Day 60 - To Melbourne

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 1

Nothing much to report today just adding a final post to make it to a round 60.

I took the train to the airport this morning bright and early.  I woke up earlier than I needed to but figured I could sit around the airport just as easily as in my hotel room.  On the plus side, this time I remembered to validate my train ticket before my journey so I didn't get fined this time.

Once I got to the airport I spent some time browsing in the shops.  Many years ago (20 maybe?) I bought a brown leather belt here because my jeans kept falling down.  While this isn't a problem this time around, I still have that belt and I wanted another, but in black.  The original belt is very comfortable because it is slightly curved so when you sit down it doesn't pull at the back.  Every shop assistant insisted they had never heard of such a thing.  I suspect I shall be forced to buy it from Amazon.  Grumble.

I am now sitting around the airport, waiting for the opportunity to sit in a plane.  The glamour of air travel.

Day 59 - To Milan

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati:0

There was another round of goodbyes this morning, but mostly via WhatsApp, before Rachele put me on my train to Milan to begin my journey home. 

I'm not impressed with my train.  It is run by a private company, ItaloTreno, rather than the national Trenitalia company.  I'm in what is supposedly first class but there is nowhere to put suitcases except in the overhead racks.  For a company that only provides long distance trains this seems to be a serious oversight.  Getting my 14 kg suitcase up into the overhead luggage rack was ... let us say, fun.  

Because I was travelling in a fancy carriage I got a paper cup of water and a packet of peanuts as part of my fare.  Fortunately, Rachele wouldn't hear of me leaving without making sure I have plenty of food so I'm at no risk of starvation.  In fact, I suspect I've put on about 10kg based on the way my closthes (don't) fit so I could probably live off my fat reserves for several weeks.

Visiting Italy has been wonderful but I'm glad to be on my way home.   My brain is tired.  I look forward to be able to speak in English without feeling lazy.  I have massive, crazy respect for anyone who immigrates to a country where the local language is different to their own.

It turns out I lied about the luggage situation on the train.  These ItaloTreno carriages do have a place to put luggage.  Oddly enough their cars only have an entrance at one end.  At the other end, there is a little vestibule with a toilet and a luggage storage place.   Odd that you have to walk through the entire car to get to it.  I didn't notice it until well into the journey.  Many others didn't notice it either.  I saw one poor soul nursing his oversized suitcase on his lap for the entire stretch from Naples to Rome as it was too big for the overhead luggage racks.

Speaking of Rome, we sat outside there for a good hour.  The official reason was congestion.  I suspect this was partly right.  I think what really happened is we got to the outskirts of Rome about 10 to 15 minutes late and I think we missed our "landing slot".  Priority seems to be given to Trenitalia over these upstart private companies.  The journey ended up taking around 9 1/2 hours instead of the 8 it should have been.  Practice for tomorrow's journey home to Australia I guess.  However, with train travel you get more space and better views.

I ended up not getting to Milan until 7pm instead of 5:30pm as planned.  I had planned on getting a final drink and a final gelati but it was not to be.  I'm staying at a hotel near the main railway station, so it was easy to get to, but even so by the time I checked in it was a civilised time for dinner by Italian standards.  I randomly picked a nearby pizzeria which turned out to be decent.  The only mark against it was their idea of a good house red wine was a sparkling shiraz.

Now to convince all my belongings they really will fit into my suitcase one last time.

Day 58 - Lamezia Terme

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

Today was my last day visiting family.  It is Sunday so a grand Sunday lunch was organised.  Rachele and I started the day by visiting my Dad's home town, Sambiase, which is just up the road.  A relative of an in-law (I think) has bought the house my Dad grew up in and renovated it.  In the local phrasing, he spent a "sack of money" on it.  I know just how he feels, but the place looks quite fancy now.  I remember it as being rundown.

Next stop was the town of Nicastro which is the biggest "large" town nearby.  We went for a walk, a passegiatta.  We  came across quite a few other people doing the same thing, killing time between morning Mass and Sunday lunch.  Unsurprisingly, 95% of the people we saw were men.  The women were at home, in the kitchen, cooking the said lunch.

Next stop was a fancy pasticceria where we picked up a cake for our lunch.  It is quite common for restaurants to allow you to bring your own fancy cake for celebrations.

Our final stop was the restaurant.  It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, but was very popular with groups.  There were several besides ours, with ours being one of the smallest.  There were only 16 of us, not including 2 toddlers. 

When we had all arrived my cousin Ottavio, Rachele's baby brother, took charge.  He re-arranged all the seating so the men were all up one end of the table and the women down the other!  Nobody batted an eye at this arrangement.  In their defence, the fathers of the toddlers did take part in child wrangling, but it was clearly mostly the job of the women and girls.

Lunch was delicious but with massive amounts of food.  There were at least 4 conversations going on at our table at any one time, including shouted remarks from one end of the table to the other.  Italian gatherings are not for the shy and retiring.  Everyone seemed to be having a good time (except the mother of one of the toddlers who was refusing to sleep).  Everyone was interested in everyone else and had opinions about what they should or shouldn't do,  Also, everyone seemed genuinely pleased to see me.  With the exception of Rachele I hadn't seen my cousins in over 40 years and many of the people at the lunch (spouses and children) I had never met, yet everyone was so very friendly and welcoming.   It was lovely to be instantly part of a community that clearly cared about me but I can imagine it would be a little overwhelming to actually live amongst them all the time.

After eating ridiculous amounts of food it was time to go back home, but not to rest.  Instead, there was another round of visiting and saying of goodbyes.  When I finally got to collapse into bed I decided to leave packing until tomorrow morning.

Day 57 - Lamezia Terme

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

Today Rachele and I visited the town of Pizzo, which is her preferred place for me to buy an apartment.  It is a very pretty town with the best beaches I've seen so far.  Real beaches with sand, not pebbles.  It is perched on a cliff top but there is a small section down by the waterfront.  The cliff tops are perfect for sitting on and looking at the view.

We wandered around the historic centre, visiting a church and a castle before having a restorative gelati.  Apparently Pizzo is the home of the tartufo so we had to have one of those.

While we were looking down to the old part of town on the waterfront, I jokingly said I would like to buy an apartment in the little blue house.  It turns out that there is an apartment there for sale (the top 2 floors)!  However, the price is twice my budget.  Pizzo is something of a tourist town so the prices are set on the assumption you will be renting it out to visitors in the summer season.

In the afternoon it rained so we retreated to Rachele's house for a lunch and a nap.

After lunch we had a visitor and then we went out to pay a condolence visit to an aunt of Rachele's.  Her husband had died a few days ago.  I expected to just sit silently in a corner but it seems the aunt's whole family was there.  She had 4 (or 5?) children and hence many grandchildren.  The grandchildren (about 10-ish in age) were fascinated by the Australian cousin.  They used Google Translate to work out how to ask me questions in English and I answered in my best Italian.  The wanted to know what I liked and disliked and whether it was true we put pineapple on pizzas among many other things.  After about an hour Rachele rescued me and we left.

On the way home we ran into Rachele's little brother Ottavio (not hard since he lives downstairs on the 1st floor and his business is on the ground floor).  He took us out to his country property, which is about 10 minutes out of town.  There he has 2 horses, 5 cats, a rooster and some chickens.  He goes there twice a day.  In the morning, he lets the horses out of their stalls and into their paddock.  At night, he puts them away and feeds them and the cats.  He is also renovating the house on the property as well as having some olive trees and other plants he cultivates (my Italian wasn't up to understanding everything).  He spends most of his weekends there as well as visiting twice a day.  His wife is not amused, understandably.

Finally, we went home for good only to take delivery of a large bag of fresh broad beans and peas which we spent a lot of time shelling.  We also had turned down the opportunity of having a pizza dinner with the aunt and her family.  However, there was soon a knock on the door and we got some extra pizza delivered to us.  Definitely village life.  Lovely to be part of a community but I'm not sure I would want to spend my whole life living here.

Day 56 - Lamezia Terme

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

After the crowd of rellies yesterday, today was spent just with my cousin Rachele.  We started (after my first sensibly sized breakfast since I got to Italy) with a visit to a seaside town nearby called Amantea.  We went for a short walk along the beach, but they aren't a patch on the beaches in Australia.  Just rocks of varying sizes rather than sand.  I noticed in the hills above the town the remains of a castle and said something along the lines of "look at that".  My cousin took that as an indication that I wanted to visit it so off we went, but on foot.  Rachele's English is as good as my Italian so we can communicate but I think we misunderstand each other just as often as the reverse.

After a long climb to the top ("sempre salire") we got to the ruins of a church.  The castle was still some distance away but we decided enough was enough.  We took some pictures of the view and then headed back down for a restorative gelati.  Of course, on the way up we meet a group of school children on an exercusion.  I swear they are following me.

Once we were feeling human again we headed off to another town called Falerna Marina.  I had jokingly said I would like to buy an apartment here by the beach.  I had even picked out something on a real estate website that looked good.  My family here has entered enthusiastically into my search.  Everyone has their own idea of the best town to buy in.  We drove around a little, to get a feel of the town and then onto the next one down the coast, Gizzeria Lido, which is the preferred location of another cousin.

We then headed back home for a two course lunch that Rachele easily whipped up.  Her son joined us for lunch and put in his own 2 cents about where I should be looking to buy.  His preference is for a town, Crotone, on the eastern side of Calabria.  Largely because his wife's family comes from there.

After lunch we had a little nap before heading out to actually visit the apartment in Falerna Marina.  As I said, my family is taken this whole search a little seriously.  It was a very pleasant apartment.  It is right on the beach with fabulous views.  However, inside it was a little dated and it was right on the edge of town.  Too far to walk to anything.  Not to mention it is on the 3rd floor (above ground level for US readers :-) and there is no lift.  The real estate agent had to pause twice to catch her breath when she was showing it to us.

After the viewing it was late afternoon and, as an Australian, I was ready to wrap up the day.  However, because of the lunchtime pause, in Italy it was still early.  We visited a big shopping mall, out in the middle of nowhere, and I attempted to buy a nice leather belt to replace the cheap & nasty one I got from Zara but without success.  Finally, we called it quits and went home for dinner.  Only one course this time.

Tomorrow we are going to check out two more seaside towns for my ideal apartment.

Day 55 - Reggio Calabria

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

I spent the morning at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale home of the famous Riace Bronzes.  These are two life sized bronze statues from Ancient Greece that were found off the Calabrian coast.  They are incredible.  They are housed in a special climate controlled room that you have to go through airlocks to enter.  Only a certain number of people are allowed in at any one time.  I managed to gain entrance as part of a small group of free range tourists, after a group of school children and before a bus tour group.

 

 

The rest of the museum was well worth a look too.  It was similar to the one in Siracusa but much better laid out.  Like the Siracusan museum, it showed the history of the region from prehistoric times through to the Romans.  However, it just had one display case per feature, not room after room of pots or flint knifes or bronze swords.  They also made an effort to lay it out by theme.  This section on farming practices, this one on religous practices, this on day to day life, this one for funeral practices.  They also had displays on various towns and villages in region.  I suspect this would have been more interesting for people who knew the modern geography of Calabria and could pick out when an ancient village was near/where a modern town is now.

I spent all morning wandering around and then had a couple of hours to fill before having to catch a train to my cousin's place.  There were signs for a hop on-hop off bus but I've gone off those.  Instead, I managed to get a gelati from the recommended place and just went for one last amble alomg the sea short and around town.

For lunch I went to a another recommended place, Fratelli La Bufala.  I'm in the home region of buffalo mozzarella so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have some.  However, I have to confess, when it is on a pizza I can't tell the difference between buffalo mozzarella and the sort made from plain old cow's milk.  

 

I had a minor success at lunch.  A waitress said something to me but it made no sense at all.  She repeated herself but I still drew a blank.  She finally repeated herself but this time in Italian.  I didn't understand before because she was speaking dialect, not because I've forgotten all my Italian.  There is hope I will be able to communicate with my cousin after all!

----

Some time later.  

 

I arrived at Lamezia Terme and wasn't just met by my cousin.  With her was her sister-in-law, her younger sister and her younger sister's two daughters.  Once we got to her home another couple (whose relationship to me I didn't catch) and their two young children also showed up.  Much conversation happened which I didn't have to take much part in.  Then they all left but not long after my cousin's son showed up.  Soon after her sister-in-law came back, this time bringing her husband.  More conversation, with only occasional uses of google translate but I'm sure I'm missed more than I understood.

 

Once everyone had finally left, my cousin kept offering me the chance to have a shower or wash some clothes.  After the 2nd or third offer I took the hint and did a big load of washing plus had a shower myself.  I got so carried away with having access to a washing machine I washed so many of my clothes I stuck with wearing my special occasion purple dress and sleeping in my gym gear.  I hope some of my laundry dries by tomorrow.

 

Tomorrow we go to the beach to look at apartments (I think).  Not sure what the plans are for Saturday.  Sunday there is to be an even greater gathering of the clan at a restaurant for lunch.

Day 54 - To Reggio Calabria

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

I had fun with trains today.  As I was leaving my hotel I got a message from Trenitalia saying they were very sorry but there wouldn't be a first class carriage on my train to Reggio Calabria and I'd have to slum it in 2nd class.  However, when the train pulled into the station there was a 1st class carriage so we all piled on.  Only to be later thrown off and sent to the back of the train.  Apparently the air conditioning wasn't working.

That was only a minor hiccup.  What was a much bigger issue was I got another message to say we are so very sorry but there is going to be a train strike on Friday from 9am to 5pm.  That is the day I'm supposed to be heading from Reggio Calabria to Lamezia Terme to visit my cousins.  The best information I could find was the the local, Regionale trains almost certainly won't be running but most of the long distance fast trains should be running.  I had a ticket on one of those.  However, "most of" and "should be" sounded a little too vague for my liking. 

Even if the fancy trains are running the question is how crowded will they be?  I have vivid memories of catching a train from Lamezia Terme to Venice back when we visited the rellies when I was a teenager (40+ years ago!).  It was the middle of August.  I don't remember if there had been a strike or if it was just a very busy day of the year.  However, even though we had reserved seats, when the train showed up we couldn't even get on.  It was just too full.  An hour or 2 later another train arrived and we forced our way onto that.  However, we couldn't get seats.  It was one of those trains with compartments off a long corridor.  We spent the whole journey (8+ hours) standing in the corridor.  It was not fun.  It must have been hell on earth for poor Dad as he was recovering from bronchitis at the time.  I don't fancy repeating that experience, even for a short journey.  Instead,  I asked my cousin if she wanted me to show up on Thursday night or Saturday morning instead.  She opted for Thursday so I'll be cutting my visit here short and leaving here late tomorrow afternoon.  

Getting from Sicily to Calabria by train was an interesting experience.  Once the train arrived in Messina it was divided into 2 pieces, while the passengers were still all on board, and then driven onto the ferry.  The process was repeated once we reached the other side, although we could get out and walk around the ferry while at sea.  I couldn't get over how close Sicily is to the mainland.  When we got on the ferry I looked across the water at what I thought was the other side of the bay.  It wasn't.  It was the mainland.  We spent more time taking the train apart and putting it on the ferry and then doing the reverse on the other side than we did actually sailing across the Strait of Messina.  It turns out it is only about a 7.5km distance.  For comparison, when someone is daft enough to swim the English channel they have to swim 33km.

I got to my hotel here, Hotel Medinblu, about 4pm.  I normally would have just spent the rest of the day ambling about and getting my bearings.  However, since I'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon I had to hit some sites instead.  One good thing about the lunchtime pause is that most places are open much later than they would be in Australia.  Usually closing time at museums here is 7pm.

I started by heading out to the best gelateria as claimed by the hotel receptionist.  However, when I got there there wasn't one school group of children there, there were two!  Why are they following me around?  I didn't bother waiting and just went for a walk along the seashore.  I was sure I could get something there but I was wrong.  There are many cafes and bars on the beach but they are all gearing up for the summer season and are undergoing renovations.  

Gelati-less, I left the beach and headed to the Bergamot Museum.  This is a plant in the citrus family which is heavily cultivated in this area.  Its oils (from the skin) and juice have many uses - cosmetics, medicines, food and dye fixing, amongst other things.  It turns out the museum isn't so much a museum as a club house/convention centre for people who are mad about bergmots.  A friendly woman showed me around.  Her English was worse than my Italian but we managed.  The sad bit was, while I could understand most of what she was trying to tell me, I didn't think of anything to say to her until after I'd left.  My brain just freezes.  She tried to give me one of the fruits but I was able to explain I couldn't take it back to Australia with me.  Other than that my conversation was limited to "yes", "I understand" and "wow".  

After this visit I went to the Aragonese Castle.  It is the remnants of a large fortress from the 9th centure, so it actually predates the rule of the kings from Aragon.  It has been rebuilt, modified, shaken by earthquakes and renovated many times since it was first built so there is really only one tower left.  I particularly liked the comment about how a large chunk of it fell down and had to be demolished after the repairs made in 1986.  It is mostly used as a really cool exhibition space these days.

I climbed to the top (only 4 floors) to see the view over the city.  The city sprawls as the population is around 200,000.  However, where I'm staying is at one end of the main street.  The station is at the other.  This main street is essentially pedestrainised and all the surroundings streets are one-way.  Crossing the road here is easy!  There are still tourists here but it is very much a 3rd tier tourist destination, unlike Siracusa.  This is what I saw as I was leaving Siracusa.  It must have arrived late last night or early this morning.  I left at the right time.

For dinner I went to a place called Le Vie del Gusto that was recommended by my hotel.  It serves traditional Calabrian dishes.  It turns out they don't have a written menu.  You just discuss with the waiter was you like and what they have available.  The owner recommended I start with a plate of traditional Calabrese antipasti so of course I said yes.  But then they brought me all this!

I asked for some of the house red wine and they bought me half a litre!  The antipasti was delicious so I ate it all.  For primi I had the recommended stroncatura (a local version of spaghetti) with a sauce of olive, capers, almonds, cherry tomatoes and breadcrumbs.  It would have been delicious too but it also had raisins in it which made it vaguely sweet which I don't like.  I'm not sure if he didn't tell me about the raisins or if I just didn't catch it (this whole conversation was in Italian).  It's a shame because it is an excellent restaurant but this dish just wasn't to my taste.  I only ate half of it and we both just laughed when he suggested a secondi or perhaps a dessert.  When I went to pay, I braced myself for a high bill but it was one of the cheaper meals I've had.  From looking at the receipt it seems I didn't get charged for the mineral water or the wine and there wasn't a cover charge.  I would have said somone goofed but it was the owner himself who gave me the bill.

Day 53 - Ortigia & Siracusa

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 1

Today the weather was lovely.  Clear blue skies without a hint of cloud, let alone rain, and a mild temperature.  I think it got to about 22C.  Perfect for walking around in.

I started my morning visiting sites in Ortigia.  My first stop was the Castello Maniace on the very tip of the island.  The views were fabulous.  You can see how it would have provided excellent defence of the port and the city.  Although, I'm not entirely sure I would want to spend a lot of time under the roof of the main hall given how dodgy the supporting columns seem to be these days.  Having to be held together by half a dozen thick metal bands isn't very reassuring.

My next stop was the Papyrus Museum founded by a Corrado Basile.  Apparently, the Arabs brought the plant to Sicily when they ruled here and for many years Sicily was an important supplier of papyrus paper.  The museum had a very interesting video on the history of the plant and its many uses, not just in the production of paper.  Sadly I didn't get to watch the bit about paper making.  There was a group of teenagers on a school excursion in the museum.  The were so noisy it was hard to hear.  When they eventually wandered into the room where the video was playing I just gave up and left.  I'm not sure what is going on with the school calendar but every single site I've been to here has had a least one group of school students being shown around.

Fortunately, the students left soon after so I got to enjoy the museum itself in peace and quiet.  At one point I was looking closely at a particular papyrus document when an little old man came up to me.  He asked me if I spoke Italian and when I said I didn't, he launched into a long explaination about something - all in Italian.  I think he was telling me there were several thousand papyrus documents in their collection and the particular one I was looking at he himself had bought in Paris.   I can only assume he was Corrado Basile.

Next stop was lunch and I decided to have the pizza I passed up on last night.  I chose to eat at the Trattoria Kalliope solely because they had an outdoor area that was shaded.  It ws too hot to sit in the sun but too pleasant a day to be indoors.  The reviews of this place are very average but my pizza was decent, the price fair as was the service.  There were also cats.  A small female was doing the rounds of the tables looking for anyone soft hearted enough to give her something (guilty as charged).  She was soon joined by what looked to be a recently desexed male (he had a shaved area on one of his front paws).  Later on 3 more cats appeared - one definitely male.  All part of the same colony I imagine.  There are a lot of stray cats around Ortigia.  There is some sort of association that looks out for them as, while they are slim, they aren't skinny.  I've seen feeding stations around the town and there is clearly a TNR program happening, although there is clearly more work to be done there.

My B&B is on the first floor of a converted palazzo.  The whole building is divided up into apartments, B&Bs and offices.  Someone on the ground floor has an intact male cat or at least the cat lives here.  It is having territorial wars with another intact male.  I can hear them at night fighting and smell their territorial markings in the foyer and at the base of the stairs.  If I owned this B&B I would want to do something about that.  If only regular cleaning of the entrance foyer.  It isn't a very pleasant introduction to the place.

After lunch, I took the hop on-hop off bus out to the Archeological Museum on the mainland.  While I was waiting for the bus a young man from the bus company came by to sell us tickets.  I used my best Italian to ask for one but he quickly switched to English.  He asked me where I was from.  He said he loved my accent as it meant he couldn't understand a word I said.  I was crushed.

I cheered up when I got to the museum.  It is amazing.  It covers the history of Sicily and the area around Siracusa in particular going back to prehistoric times.  At one point there were tiny elephants here.  They only came up to my waist.  They must have been so cute.  They died out long before human beings evolved.

The museum then had exhibits from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, settlement by Greeks, then the Romans and finally the Christian and Byzantine eras.  There was so much.  Too much in fact.  I started looking at everything, then I just looked at one or two things in each display case but skipped the rest.  Finally, I started skipping entire display cases.   I think it would have been better if they had just selected a few pieces to display each idea rather than putting what seemed like everything they had out on display.  One set of display cases was devoted to a collection of bronze items that came from what was a suspected foundary as there was about 500 items.  They all seemed to be on display.

I spent all afternoon here but just got burnt out.  A single bronze sword that is thousands of years old is amazing.  When you've already seen 50, seeing another is just 'Eh'.  I headed back to the hop on-hop off bus stop to ride it back to Ortigia.  They are supposed to run every 20 minutes.  After 30 minutes of waiting I told myself to be patient.  At the end of the day, it is plausible that they get bunched up due to traffic.  After 40 minutes I was getting impatient.  After 60 I was just plain cross.  I had read reviews that complained that while the website says the buses run until 7pm, in practice they stop much sooner.  It appears that the reviews were true and the website lied, so I had to walk back to Ortigia.  On the plus side, I was so cross by that point, I had no trouble crossing the roads.  I just stomped out into the traffic and dared them to run me over.

After a soothing drink in a bar, I headed of to Cola Pasta for my dinner.  They basically just serve pasta.  You get to pick your shape and your sauce.  I had spinach and ricotta ravioli with a simple tomato and basil sauce with a cannolo for dessert.  My pasta wasn't anything I couldn't have had at home but it was pleasantly tasty for all that.  This restaurant is very big on being green so they serve everything on biodegradable plates and cups (i.e. paper).  I suspect reusing china and glass is better for the environment, even after taking into account the cost of making the items and washing them.

This restaurant also had a resident cat colony.  However, there was also a feeding station nearby so the cats didn't bother the diners.  One cat wasn't interested in the supplied food but was more interested in trying to take down a pigeon.  It obviously can't be that hungry if it was happy to ignore free food.

Tomorrow I leave Sicily for Calabria.  I wonder if it will be noticeably different.

Day 52 - Siracusa & Ortigia

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 1

Turns out the rain was so dirty yesterday in Catania because Etna had erupted.  More of a hiccup than a full on eruption but enough to throw volcanic ash into the air and close down the airport for the day.  It really was due to the fun and games of living near an active volcano.  Note to self, don't organise flights to or from Catania airport.

While I titled yesterday's blog entry as getting to Siracusa I'm not actually staying in there.  Instead, I'm staying on the tiny island of Ortigia just off the coast.  It is connected to the mainland by a couple of bridges.  I had planned to spend today viewing sites in Siracusa itself and spend tomorrow visiting places on Ortigia.

I started today off by walking over to the Archaelogical Park of Neapolis.   It contains ruins from when Siracusa was a Greek city through to Roman times and beyond.  It is mindblowing how long people have been living here.  I spent all morning wandering around the ruins.  I pretty sure there used to be a building up here.  This is now a quarry.

Afterwards my plan was to visit the Archeological Museum.  I'd even bought a combination ticket that provided me entrance to both.  However, when I got to the museum I discovered it isn't open on a Monday.  I then decided to visit some of the museums on Ortigia instead only to discover several of them are also not open on a Monday or else are only open in the morning.  Grr.

I ended up walking back to Ortigia and then walking all the way around it.  I then visited the Museo Archimede e Leonardo as it is one of the few that was open.  Archimedes is a Syrcause local so there are plenty of references to him around including this statue.  He is standing on a model of an evil puzzle called the Stomachion that he developed.  It is made up of 14 pieces that can be put together in a square - if you can figure out how to do it. 

 

This museum was fabulous.  It had lots of scale models of his various inventions with descriptions of how they worked in both English as well as Italian.  Most of the models you could actually play with.  There was also a children's area where you could play with levers and cranes and build a bridge designed by Leonardo.  I had lots of fun.  In fact, I didn't see a single child in the museum.  It was all adults messing about with things.

I then headed back to my hotel to rest my feet before going out for a drink and dinner.  Have I mentioned that it isn't raining here in Siracusa?  Tomorrow it is supposed to be even warmer and sunnier.

I picked a restaurant in a terrible tourist trap as it had views to the west over the bay so I could watch the setting sun.  That stretch along the beach is wall to wall restaurants with touts trying to tempt you in.  I randomly chose Spizzica Al Vecchio Lavatoio which had once been a laundry.  Apparently there are still ruins underneath you can visit.  For dinner I had originally planned to get a pizza, however at the last minute I decided to have a plate of mixed fried fish.  The waiter was very dubious about this as part of the dish was entire small fish (achovies or whitebait perhaps).  He seemed to think I wouldn't want to eat them.  He convinced me to have a plate of fried octopus, calamari and prawns instead (same price).  But when it came out I found that the prawns were small but whole.  They had just been dipped in batter and deep fried.  They were complete with heads, tails, shells and feetses.  I think you were meant to eat them whole like a soft shelled crab.  I took off the heads, tails and feet but ate the rest.  They were crunchy.  The octopus and calamari were ok.  Still, I should have had the pizza.

Tomorrow I will visit the Ortigia sites in the morning and then be a terrible tourist and catch one of those hop on-hop off buses to get the the Archeological Museum.  I have had enough fun crossing Sicilian roads for now.  I need to brace myself for heading to the railway station on Wednesday.

Day 51 - To Siracusa

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

Well, I did manage to organise a taxi to get me to the bus station this morning.  In fact, everything happened so smoothly I got to the bus station early!  This is unheard of for Sicily.  Sicilian time runs more slowly than clock time usually.  My taxi driver had spent 2 years in Australia, mostly in Melbourne so we had a good chat.  He would have stayed in Australia but his wife insisted on returning to Sicily to be near family when they had children.  The exact same reason we moved back to Melbourne from Canada all those years ago.

Because I got to the bus station so early, I caught an earlier bus to Catania.  This meant spending an extra hour waiting for my connecting bus but at least the Catania bus station had seats under cover in their waiting area, which is more than Ragusa had.  Being undercover turned out to be a good thing as I didn't realise how dirty the rain is in Catania.  The joys of living near an active volcano.  Everything out in the rain quickly became covered in mud.

I got to Siracusa (Syracuse) at around 2:30pm but couldn't check into my B&B, Maeco Ortigia B&B, until 3pm so I walked from the bus station.  I'm disposed to like Siracusa.  It wasn't raining, or particularly windy, the temperature was mild and the traffic manageable.  Did I mention it wasn't raining?  Every different class of room at this B&B has a different colour scheme.  I picked the Double Room Classic for obvious reasons.

After settling in I went for an amble around, grabbed a gelati and then had a disgustingly early dinner even by my standards.  In my defence I hadn't had any lunch.  I ate at A'Putia which had been recommended by my B&B.   It is a tiny place but is open from lunchtime until late so tourists can eat early, while still leaving room for locals at a more civilised hour.  I started with a salad of smoked tuna with rocket (it is going to be difficult to avoid seafood in this town) but for main I had rigatoni with meatballs.  I skipped dessert as I had eaten almost all the bread they had given me, because it was so good.

Tomorrow I will be a proper tourist but tonight I just want to snooze.

Day 50 - Ragusa Superiore

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 0

Today the forecast included severe weather warnings for thunderstorms and extreme warnings for wind.  Also a top of 14C which is about 10C below the average for this time of year.  Fun, fun, fun. 

I piled on all my not-entirely-clean hiking gear (as it's the warmest clothes I have) and headed out for a visit to Ragusa Superiore.  This is the "new" part of the city on the plain above Ragusa Ibla, which is where I'm staying.  I have new in quotes as this just means it is only a few hundred years old.  Below is a picture of the main Post Office in the "new" town.  Imagine the fuss if a government wanted to build something like that in Australia.

I started (after walking up all the stairs from here to there) with a visit to the Cathedral.  I got there just in time.  It had been drizzling when I left but it started bucketing down moments after I got inside.  The Cathedral has a belltower that you can climb which has fabulous views of both the new and old city.  I was willing to give it a go once the rain had stopped.  However, in spite of a sign saying it was open on a Saturday, it was firmly shut.  Apparently, whoever it was whose job it is to sell tickets for the climb had decided no-one would be crazy enough to want to do it and had stayed home.  However, I wasn't the only tourist to show up and look forlornly at the locked ticket office.  

As a side note, the person whose job it is to open the gates to the Giardino Ibleo assumed no-one would want to visit a garden on a day like today and has left them locked.  It's a shame as you get great views of the valley from the gardens and it is well worth a visit/photo even in cold weather.

After my failed attempt at climbing the belltower, I decided to do my own Inspector Montalbano tour of Ragusa.  I used a website the local tourist bureau had put together.  It took me to several sites and explained when and where they had been used in the TV series.  The also had shots from the show for comparison.  They clearly used a lot of CGI.

I then had planned to visit the local Archeology Museum but the address for this turned out to be the local police station.  I didn't feel up to asking for directions so I gave up on that.  I've seen bits of pottery already and would have prefered a museum about this history of the city but there isn't one.  Instead, I visited the local Diocesan Museum.  Normally, I wouldn't be interested in such a place but they had a gallery full of old maps of Sicily.  I love maps.  I was the only person there.  The woman who sold me a ticket had to follow me into th museum itself to turn on the lights.  However, she then followed me all around the museum.  I'm not sure if she was there in case I had questions she could answer or if she was worried I was going to steal something.  Very odd and rather uncomfortable.

I ambled around the new town for a bit before heading back down to Ragusa Ibla.  There is a nature trail that drops down from Ragusa Superiore into the valley at the foot of town, then along the river before climbing up to Ragusa Ibla.  I had thought of walking back that way.  On a good day, it would be a very pleasant outing.  However, while it had stopped raining, it has clearly rained a lot in recent times. I'm so over mud, so I just went back by the road/stairs.

Tomorrow I head off to Syracuse, using a 2 bus shuffle via Catania again.  As tomorrow is a Sunday I'm not sure about the availability of a taxi to take me from here to the bus station - which is on the edge of Ragusa Superiore.  I asked my B&B host if I should book a taxi in case there wouldn't be many available but he didn't understand my question.  His English is good enough for arranging breakfast orders and checking people in but this was too complicated for his English and my Italian.  Instead, he gave me the card of a local taxi service. I've sent them an email and also used their online booking form but have yet to get a reply.  I guess I'll have to call tomorrow morning.  Worst case I can walk to the bus station.  It will take me around 45 minutes (not to mention having to lug my suitcase up a good dozen flights of stairs) but is do-able.  I'll miss my bus but there is one an hour later so it will just be inconvenient not a disaster. 

Below is a picture of Ragusa Ibla from the top of the stairs.  Perhaps I should view the possibility of having to climb all those stairs with my suitacase as an character building adventure.

 

When I headed out for dinner I saw a bridal couple having their photos taken in front of the very photogenic main church in Ragusa Ibla.  The poor bride had chosen her dress based on the typical temperatures for this time of year and had a lovely off-the-shoulder gown with a train she was desparately trying to keep out of the wet & dirt.  She looked lovely and I'm sure the photographer will be able to make the photos look like it was a sunny day.

I ended up at my third choice restaurant for dinner.  My first choice was continuing on the Inspector Montalbano theme as it had been used as a filming location twice.  However, they were fully booked.  My second choice turned out to be very odd.  I went in what appeared to be the front door, but there was just a narrow hallway with a reception desk on one side and the toilets directly ahead.  Off to the other side was a doorway that lead to another narrow room with a fridge full of drinks and a table which seemed to have coats and bags from the staff on it.  I had a quick look around but didn't see a single soul so I left.  

My third choice, Maredentro, had no trouble finding me a table as the only other customers they had besides me were a pair of American tourists.  I hope they normally do better as the staff were very friendly and the food was as good as I've had at places that were packed.  To start I had a plate caponata.  I would normally serve this as a side dish with a main course but it is only a lot of menus here as an antipasto dish.  It was very tasty.  For main I had spaghetti with a traditional Ilba sauce.  This was made from sundried tomatoes, capers, basil, almonds and breadcrumbs.  Clearly a peasant dish.  It would have been delicious but they hadn't rinsed the capers enough and it was too salty for me.  For dessert I had a Sicilian version of tiramisu.  At first I wasn't sure if it was made with ricotta or if the marscapone had gone very badly off.  Fortunately, it had been made with ricotta.  It tasted good but the texture was a bit of surprise.

When I was heading home after dinner I saw yet another wedding party having their photos taken.  The bride was once again freezing in an off-the-shoulder gown.  She didn't wear it as well as the first.

Day 49 - Ragusa Ibla

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 1

The weather here was pretty ordinary.  Cool, overcast, windy and a little rain around midday.  Again, everyone is saying it is unusally cold and wet for this time of year.   However, given the record rain and floods in Emilia-Romagna, not to mention the 14 deaths, it seems a little precious to be complaining about getting a bit damp.

My B&B here is a bit more upmarket than the places I stayed in during the hike.  I have a large, spacious room with modern fixtures and fittings.  However, it is still Sicily.  For some reason the water cut out last night just before I was getting ready for bed.  I don't mean there wasn't any hot water.  I mean there was no water at all when you turned on the tap.  This is the sort of thing you want to know about before you need to flush the loo, rather than after.  The water was miraculously restored this morning.  My guess is a pump failed or a fuse on a pump blew because it was quickly fixed without need for a plumber.  

The B&B hosts don't actually live on site, but about 5 minutes away.  They showed up this morning around 7:30am to prepare breakfast.  I had specifically said I preferred savory foods for breakfast to sweet things so I only had three pastries on my personal breakfast buffet.  I ate the cannolo because Sicily.

After breakfast I headed out to dutifully admire the views from the various viewing points (easy to do as they were worthy of admiration) and visited a few of the many churches.   Is it just me or are their depictions of St George a dead ringer for Eric Idle?

The weather took a turn for the worse so I swallowed my pride and took a ride on one of those silly tourist trains that tootle around historic city centres.  The commentary was given in Italian and then repeated in English.  I got almost all of the Italian except for the dates.  We were promised information on the history of Ragusa, its famous sites and also on the filming of the Inspector Montalbano TV series.  The only information we got about Inspector Montalbano was a lot of it was filmed here in Ragusa.  I've since discovered the local tourist information office has a free tour on their website of some of the main filming locations in Ragusa and they are all in Ragusa Superiore.  They had some shots of the real locations and the matching scene in the TV show.  The have clearly used a lot of CGI to make the Ragusa buildings look cleaner, brighter and in better repair than they really are.  Or perhaps they just filmed on days with better weather.

I just had a panino for lunch and then went back to my B&B for a nap.  The rest of the city has a siesta so why not me?

After my nap I headed out to a place that had advertised itself as a chocolate factory with free tours and tastings, the ChocoHouse.  There was no manufacturing going on when I went and I don't think they really do make all their chocolate on site.  It just isn't big enough.  However, they had 20 or so different types of chocolate on show that I was free to try.  I was restrained and only tried about a dozen and only bought 4 blocks of chocolate.  They are also a B&B.  It is probably best that I didn't stay there.

After getting the chocolate I just spent some more time exploring the narrow, winding streets here in Ragusa Ibla.  I also visited a bookshop and spent some time with their two cats.  They were not impressed with the attention but as shop cats it is part of their job so they just had to deal.

For dinner I did go to That's A Moro.  It is quite a large restaurant inside and it spread across several rooms.  I was seated at a table in a sort of anteroom that connected two bigger dining rooms.   This provided plenty of Italian practice as the staff kept the menus and reservation book just nearby.  I don't think they realised I understand a lot more Italian than I can speak.  They made some less than flattering remarks about some American diners.  My French friend from Puglia would have heartily agreed with them.

For dinner I started with the pasta special of the day which was a type of ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach and topped with a zucchini cream sauce with bacon in it.  This wasn't very nice as they managed to create a dish where the overwhelming taste was of zucchini.  This takes skill as zucchini doesn't have a lot of flavour.

For main I had pork fillet which was wrapped in bacon and topped with rosemary.  It was accompanied by baked potatoes and more zucchini (they are in season).  This was all a bit bland.  For dessert I had a Sicilian cassatina.  This was a thin slice of sponge cake, topped with a pastry cream and coated with marzipan and decorated with a glace cherry.  In case it wasn't sweet enough it was also sprinkled with icing sugar.  I could feel cavities opening up in my teeth.  Fortunately, the water is working tonight so I can clean them before bed tonight.

Day 48 - To Ragusa

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

I choose to consider today to be a good day.  Not much went to plan but everything turned out OK in the end.  And it didn't rain.

I had booked a taxi to take me to the bus station yesterday but when I checked out this morning there was no record of any such booking.  I was promised a taxi would be along in 3 minutes.  I assumed this would be an Italian 3 minutes and settled in to wait but it really was only 3 minutes.  Also, the man who sold me a ticket for the bus to Catania had said something about the bus leaving from somewhere else, but I didn't understand what he was saying.  Fortunately, the taxi driver knew where to the magic spot was - around the corner from all the other long-distance bus stops.

I had reached the bus station with plenty of time to spare so I went to find somewhere to sit and read while I waited.  When I headed back to the bus stop the bus was there.  I heaved my suitcase inside the luggage storage area.  This was above one of the wheels so I was pleased I hadn't bought too many souvenirs yet as this was about chest high on me.  I was then told the bus driver didn't want people to stow their own bags as he had a system, so I heaved it out again.  I waited around but there was no sign of the bus driver.  After about 20 minutes the door to the bus opened.  The bus driver had been inside in the warm bus the whole time!  The bus driver didn't make any attempt to get out of the bus and everyone was getting on, so I heaved my suitcase back into the luggage compartment and got on too.  The bus was a double-decker so I sat upstairs.  The very front row of seats had a clear view forward but all the messing about with my suitcase meant I missed out on one of those.   I slept a lot of the way to Catania in any case so no great loss.

Sicily is very hilly but the highway the bus took was all on one level. This meant it alternated between long tunnels through hills with long stretches of elevated road.  At times I could see that there was a duplicate of the elevated road just alongside, but not in use and not under construction or being repaired.  I couldn't help wondering why they had a duplicate section of road they seemed to have no plans on using.  Also, why the extra road was in such poor repair.  And finally, what was the state of the road we were driving on.  Would it be better to have my seatbelt on so I would be trapped in the bus if the whole road collapsed or who it be better to be thrown from the bus in the event of a crash?

We made it to Catania safely.  I had an hour before I needed to catch my connecting bus to Ragusa, which was fortunate.  I had naively assumed when they said the bus station was in front of the railway station, that there would be a single area where all the various buses left from.  Silly me.  There were at least two that I could see but neither had signs for the company my second trip was using.  I ended up asking 4 different people in different locations about where to catch my bus.  They all said that the right place wasn't here but over there and waved their arms around.  The fourth person was finally a bit more precise and I discovered there was actually a 3rd area where buses left from.  It was across the road and behind a high wall.  I had assumed it was a bus parking area.  

On the plus side, all the faffing about meant I used up most of my hour and didn't have long to wait.  I also now know where my buses from Ragusa and to Syracuse will be arriving and leaving from.  I didn't get a chance to buy any lunch in Catania but I have plenty of extra calories stored so no great loss.

There was a couple on the bus to Ragusa that I'd seen in Agrigento.  A lot of people on the bus from Agrigento were doing a 2 bus shuffle to get to their destinations.  As well as those of us going to Ragusa, there was a couple going to Modica and one man going to Syracuse.  He wasn't aware he had to switch buses in Catania.  I hope he made it in the end.

The old town of Ragusa (Ragusa Ibla) is built clinging to a cliff side.  I'm staying in a B&B here, as are most tourists.  The new town (Ragusa Superiore) is on the plane above and is quite some distance from the historic parts.  This is where the bus station is of course.   When we arrived, there was a single taxi waiting.  I was quickest off the mark and snaffled it before any other tourist could grab it.   Unfortunately, I had written down the address of my B&B as Via Roccia.  The taxi driver couldn't drive me to the door but could only drop me at the end of the street.  When I got to the right number I found I had the wrong street.  The B&B is at Vico Roccia which was 1km away.  At least I got my step count up and I found a taxi can drive to the door of the my B&B.

My room here at the B&B is on the 3rd floor.  Depending on which entrance you use it is either up 3 flights of stairs (no lift) or at street level.  The joys of building on a cliff side.  This is the view from my window.

I went for a wander around town and had a gelati at the 2nd best gelateria in town (according to the hotel receptionist Luca).  The didn't have pistachio but tried to convince me that toasted almond was just as good.  It isn't.  

I went for an early dinner at Trattoria La Bettola but I wasn't the only one with this bright idea.  When I turned up at 7:15pm it was already half full.  For antipasto I had a huge slice of very tasty porchetta wrapped around a chunk of mozzarella and caramelised onions.  I don't know if it is a traditional dish but it is very good.  For primi I had cavatelli alla Norma which again was good.  For dessert I had something called buonmangiano which was a slightly rubbery panna cotta with a layer of biscuit through the middle.  The only disappointment.  The service was entertaining.  The waiters were always frantic but the actual speed of service alternated between leisurely and speedy with nothing in between. 

There was another restaurant right next door which wasn't as busy but has good reviews that I'm considering for dinner tomorrow.  However, it is called That's A Moro and I'm not sure if I can eat somewhere that indulges in dreadful puns.

Day 47 - Racalmuto to Agrigento

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 1

Actual Distance Walked: 12.3km, Actual Time Taken: 2h 51m
Planned Distance: 11.5km, Estimated Time (them): 3h, Estimated Time (me): 2h 54m

Today's walk was very boring.  My route followed the actual Magna Via Francigena for about 2/3rds of the way.  However, when I came to that hill (beige bit) my route continued on the main road to Aragona Caldare.  The MVF route turns off up that fine white line (a secondary road), skirts around the northern side of the hill and then down into Comitini before heading into Aragona proper.  My route took me to the railway station, where I caught a train to Agrigento.

The route out of Racalmuto wasn't very interesting either.  The suburbs of Racalmuto almost join up with the suburbs of the next town over.  The only interesting bit was a farmer who was selling fruit and veg from his market garden out of his truck.  The would drive around the streets, calling out his wares over a loudspeaker.  If somebody wanted to buy anything they would just come out on their balcony and shout down to him.  They would lower a bucket with cash and he would fill the bucket with their goods.

I said goodbye to the Canadians at the hotel in Racalmuto.  They didn't invite me to walk with them. The men and Dolly were friendly but I got the distinct impression that Cheryl didn't like me.  She would make a point of not including me in conversations,  Deliberately talking about their mutual friends and such like.  I didn't care.  I prefer to walk alone in any case.

I left before they did and didn't see them again.  I had to wait almost an hour for a train to Agrigento but they never showed up while I was waiting.  They must have left Racalmuto much later than me, as they demonstrated yesterday they move faster than I do.

I didn't sleep well last night.  At around midnight I was woken by a loud beep.  It was the kind of sound a smoke alarm makes when its battery is going flat.  It beeped intermittently and loudly for about 30 minutes before it stopped.  Or at least, stopped long enough that I could fall back asleep.  It started again around 5:30am.  The poor hotel receptionist didn't know what was making the noise, but had organised for somebody to come and check it out.  I hope it gets fixed soon for the sake of the next set of guests.

I got to Agrigento about 1pm.  It was a nasty shock to the system.  A big city with not just traffic, but Sicilian traffic.  That means everyone driving wherever they want to go and no traffic lights.  I attached myself to a pack of schoolgirls to get to my destination safely.

From the railway station I went to the bus station to buy a ticket to Catania tomorrow.  I've decided to do the two bus shuffle to Ragusa via Catania, rather than the 3 train shuffle.  Its quicker and, I'm told, more reliable.  I asked the man at the ticket office, in my best Italian, if I could buy a ticket for the bus tomorrow.  He looked at me like I was an idiot and said of course I could.  I wish I had practiced the Italian for "I tried to buy it online using 6 different browsers across 2 different operating systems but your website doen't work.".   

After my successful purchase I used a pack of schoolboys to head back to the railway station and from there walked to my hotel, the Colleverde Park Hotel.  It is actually a bit over 1km out of town, near the Valley of the Temples. They let me check in early, so I dumped my backpack and then headed out to see the temples (see obligatory photo of a temple below).  These are about another 1km away.  With getting there and back and then all the walking around at the site, I walked an extra 6km today.  I'm actually looking forward to just sitting around on buses all day tomorrow.

I had planned on eating at the hotel restaurant tonight, so I didn't have to do any more walking, but it turns out it isn't operating any more.  There are only two other options nearby, both across a busy road (grr).  One is a trattoria that doesn't open until the sensible hour of 7:30pm and the other is a pizzeria that is open all day.  I opted for the pizzeria as I was just too hungry to wait.  All I had to lunch was a arancino from a bar near the railway station and a suprisingly decent gelati at a reasonable price inside the Valley of the Temples.  Although the pizzeria was more a rosticceria.  It only had a grand total of 4 tables and did most of its business in takeaway.  Still, I got a decent pizza from a genuine wood fired oven with a very good glass of house red.  Plus, I made it back across the road in one piece!

 

Day 46 - Sutera to Racalmuto

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1 (sort of)

Actual Distance Walked: 28.9km, Actual Time Taken: 7h 42m
Planned Distance: 23.5km, Estimated Time (them): 5h, Estimated Time (me): 6h 30m

The extra distance I actually walked comes from two sources.  The first is the route notes lied!  The summary said 23.5km but if you actually read the turn by turn description the route was 26.5km long.  The extra 2.4km on top of that is me going off track leaving Milena and also when entering Racalmuto.  

The weather today was still rainy.  It rained off and on all morning.  Never enough to get wet through but enough to be a nuisance.  However, around midday the heavens opened and the rain came pouring down, complete with thunder and lightening.  I did get soaked then.  This was just as I got into the town of Milena.  However, once up out of Milena and down into the next valley the weather cleared up.  It was windy, but no rain, and the wind just dried me out, thanks to hi-tech fabrics.  

So far it has rained every day of this hike.  People keep telling me it is an unusally wet May and that normally it is much sunnier this time of year.  This is no consolation to me given that I am in Sicily this particular May.  I wonder what I did in a previous life that was so bad that I deserve this?  I hope I enjoyed it.

I originally thought the ground underfoot in this new valley was much firmer and drier than I'd had to deal with until then, but I spoke too soon.  There was one evil uphill stretch that was as muddy as I had ever experienced.  The mud (clay) was so sticky if you stopped to catch your breath going uphill, you were at risk of falling over backwards when you tried to move again, as your feet got glued to the ground.   When I say it feels like you have an extra kilo of mud on each boot I'm not exaggerating for effect.  I'm being literal.

 

I started the day's walk with the four Canadians (Cheryl & Sam (?), Dolly and Rick).  However, about 5km out of Sutera we came to a town called Campofranco.  A signora came out of one of the houses and invited us in for coffee.  She wanted to practice her English.  She also offered to stamp our pilgrim testimonials.  I'm not doing that but the Canadians are so they stopped, but I went on.  I didn't see them again until the very end of the day.

As I was getting into the town of Milena I met a little old man pushing his three-wheeled Ape truck up the road.  I helped him push it all the way (uphill!) to a garage while his four dogs gamboled around us, trying to bite the wheels off passing cars.  I was terrified one would get run over but the man wasn't worried.  When we finally got to the garage he spoke to me at length but I didn't understand a single word.  I can only imagine (hope?) he was speaking in dialect.

I got a couple of pieces of pizza from a bakery in Milena and then, eventually, headed on my way.  I finally staggered into our hotel in Racalmuto at around 5:20pm only to find the Canadians already there!  I don't know how they managed it.  I can only imagine that they passed me when I was messing about in Milena.  It was very disheartening.  I can understand them passing me but they didn't just do that, they left me for dead.  They got so far ahead of me I never spotted them.  They are in their mid 70s!

After cleaning up I tottered out to a nearby restaurant, La Taberna, for a scandalously early dinner.  I wasn't the first tourist to show up but I was the second.  I started with fritto misto, which had all the usual Sicilian items but also a big serve of chips for some reason.  Not a patch on the ones Grandma used to make.  For primi I had papadelle with wild boar ragu.  The ragu was tasty but the papadelle was overcooked.  A capital crime here surely?  For dessert I had something called delizia di Sicilia.  The best the waiter could explain about it was it had something to do with ricotta.  He insisted on using English.  If he had used Italian I would have probably understood him better.  However, it was, in fact, delicious.  It had a chocolate crumb biscuit base, topped with a layer that was a cross between a semi-freddo and a cheesecake (the ricotta bit I suppose) and then topped with a thin layer of blood orange jelly.

By the time I had finished my dinner, it was proper dinner time and the restaurant was full.  I had to ask for the bill three times before it finally arrived.  I was tempted to put my head on the table and start to snore.  I wonder if that would have made them bring it to me faster?

Day 45 - Cammarata to Sutera

 # Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 0

Actual Distance Walked: 15km, Actual Time Taken: 4h 8m
Planned Distance: 15km, Estimated Time (them): 4h 30m, Estimated Time (me): 4h 12m

On the plus side, for today, the weather wasn't as bad as predicted.  There was very little wind and no thunderstorms.  On the down side, it did rain pretty much all day, just switching between light rain and drizzle.  So this is the only photo I took while actually hiking.

The four Canadians at dinner last night are walking the Magna Via Francigena too.  However, they are using a different company so I'm not sure where they stayed in Prizzi.   I'm surprised I didn't see them on the trail.  Today's forecast was for the rain to lighten up around 10am so they decided to wait for that before leaving Cammarata.  I didn't see the point in waiting as no matter how much money you spend on Goretex, if you walk all day in the rain you are going to get soaked to the skin.

On the way I met up with a couple from Holland who are also doing this route.  We didn't walk together, they were too fast for me, but basically leap-frogged each other all day.  There was also another couple in front of us all the way based on the foot prints in the mud, but I never caught sight of them.  This is a surprisingly popular trail.

The climb out of Cammarata got us to a small town called Aquaviva Platini.  From there it was basically a matter of following a ridge line around to Sutera.  In good weather it would have been a glorious hike as the scenery is spectacular.  Even with the rain it was still amazing.   Some times the path was so high and the clouds were so low you were actually walking in the clouds, not below them.  It was actually wasn't as wet then.

What was less spectacular, but still incredible, was the mud.  Not only did I get mud all over my boots, but my pants got caked in it almost to the knee.  At times I tried walking bandy legged, like I was on a horse, in an attempt not to flick mud off my boots and onto my pants, but it was futile.  At least I didn't fall over.

I made it to my B&B by around 2pm and luckily the owners were around to let me in.  I'm now warm, dry and free of mud.  I've cranked the heating up and my room is festooned with drying laundry.  I just hope my boots dry out by tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.

I stopped in Acquaviva Platina for a coffee (my 3rd for the day,  making up for yesterday)  and a pastry.  I had planned to get some lunch here in Sutera but everything is shut up tight for the afternoon siesta.  A bar nearby opened at 4pm but by the time I got there another bunch of hikers (4 of them from England) had eaten all the remaining pastries.  I had to settle for my 4th coffee for the day.  I'm never going to be able to sleep.

Once I had arrived the rain, of course, stopped.  I ambled around the town.  Sutera is another of those towns clinging to the side of a cliff.  Here are some views of the surrounding countryside.  My apologies for the pole in the middle of the first.  Can't you just imagine some sort of pagan/witchy goings ono happening in the middle of that outcrop in the second one?

It is Monday so all the restaurants in town are closed.  However, there is one place here, a rosticceria, that is open tonight.  It is on the other side of town to my B&B.  The 4 Canadians are also staying here.  The B&B is run by a husband & wife team.  The husband drove the Canadians to the rosticceria and then came back for me.  This sort of shop isn't a restaurant.  Instead, it is essentially Sicilian fast food.  They had little pizzas, arancini, single servings of lasagna in foil containers and some sort of bread-like things stuffed with meat & mushrooms.  The 4 English hikers had snaffled all the arancini by the time I arrived and the Canadians had ordered all the lasagna.  I had to settle for pizza and the bread-things which were very tasty.  

The rosticceria also had a display case full of cakes.  I had a piece of cake which was layers of (rather stale) sponge and pistachio cream coated in marzipan made with pistachios rather than almonds.  I also had a square of what I thought was a chocolate brownie topped with more pistachio cream, but turned out to be a crunchy chocolate case full of pistachio cream.  My Italian teacher back in Melbourne is from Palermo and is allergic to pistachios.  I'm surprised she lived to adulthood.  They put them in everything, even savory dishes.

After dinner, it had started to rain, so the Canadians called the husband to get a lift back to the B&B.  I opted to walk.  It only took 10 minutes and it wasn't raining heavily.  I felt safer.  The car drive to dinner was hair raising.  The streets (and I use the word very loosely, narrow alley is more apt) are very harrow and very steep and very slippery.  The husband just drives a little Fiat Panda.  He explained that it is impossible to drive around here in anything bigger.    I pinched this from Google but this car isn't going the wrong way.  This is considered a driveable street here.