In Sicilia

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and our first few days in Siracusa were spent settling in. Went to the mercato (market) and bought every day items to stock our fridge and cupboards. We live in an area with bakeries, fruit and vegetable markets, pastry shops - even the most unlikely doorway has a little business inside. Buildings are quite old on the outside and modern inside - at least that's what ours is like.  Quite deceiving facades.

We had a car for a few days so on our third day we visited Noto and Ragusa. Both towns were rebuilt in the Baroque style following a devastating earthquake in the 17th century.  Each are built on hillsides and from a distance buildings appear huddled with little or no space between them. More deception, but not much.  Streets are very narrow and Albert did some pretty wicked driving.  We didn't take the autostrada on the way back but went up and down hills on some of the windiest roads.  Good thing we have strong stomachs.


Noto, Sicily

Day 5 in Sicily was beautiful!!  Sun was shining and it was a warm 17 C.  I had to go out to get some fruit and vegetables. There is a vendor right across the street.  How convenient!!  The vendor was so sweet.  Of course no English possible there and just perfect for me.  Time to practice Italian.  Well, I'm so proud. I bought bananas and oranges in Italian.  He was quite adorable - wrinkly and very gentile.  When he found out I was a tourist, he gave me a couple extra oranges.  Nice way to start the day or what? Continued on and passed a bakery and bought some fabulous looking buns.  Stopped at another vendor and bought some tomatoes (my man across the street didn't have any).  I didn't have any change and caused a bit of a ruckus when I paid the .50 Euro for my 5 tomatoes with a10 Euro bill.  The vendor didn't have any change.  Lesson learned.  Bring change next time.

We walked to Ortigia for lunch in the afternoon and had the most incredible sandwiches - huge and full of vegetables, cheese and meat.  The place has been there since 1930 and called Caseificio Borderi.  Wow sandwiches like you've never seen and all made by the owners.  A real find!!!  It's not a sit down place, so we carried our meal to a bench by the water and tried to eat as nicely as we could.  Stuff was falling out every which way with each luscious bite.

It's Thursday, cloudy and rainy.  It's cleaning day at our apartment so we left at around 10 and walked to Ortigia to the fish market.  We bought fish and cooked them for lunch, along with pasta and fresh tomato salad.  They have real tomatoes here!! Have no idea what kind of fish we bought but so fresh and delicious. We've decided that Siracusa has the best food. The olive oil is to die for, the balsamic vinegar sweet with no acidity.  Every meal we've had has been DELICIOUS!!!  and we haven't been out to restaurants except for our Dagwood sandwiches yesterday.  We will take pictures of them just to show how crazy big they are and only 2 Euro each.  What a deal.