Thanks for that tip, Lucy. I'll keep looking.


We'll have a car so not too fussed about the bus and the hotel has a shuttle bus I think [i just checked the website and it does]

it's not perfect but has views and a nice restaurant and of course we'll do the trail [and hopefully get the shuttle bus back up! ]

Dayle - thank you too for the tips.

Roundabouts are no novelty to us but I'm glad to read that you like them so much and I'll look out for that one.

BTW was the nature reserve worth a visit? I'm trying to work out what we should do on the day we arrive as we get into Catania at 10.30 am ℅ a very early flight from Bristol. We've thought about going into Catania but I don't really relish the idea of parking there and leaving our luggage in the car.

I see from the map that the reserve is not really in the right place for that, it's more for a day trip or to visit on the day we leave Ortygia and move onto Ragusa for a couple of nights but I'd be interested in your view as to whether it's worth visiting.

I think if you would like a good walk on the beach, it's a very nice one. Goes for several kms so it depends on what you are up for. Also a nice sunbathing beach. I wanted mainly to see the wild flamingos and hauled along binoculars just for this purpose. There were a few, but not many to see on the day I visited. My stop was between Scicli and Ortigia and I probably only spent about 2 hours. If I had more time, I would have gone for a long hike on the beach. It would make most sense for you between Ortigia and Ragusa but not as a drive from Catania before Ortigia.

I did take the risk of leaving luggage in the car trunk. I took all valuables with me.

I think by the time you pick up your car, drive to Ortigia, get to your B&B, you will be about ready for check in anyway. If not, I'm sure your B&B would hold your bags.

My niece just returned and loved Ortygia. Happy to say where we fly into Sicily it is a 45 min drive so am looking forward to your trip report on this amazing place.

Thanks, Dayle.

If it's not too hot, a visit to the Nature Reserve may be on the cards when we leave Ortygia; I'd quite like to see the flamingos too. you may well be right about being ready to check in by the time we've got through the airport and the car hire process; we'll have to see.

if we get to Ortygia early enough we can spend the rest of the day there, then perhaps do a [half] day trip to Catania on the bus or train the next day; we would still have the following day to spend in Ortygia and Siracuse.

flpab - oh dear, the pressure. I'll have to see what I can do [and try to make some notes this time!]

annhig, keep in mind that a car is no more convenient than the bus: it's a narrow, winding two-lane road, and so everybody's in the same boat.

That said, I have no doubt that wherever you decide to stay, you will enjoy yourselves--it's hard not to enjoy Sicily, imnsho!

We stayed in Ortygia at the Hotel Livingston in May, and I'd recommend it. The "formal" decor of the room is not my style, which I knew in advance from the pictures, but the location is great, the room was a decent size and quiet, the bed was a true US queen size, and breakfast had the usual Sicilian sweets plus several cereals, breads, meats, and bacon and eggs. The daytime reception person, Annamarie, lived in the US for 7 years so spoke great English. When I laughingly inquired about the ham and eggs for breakfast, she said the hotel hosts cycling groups from Vermont about 5 times/year! Our one disappointment was the archaeological park. The amphitheatre is now a real working one, so except for a few original rows, the rest are now modern white benches and the stage is set up for productions.

Thanks, Lucie - I'll bear that in mind.

Sylvester - that's where we are staying so that's reassuring. I know that DH will enjoy the swimming platform that they advertise - were you able to use it? and thanks for the tip about the amphitheatre - we probably won't make it top of our priorities.

annhig, are you familiar with "Welshcakes Limoncello"'s blog, http://sicilyscene.blogspot.com/

She is a retired Welsh teacher, moved to Modica years ago and has been blogging, and teaching English in Modica, ever since. Lots of good blog entries on all things Sicilian. We visited her when we went to Sicily a few years ago, had lunch and visited her apartment and played with her dog.

EYWandBTV - no I'm not.

I'll have a look at it - thanks for posting the link.

If you do go to Vendicari, annhig, you might enjoy to stop in the village of Marzamemi just 20 minutes or so south of there. It's a pretty little place with a whack of really good seafood restaurants. We had lunch there and would highly recommend. We chose Il Principino for the rooftop deck and ocean view, but our hotel host in Syracuse recommended La Cialoma, where he and his Italian friends prefer.

Just as an aside, the Greek theater in Syracuse has the seating in place only while the Greek Theater Festival is on in the summer. It's not as great as the theater in Taormina, which is spectacular, but to know a bit about it makes it more interesting.

It's probably the biggest of all the theaters, and was mostly carved right into the rock of the hillside. We enjoyed viewing it and the Latomie with caves carved into the walls of the quarry. The Roman theater, though is a disappointment, as there isn't a lot left there and it's all overgrown with weeds.

thank you sundried - the italian locals probably aren't as interested in the view!

I'm trying to store up all these tips - I'll have to come back and read the thread just before we got.

FWIW (which is little!), I agree that the theater in Taormina offers an infinitely better view than the one in Siracusa. But the brickwork of the theater in Taormina – including most (if not all) of the proscenium is, I believe, Roman, not Greek.

I was fortunate enough to see a performance at the Greek theater in Siracusa (and an impressive one at that!) and was glad to see—with my own eyes—just how large a Greek theater hewn from the hillside could be. And for my interests, the archeological park in Siracusa held much more than just the theater. I appreciated the acoustics of the Orecchio di Dionisio and I thought the Roman amphitheater worth seeing, if for no other reason than to see how nature had begun to reclaim it. My interests can be a bit quirky…. ;-)

But the brickwork of the theater in Taormina – including most (if not all) of the proscenium is, I believe, Roman, not Greek. >>

How to put this, kja? honestly, I don't think that I care terribly about that. It's great that you care enough to mention it, but it won't worry me or DH unduly whether we're looking at Greek or Roman stonework. [phew, thank goodness SL has left us, I'd never live that down - she never forgave me for talking about the "hunt the ugliest baby" game we used to play with our kids in art galleries]

But from my reading about the archeological park in Syracuse there's lots to see there besides the ruins.

Thanks for the tips.

No worries, annhig! Just a little bitty factoid that I thought I should throw out there in case it mattered to anyone.

Far more to the point ;-) , SL left us? I've been away for a month, and missed that development entirely! Really and truly? Please tell anything you can!!! I'm sure she'll be back soon, and I'm sure we'll soon recognize her new identity, but really? Wow! Given the incredibly rude and insulting comments that she was allowed to make year after year after year, she must have really stepped off the edge.... Thanks for letting me know!

I don't remember hearing about your "hunt the ugliest baby" game -- but I love the concept. I bet that kept the young ones engaged far longer than just about any other strategy imaginable! :-)

SL left us? I've been away for a month, and missed that development entirely! Really and truly?>>

well, there certainly haven't been any recent sightings, at least by me. I thought that she'd gone voluntarily [she did that once before] as I distinctly remember a post in which she said she was so disgusted with someone else's comment she couldn't bear to be here [some irony there] but in just checking her profile, she's disappeared into the Fodor's equivalent of limbo - the dreaded "page not found". I've no idea why she got the push - sorry.

rereading the thread she was very helpful here [as she could be] and for her remarkably lacking in snark, but that sadly was the exception, not the rule. For her exceptional knowledge of Italy she will be missed but the rest we can probably manage without.

BTW the "ugliest baby game" was a simple as it sounds - while we were looking at some of the world's greatest works of art, our almost completely uninterested kids [in their teens by then] were tasked with finding the worst pictures of babies, which even the best artists seem to have a job representing realistically. How we managed to spawn such a couple of culture-phobes I'll never know, but it kept them quiet!

Fascinating, annhig -- thanks for that update! Whenever I've seen SL "take a break," her profile remained, so its removal would seem to signal something more.

I really don't need -- or, upon reflection, want -- to know the details. I'm just stunned! As you note, she could be extremely generous with her detailed knowledge, and MANY Fodorites benefited from that expertise. At other times, well, you and I are not the only ones who experienced her other side, and while I could easily be wrong, I suspect that means that a part of her was in great pain. For her sake, I hope she heals.

And honestly, I have a lot of room for growth, too, and I sincerely (if not always successfully) strive to be more gentle and more kind. To my horror, I sometimes find that I've said something that could be experienced as cruel or harsh or unnecessarily critical and at those moments, I am reminded that I can steer toward a route marker labeled SL or I can steer toward one marked AH, and in those moments of clarify, I know that -- if I can -- I would far rather embrace gentleness, patience, and tolerance. Wish me luck!


And yes, there are some astonishingly ugly babies in the world's finest works of art, aren't there? I bet your children loved seeking them out -- and what a wonderful way to get them to actually LOOK at the paintings! Kudos for coming up with a strategy that worked on so MANY levels. :-)

I am reminded that I can steer toward a route marker labeled SL or I can steer toward one marked AH, and in those moments of clarify, I know that -- if I can -- I would far rather embrace gentleness, patience, and tolerance. Wish me luck>>

I think you're giving me too much credit - in the last week I've been accused of snark in the lounge, [probably rightly] and, I think I said something about a recommendation of Eurodisney that in retrospect could have been better phrased.

Well that made me laugh! I'm tempted to go into the lounge, which I almost never do, if for no other reason than to learn when snark is justified. :-) For now, at least, I'm going to keep my rudder where it is.

I just want to know who SL is. And which one of your kids won the hunt-the-ugliest-baby game.