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.