Our ridiculous trek is nearing its end, as is the ability of our bodies and minds to function adequately, but there’s a stop or two still to go, primarily Ortigia, an island directly next to the town of Siracusa on the coast of SE Sicily. Aside from some parking structures at the North of the Island, it is almost completely Medieval and our apartment is hidden in a tiny piazzeta accessed on foot via narrow lanes. As goes for most places in Sicily, some things are rough and ready, but it’s safe and there’s history, culture and decent bars and restaurants.
Like in Cefalu, there is still a yearning for the good old days in Siracusa. We’re not talking about the 60s, heaven forbid Mussolini, not the Renaissance, not even the Romans, we’re talking about the ancient Greeks. There are Greek ruins all over the place here, and later Christian churches are, usually, built on top of the previous Greek temples. Apollo, Zeus, Artemis, Poseidon and Dionysus all feature in plazas, fountains, temples and springs and, in the mortal realm, Archimedes, a resident of Siracusa, is still a folk hero. With its strong Greek, African and Arabic influnences Sicily sometimes feels like a different country and the locals may say that they’re “going to Italy” when they go to the mainland.
Minutes away from us there is an excellent outdoor daily market specializing in seafood, produce and dry goods, with some old school cafes and bars crammed in behind the stalls. Amazing prices and, generally, great quality so I get to cook dinner a couple of times. Even though Italian food is, generally, fine it’s been disappointing how little the restaurants highlight the excellent vegetables, most of the emphasis having been on fish and pasta.
We did find a decent vegan restaurant, “Moon” in an attractive setting, but it wouldn’t stand out compared to what’s available at home in Oregon. Still, the seafood couldn’t have been any fresher.
It’s fun just to wander around the squares and alleyways to see what you can discover and, since the island is so small, views of the sea and bay are never far away. Street cats are everywhere, including right outside our place, as the local lady next door feeds them religiously, so we have a regular caterwauling serenade morning and evening, and a catfight or two at night.
One thing travel guides don’t talk about much regarding Italy is the dog poop problem – It’s been the same all the way down from Venezia (really bad there) to Sicilia. Vigilance is constantly required and, unlike what we saw in Northern countries such as Poland and Hungary, the local authorities don’t seem concerned about doing anything about it. It seems to go along with the litter, graffiti, feral animals, crazy driving and, intermittently, crumbling infrastructure. Lack of money is certainly part of it, but I feel like Sicilians don’t like things too buttoned up, they prefer it a little rough around the edges. As a visitor you may or may not appreciate that, but, from our perspective, on balance the place has much to offer.
Ah, the lunatic driving, the creative parking (yes, these are all “parked”), the liberal interpretation of traffic laws, the concept of flexible lane management, the awful improvisational ballet between vehicles and humans! We learned quickly not to stop at stop signs in rural Sicily unless there really was a associated substantial junction, as to do otherwise would certainly result in you getting rear ended. On the autostrada I insisted on signaling when preparing to pass because of the likelihood of someone screaming up behind me at 180KPH, but gave up on signaling to move back into the slow lane, as people looked at me as if I had just arrived from Mars. Overtaking in Sicily requires that, as soon as your front wheels clear the vehicle to your right, you must immediately start sliding into their lane without signaling. It’s just required.
On a rural narrow 2 lane road it is also imperative to get within 3 inches of the car in front and weave from side to side, even if you have no intent to pass, it’s just the Italian thing to do.
In general, on a freeway with 2 lanes in each direction, if you’re not sure you want to use the fast lane just yet, just straddle both, insuring half of the vehicle is in each of the lanes at all times. Maintain this position until some mad person comes rocketing up from behind flashing their high beams then slowly, and reluctantly, sidle back into the slow lane.
We’re very grateful that, somehow, we managed to get through 6 car rentals in Europe without a hitch, though we may still find a ZTL (Zona Traffico Limitato) violation letter from Marsala waiting for us when we get home.
By this point in the expedition, Abby and I are almost incapacitated and our “sightseeing” is restricted to about 5 hours a day, but we do get in a visit to Noto, a nearby hill town on the UNESCO World Heritage list, which has a remarkable collection of excellently preserved historic architecture. More church tower climbing, cathedral gawking and stories about bad things Mussolini did to this person or that building. In the city hall the “Hall of Mirrors” was a bust but the ceiling in the reception room’s “Trompe L’oeil” effect was confounding. It’s actually flat but, using perspective and other magic, it definitely looks quite concave, though the photo here may not convey it well.
There are other cool hill towns, wineries and coastal nature reserves on the SE Coast worth seeing but we are flat out of mojo, done in by 2.5 months on the road and, so, retreat to our apartment prematurely. There’s also a major archeological park in the main part of Siracusa that should be visited that includes a 15,000 seater Greek amphitheater that showed the original tragedies back in the centuries BC and still has shows here in the Spring. We walk there on our last day only to find it closed early: Italian hours of business are very variable and relying on a hard cover travel guide as we did here is a mistake, the Internet wins in this case.
It turns out there was an ambassador staying on vacation in the apartment next door to us, which helped explain why a police car sat day and night in our piazzeta and why a detective stood outside our place every morning watching next door. When she left, a hefty entourage of strapping young men accompanied her. A surprisingly modest holiday choice for an ambassador, I wonder if she was bothered by the cats howling or the construction racket coming from next door, as yet another traditional home is upgraded to Airbnb standards?
Regarding the latter, there’s no way we could have learnt as much as we did as to how the locals live throughout Europe without using Airbnb, not to mention the ability to, somewhat, control our diet by having a kitchen available, plus the big cost savings relative to hotels. Still, in Ortigia, in our little enclave, its glaringly apparent that a run-down traditional neighborhood is slowly being transformed into a holiday village. Then again, much of the same thinking applies to gentrification in Portland. Local government in Sicily doesn’t seem to get involved in renovation for low income housing, and most of the folks with less money are living in the big 60s and 70s utilitarian blocks of flats away from the historical zone, so the trend to medieval Disneylands is, probably, inexorable.
Also inexorable is the expansion of our waistlines as we get near to the end of this European odyssey and it’s going to be a rude awakening on the celery diet once we get home.
One more drive back all the way across Sicily to Palermo airport to drop the car off, hanging on through cloudbursts, dodging immorally incompetent drivers and a polizia blitz in Palermo due to the Syria Summit that’s occurring there on November 13 and 14th. One more night to rest up in Palermo, which, in our brief stay there on a Monday night, seems to have rocking nightlife (though we participate minimally) and we’re on our way back to London via Rome for a couple of days rest up before the final assault to Reykjavík then onto Seattle and, finally, Portland. Thumbs down to Icelandair for cancelling our direct flight from Reykjavík by the way, shouldn’t we get some compensation for that?
Definitely time to head for home though Italy has been great, albeit with some of our rose-tinted memories from 2006 not holding up over the years, but I’m sure we’ll be back.
One more wrap-up post to come and we’re out of here!
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