only one poor waiter for everyone and you could tell it was going to be a long night for him. Anyway, I had a quarter liter of wine and the famous pasta alla norma, which was apparently invented in Catania. It is pasta with tomato sauce and fried eggplant. I do not even normally like eggplant, but in Italy it doesn't bother me at all, I wonder why! I also tried to order her famous zeppole for dessert but they were apparently out of pretty much everything. So I paid my little 9 euros and went back to the square of the opera house and got a gelato. They had setteveli, not ottoveli. And setteveli is apparently a well-known multilayer dessert and the other place must add one more thing to make theirs 8 instead of 7! Anyway, I had that with an extra dark chocolate and ate it overlooking the beautiful opera house. 

And then it was a quick walk back to the b&b to pack up since I have to get out early tomorrow to make another 8am bus, this time to Agrigento for a night to see the Greek temples!

Side comment - all the sights I paid to go into today were literally basically empty. It really baffles me why no one is going into these museums? 

Walked a ton today and my feet are starting to feel it. 29,324 steps; 11.66 miles. 

Sicily Day 7 - Catania 5/18/17

Lots of pictures and a couple videos of the market insanity HERE.

3:15pm: sitting enjoying a Lemon Soda waiting for my 4pm of a monastery in Catania. Woke up crazy early and packed up. The sweet lady at my b&b in Ragusa has prepared breakfast for me early and called the driver who had originally picked me up. Then on my way out she gave me a hug and the double cheek kiss. Where else in the world would someone do you a favor then hug and kiss you and thank you?! Italy, that is where. As an aside I think I forgot to mention seeing a LOT of properties for sale in Ragusa.... just saying.... 

Sicily Day 6 - Ragusa 5/17/17

All the pictures from today HERE. There are some duplicates, I don't know why some pictures uploaded multiple times, and I can't figure out how to fix it on my iPad. Sorry!

3:30pm - back at the b&b for some R&R since this may be my last slower day of the whole trip. Took it easy this morning and had a relaxed breakfast. Wandered around town, which was very quiet in the morning. Then the tour groups arrived and they started filling everything up. However I think I was quite literally the only person in the Duomo museum, not that it is that impressive... Also, it looks like a lot of kids were possibly graduating from university today so lots of celebrating around town. The public gardens at the end of town are quite lovely with some good views.

Picked up a quick tomato and cheese scacca, a local kind of rolled up focaccia thing, followed by a strawberry granita, and caught the 11:55 bus 11 to the upper/modern part of town. It is decidedly less interesting than where I am staying, the smaller historical center. There is a nice church and some good pastry shops but not really a whole lot else. I skipped the archaeological museum because guides called it rundown. I stopped at a pastry shop and had my first arancina - a fried rice ball, and I use the term ball loosely because this was more like a football. It was filled with veggies and local cheese and I could only eat about a third of it, it was so heavy. One of the guys at the shop thought I did not like it! I bought a couple mini pastries to take back to the b&b. So I guess I just sort of snacked my way through lunch over a couple hour period. 

Then I set out to descend the long stairs back to where I am staying. Some great views along the way - I could even pick out my b&b! Some people were inexplicably climbing UP. Why would anyone do that?! Read a guidebook, take a bus to the top for 1.20euros, and walk down! Anyway, the descent was easy and it let me out into a square not far below the b&b so I came back for a rest and to start packing for the next move since tomorrow will be an early one. Unfortunately, most of my clothes are still wet and silly me I did not see the drying rack they put in the wardrobe. There is also an iron and I am sadly seriously contemplating ironing my clothes later to help them dry. But the thought of ironing on vacation (or anytime for that matter) is making me a little naseous.

9:15pm - back at the b&b for an earlier night because I have to get up early tomorrow for my bus. I set out earlier around 4pm and just wandered the town more, finding cool alleys and viewpoints and photo ops. It rained a little then cleared out. After I while I returned to trusty Al Borgo and had another glass of wine and some snacks like the other night. There was a funeral coming out of the church so that was a downer. 

Decided to eat at La Bettola, a little off the beaten track but tiny, as in 8 tables. I got there pretty much right after they opened and I am pretty sure I got the only non-reserved table they had as they started telling people to come back after 9pm after me. I had the local cheese fried on griddle as a starter, then steak for a main course and then I needed something light so I got fruit and they literally gave me two nectarines in a bowl to cut up. Then I had a chocolate and chili and cinnamon gelato. And my clothes are still rather wet so ironing may in fact be in the future this evening before bed. 

Tomorrow it is back to Catania where I originally flew into - this time to actually stay a couple days and see the city!

Today: 24,905 steps, 9.9 miles, and by the way I have climbed about 70 flights of stairs or more basically every day.

Sicily Day 5 pictures

All pictures from yesterday are here!

Sicily Day 5 - Ragusa & Modica 5/16/17

10:15pm - back at the b&b after a long day. Slept til 7:30 this morning, a minor miracle, and kind of took it easy. Did not wash my clothes as I had planned - whoops. Went to breakfast, which was a veritable spread of local goodies, including various pastries, olives, chocolate, you name it. True to her word, the lovely staff member had printed me the local bus schedule and wrote down all the train and bus times to/from Modica. What truly lovely people!

Sicily Day 4 - Ragusa 5/15/17

Pictures HERE 

4:00pm - back at the gorgeous b&b in Ragusa for a break because nothing in town is open. Took it easy this morning, even had a second cappuccino at breakfast, and then went to the train station. As with the train to and from Noto, this was a tiny two-car thing that was hot and full until most people got off in Noto. Then it was delayed a bit but by about 1pm I was in Ragusa. My hotel had booked me a car and he was holding a sign with my name at the station. I felt so fancy! Then he took me to a parking lot and told me to wait.... then a little golf cart thing with my hotel on the side showed up. See pictures for a video. The streets are too narrow for a regular car, he said. What an adventure!

Sicily Day 3 - Siracusa 5/14/17

All of today's many pictures are HERE (over 100!)

5:45pm: taking a bit of a break at the b&b after a day I can only describe as: lots of old stuff, as some days in Italy sometimes are! In the morning after breakfast, I hopped on the little electric minibus to the archaeological museum. Its vast and one could probably spend all day looking in room after room of old pottery and bones and statues, oh my, but as per usual, I lasted about 40 minutes. I was also practically alone. It always makes me sad when museums are almost empty.

Sicily Day 2 - Siracusa and Noto 5/13/17

All pictures from today HERE

2:15pm: sitting in famous caffe Sicilia in Noto enjoying a delicious and refreshing almond granita after a full morning. After a pretty decent night's sleep, I wandered a bit before breakfast at 8, which is served on the hotel's adorable rooftop terrace. It was a buffet of fresh juice and baked goods, and even bacon and eggs.

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.

It's almost that time again!

Sicily. May. 16 nights.

Tweaked the look of the blog. Apparently Google has stupidly discontinued its Blogger app so we'll have to see how this will get done on the road.

Have I mentioned I have a new job that comes with more time off? You know what that means.

That's all, see you soon!