October 18-22: Ortigia, Sicily, Italy (will place in proper sequence later!)

Guest post from Burke Ferrari, who, along with his wife, Katie, were on a Roman Holiday to cross off a bucket list trip to Italy in celebration of Katie’s 50th. (Notations on photos by Cathy)

Katie and I flew into Catania, Sicily to begin our four-day meet-up with the Jordans who had flown in earlier that same day. The weather was cooperating and we were able to get a glimpse of Mt. Etna on the flight in. Mt. Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe, is also one of the most active in the world. Would we get to see an eruption during our trip? Time would tell… We were met at the gate with a big smile and big hugs from Mick! According to Cathy and Jeff, Mick may have been more excited to spend time with anyone not his parents – but we still loved the greeting! 🙂

Meanwhile, Jeff was waiting in line (still) for the rental car and it’s possible that “Sicily by Car” started assembling the car together piece by piece when Jeff reserved it two hours earlier. If you go to Sicily we recommend you stick with Hertz.

With keys finally in hand, we squeezed into the car and headed south towards the city of Siracusa, and our final destination.

Ortygia, or Citta Vecchia, literally “old town,” was founded by the Corinthians in 734 BC, about 2500 years before our founding fathers put pen to paper. Similar to our time in Rome, everything we saw was OLD and it’s really something.

I knew from emails with our B&B host that parking was difficult on the island and we planned to drive in, drop our bags and then worry about parking. Either the navigator (me) or Google maps was having an off day, but the streets became progressively narrower with each turn until we finally faced a turn that we were not sure we could make!  Jeff, Mick and I left the the ladies with the car and headed out on foot to find our apartment and see just how far we had to go and how much narrower the streets were going to be.

I always cross my fingers with Airbnb rentals, but as our host took us through the apartment it was perfect and topped off with a rooftop terrace.

We managed to find the ladies and the car with Mick’s help, got the bags to the apartment, and Jeff and I managed to get the car to a parking lot and figured out how to get self-parking tickets from the machine so the car would have a place to stay for the night.

A quick trip to the store for initial provisions and we retired to the rooftop for the first of a number of Aperol Spritz of the trip.

Aperol Spritz
Three parts Prosecco
Two parts Aperol
One part club soda
Garnish with slice of orange

The first firework that went off was a surprise, it was a Wednesday night after all. That was followed quickly by a second, third and before we knew it it was a full blown Fourth of July show – I wish I could have claimed credit for it, but we took the opportunity to wish Katie a happy 50th birthday.

We had a fantastic meal that first night cooked by Cathy who “just threw something together”. It rivaled any pasta dish that I had in Rome, if you’re lucky enough to ever have Cathy offer to cook, be sure you take her up on the offer.

Passeggiata
/ˌpasəˈjädə/
Noun
A leisurely walk or stroll, especially one taken in the evening; a promenade (used with reference to the tradition of taking such a walk in Italy or Italian-speaking communities).

We spent the second day on the first of many “passeggiatas” and explored our new home. Beautiful views of the Med and tiny flower-filled streets were a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of Rome.

We walked (according to Mick) — all day. In reality, it was a couple of hours, but lunch had long since passed and we were famished. It was in a tiny panineria in the Piazza Archimedes, looking out at the Fountain of Diana, where we ordered the first of many arancini.

Arancini
ärənˈCHēnē
Noun
Arancini are stuffed rice balls which are coated with bread crumbs and then deep fried. They are usually filled with ragù, mozzarella, and peas.

We universally agreed it tasted like sloppy joe on the inside and it made the list of must buy/eat every chance we could get on the rest of the trip.

Solarium
/səˈlerēəm/
noun
“a seasonally constructed swimming platform that provides access to the Med when there is no beach present”

About a block from our apartment was access to the local solarium, the water was warm and buoyant, and filled with many beautiful tropical fish. It even had a place to rinse off the salty water when you were done swimming. The solarium was a big hit and saw many (many, many) return visits throughout the duration of our trip. Just kidding, love you Mick.

For a historic island town that stops all non-resident cars from entering the city at night, they have no problem with dog poop.

dog poop
/caca di cane/
noun
It’s possible that instead of mortar to hold the cobbles together they just throw sand on top of the offending poops and let nature take its course. There does appear to be an uprising of sorts as we did see these posters throughout the city.

Thursday evening was another great meal by Cathy [actually the great meal was compliments of Burke, not me!] capped off with the first of many gelato and we said goodbye to Thursday and looked forward to the next day.

On Friday Morning, Jeff made Mick about as happy as I’ve ever seen a kid  – he found a rare bottle of catsup during his morning run, something Mick likes with eggs (and arancini and many other things).

We had not used the car once – our time spent exploring our small island city didn’t require it, but I had the urge to go to a beach. After some research we piled in the car and headed south. During the trip Mick got a chance to “work on his Italian vocabulary.” With the help of Google translate, Katie devised a very fun (if not educational) new car game and I’m happy to say that Mick can now talk trash with any giovanotto.

Spiaggia di Calamosche (Calamosche Beach) is located off the beaten path within the Vendecari Nature Preserve. After picking up sandwiches at the local bar (ham, cheese, tomato and mozzarella – all served as separate individual sandwiches – another strange custom) we headed down the path to the beach.

Descriptions of a “walk to get to the beach” proved slightly inaccurate, but when we finally got there it was a beautiful as advertised. Maybe not as many fish as the local solarium but it was a nice change of pace and fun to get some sand between our toes.

Returning from the beach brought us to Friday night, which we knew was going to be our last relaxing evening as Saturday night would have us thinking about Sunday’s departure.

The ladies went off souvenir shopping and Jeff and I went meal shopping. Jeff and I decided that we should sit down and discuss the taste profiles of the rest of the group before we made any firm menu decisions. So naturally, we headed off to the local bar to discuss. We discussed and discussed and discussed…..

We were soon met by the souvenir shoppers who could hear us from “around the corner” which I think is a slight exaggeration. I mean have any of you ever known discussions with Jeff to be loud? Never.

Dinner was pasta with capers, pancetta, lots of fresh basil and tomatoes. It was pretty good (I had been taking tips from Cathy the previous two evenings!). After dinner we went out for our evening passeggiata for gelato and to see to the Piazza Duomo.

Piazza Duomo is the main piazza in Ortygia and on one corner is the Cathedral of Syracuse. The cathedral was built around a Greek temple that was initially built in the 5th century BC.

Over the next 2500 years the columns remained (even after a huge earthquake in the 1600s that struck the cathedral).

The entire piazza was lit up and we sat on the steps and watched the tourists and locals mingle on what was a very pretty night.

Saturday was spent lounging around, of course we had more arancini, a stroll, more time at the solarium, and more gelato!

The last dinner was an interesting find, – scacciata. Quick and easy street food, no shopping required, it’s considered a cousin of the calzone and stromboli. YUM!

Mick and I were the only ones not totally stuffed, so we made our way out for one final gelato on the island of Ortygia. We both had our favorite flavors from previous visits (chocolate and strawberry for Mick, chocolate and coffee for me) from different stores on the same street so we visited both.
Walking home with our gelato, we were chit-chatting and Mick said “I think I’m really going to grow on this trip.” My immediate response of “You’ll probably be a foot taller when you get home!” felt like I was channeling Jeff. We laughed and Mick said that would make him at least 6’4!!

Cathy, Katie and I spent the rest of the evening watching “Jane the Virgin,” which, if you haven’t watched it, is billed as an American telenovela, with all the twists and turns and cliff hangers of any good soap opera. I think we made it through three of them before running out of steam and closing up shop in order to do some packing and travel prep.

Sunday morning we got up with the Jordans as they made their way out the door very early to drop the car back in Catania before heading to the train station for their upcoming train/ferry ride, which you will read all about in the next post!!!

Katie and I were so happy that we got a chance to meet up with the Jordans and share a little slice of their trip. It certainly made for a memorable part of our trip.

I turn 50 in April…..we are already wondering where the Jordans will be then??!!!!