In Search of Montalbano - the ups and downs of 10 days in Eastern Sicily
Oct 3rd, 2016, 07:39 AM
#62
envierges - thanks. I think that someone may have given me that link before.
Actually, it's not usually the Sicilian that hinders my understanding but the Italian - and it was the same on this trip. I just need to spend more time in Italy!
Actually, it's not usually the Sicilian that hinders my understanding but the Italian - and it was the same on this trip. I just need to spend more time in Italy!
Oct 11th, 2016, 09:54 AM
#64
Everything comes to s/he who waits - eventually!
Day 2
After an excellent night’s sleep and a reasonable [though not great] breakfast taken in the hotel’s 5th storey restaurant with lovely views across the roofs of Ortigya, we set off to find our way to the Necropolis in nearby Siracusa. I’d read quite a bit about it, and knew that it was a pretty exposed site which would it be better to see when it wasn’t too hot, but it was clearly going to be hot all the time we were in Sicily, so it was now or never.
The day before we’d noticed that there was a bus stop just behind the hotel, and having no desire to do battle with the local traffic again, we thought we’d get the bus. Easier said than done. After quite a lot of work, we worked out the ordinary bus timetable, which seemed to indicate that to get to the Necropolis we’d have to change buses [from a no 1 to a 3] at some point; if we caught the HOHO bus it would take us there without a change but they were far less frequent. [only one an hour compared to the town buses which were theoretically once every 20 mins].
All this interpretation had taken quite a while, and still there had been no sign of any bus. None at all. And so after about 20-25 mins, we gave up and decided to walk to where we thought we’d be able to pick up the no 3 bus [possibly no 2, I may have misremembered] which was over in Siracusa just over the bridge on the Corso. Well that wasn’t too bad but the waiting was a bit of pain as firstly a local bus, and then a HOHO bus [€4.50 per day as opposed to €1 pp per trip on the local bus] came past completely full. But the next local bus stopped and had lots of space, albeit mostly standing, and the driver
v e r y s l o w l y h e l p e d u s g e t o u r t i c k e t s.
Yes, that’s how slow it was. No way would she let us buy them from the machine and validate them ourselves, we had to give her the money and she bought the ticket for us. With about 20 people getting on the bus, this took some time. So I rewarded her by inadvertently standing with my shoulder blade against the request stop button and she had to stop at every stop whether someone wanted to get on or off or not. Eventually someone worked out what was happening which led to some amusing exchanges with the locals, at least I thought that what they said was supposed to be amusing!
It was quite a long ride up to the Necropolis, and I was glad that we hadn’t tried to walk it; DH had cleverly worked out that the scales on the Siracusa and Ortigia maps were different; the Siracusa one was smaller so it was rather further to the Necropolis than we [for which read I] had anticipated. Once the bus had pulled into the car park [lined with souvenir booths and the odd welcome cafe offering juices, coffees, etc.] we followed the signs and the herd to the ticket office and decided to get a combination ticket which included the archaeological museum; it didn’t cost a lot more and I’d read good things about it in my trusty Blue Guide to Sicily, which DH was nobly carrying round with him. [note to self; it doesn’t matter how good a guide book is, if it’s too heavy and/or bulky to carry easily, it’s no good at all].
So we had a spremuta each at one of the bars [only €2 each for a large glass] and then crossed the road and walked down the hill to the first of the attractions which is the Roman amphitheatre, where we found another billetteria and some rather dodgy toilets. IMO the roman site was no more than moderately interesting but the setting is nice with an area of woodland to the west which provided some pleasant shade.
After that we walked further down to the Greek remains; the setting is far more dramatic with stone caves at the back complete with a waterfall, and the large and mainly complete greek theatre which you can see from all angles. But it was very hot and by then we needed a drink so we followed signs to the restaurant where we were able to have a couple of beers and some crisps. The menu was interesting in that it listed the types of beer according to what we eventually worked our was their “hop” content; we went for the lighter one which was pretty good. Then we re-entered the site [no problems getting back in again with our tickets] and walked down to Dionysis’ ear which is a large cave, set within a wooded grove - again it was nice and shady especially inside the cave of course and it was vey peaceful once a rather rowdy school party had gone.
By now we’d just about had enough of old ruins, so we decided to walk down to the museum via the very striking modern church, the Madonna delle Lacrime, its triangular spire pointing up into the sky and visible from most of the town. [the Madonna refer to nothing more romantic than the very ordinary plaster replica of Mary, made in a local factory which turns out thousands of these a year, which is said to have wept continuously for 4 days in a nearby house]. apparently you can see it in the crypt but we weren't very interested in it and by then we were hungry.
At this point we made a mistake - we should have stopped for some food immediately, but not seeing anything that really appealed, we pressed on, and then we found ourselves in a part of town where there was nothing at all or at least not at the time that we were passing. So our explorations of the church, with its impressive stained glass and dramatic exterior, and the museum, which holds a very fine collection of ceramics discovered in Sicily, including some beautiful drinking vessels, were not as thorough as we might have liked. Eventually we more or less fell into some seats at a restaurant down by the harbour, and had a late lunch of melon and prosciutto [me] and octopus and potato salad [DH] not to mention a large beer and a white wine and some water. Lesson learned [or so I thought!]
Feeling a great deal happier, we took a different route back to the hotel via the western side of Ortigia, and had a granita each at a little kiosk down by the area where some very posh gin palaces were tied up. From there it was possible to walk back up to the Duomo area via some steps and a small alleyway which brought us quickly back into town.
A few hours rest back in our re comfy room and we were refreshed enough to go out for a drink and perhaps something else, before the puppet show. This time we walked down towards the Castello at the southern end of the island, in the hope of seeing the sunset from the western side, but unfortunately it was a little cloudy and we didn’t see anything much. But we did find a nice bar serving cocktails which were accompanied by a very substantial helping of bruschetta and other nibbles. This seemed to be the norm in Ortigia, because the next night when we stopped in a different bar, we were offered a similar selection, all gratis.
And now for the puppet show - we really had no firm expectations, but we found ourselves in the second row of a tiny theatre, seating possibly no more than 30 people, with a stage at the front, with the conventional curtains. There was some martial music, a plea for everyone to turn off cameras, phones etc., and we were off. We had helpfully been given a sheet with the plot written on it, but try as I might, I was not really able to tie up what I was seeing with its description, and it wasn’t just a problem of translation as so far as I could see, it said the same in French, german and italian. At any rate the plot had to do with the adventures of Orlando and his rescue of a moorish girl who had been kidnapped by the false friend of her lover and taken to a Scottish island where she was being held captive. Much of the action involved fighting which was hilariously indicated by lots of banging of swords and noises off, but there were poignant moments too and some comedy when the princesse’s mother was explaining to her that marriage to a man she didn’t know wasn’t so bad - she hadn’t been able to stand her daughter’s father when they were first married but now she wouldn’t be without him. Not surprisingly the princess was unconvinced, and eloped before she could be married off to an old knight who she didn’t know, only to find herself shipwrecked, rescued and betrayed, all in the space of 5 minutes.
The puppets are clearly of ancient pattern, as was the plot, but it was a lot of fun and the hour went very quickly; it was only marred by a couple of the audience completely ignoring the request not to film or take pictures, which they did constantly. The lights from their camera screens were very distracting but even requests from other members of the audience to desist did not dissuade them.
After the performance we found a little bar further down the street where we had a coffee and then we retraced our way back to our hotel down the little alleyways and fell into bed.
Tomorrow - the Russians are coming!
Day 2
After an excellent night’s sleep and a reasonable [though not great] breakfast taken in the hotel’s 5th storey restaurant with lovely views across the roofs of Ortigya, we set off to find our way to the Necropolis in nearby Siracusa. I’d read quite a bit about it, and knew that it was a pretty exposed site which would it be better to see when it wasn’t too hot, but it was clearly going to be hot all the time we were in Sicily, so it was now or never.
The day before we’d noticed that there was a bus stop just behind the hotel, and having no desire to do battle with the local traffic again, we thought we’d get the bus. Easier said than done. After quite a lot of work, we worked out the ordinary bus timetable, which seemed to indicate that to get to the Necropolis we’d have to change buses [from a no 1 to a 3] at some point; if we caught the HOHO bus it would take us there without a change but they were far less frequent. [only one an hour compared to the town buses which were theoretically once every 20 mins].
All this interpretation had taken quite a while, and still there had been no sign of any bus. None at all. And so after about 20-25 mins, we gave up and decided to walk to where we thought we’d be able to pick up the no 3 bus [possibly no 2, I may have misremembered] which was over in Siracusa just over the bridge on the Corso. Well that wasn’t too bad but the waiting was a bit of pain as firstly a local bus, and then a HOHO bus [€4.50 per day as opposed to €1 pp per trip on the local bus] came past completely full. But the next local bus stopped and had lots of space, albeit mostly standing, and the driver
v e r y s l o w l y h e l p e d u s g e t o u r t i c k e t s.
Yes, that’s how slow it was. No way would she let us buy them from the machine and validate them ourselves, we had to give her the money and she bought the ticket for us. With about 20 people getting on the bus, this took some time. So I rewarded her by inadvertently standing with my shoulder blade against the request stop button and she had to stop at every stop whether someone wanted to get on or off or not. Eventually someone worked out what was happening which led to some amusing exchanges with the locals, at least I thought that what they said was supposed to be amusing!
It was quite a long ride up to the Necropolis, and I was glad that we hadn’t tried to walk it; DH had cleverly worked out that the scales on the Siracusa and Ortigia maps were different; the Siracusa one was smaller so it was rather further to the Necropolis than we [for which read I] had anticipated. Once the bus had pulled into the car park [lined with souvenir booths and the odd welcome cafe offering juices, coffees, etc.] we followed the signs and the herd to the ticket office and decided to get a combination ticket which included the archaeological museum; it didn’t cost a lot more and I’d read good things about it in my trusty Blue Guide to Sicily, which DH was nobly carrying round with him. [note to self; it doesn’t matter how good a guide book is, if it’s too heavy and/or bulky to carry easily, it’s no good at all].
So we had a spremuta each at one of the bars [only €2 each for a large glass] and then crossed the road and walked down the hill to the first of the attractions which is the Roman amphitheatre, where we found another billetteria and some rather dodgy toilets. IMO the roman site was no more than moderately interesting but the setting is nice with an area of woodland to the west which provided some pleasant shade.
After that we walked further down to the Greek remains; the setting is far more dramatic with stone caves at the back complete with a waterfall, and the large and mainly complete greek theatre which you can see from all angles. But it was very hot and by then we needed a drink so we followed signs to the restaurant where we were able to have a couple of beers and some crisps. The menu was interesting in that it listed the types of beer according to what we eventually worked our was their “hop” content; we went for the lighter one which was pretty good. Then we re-entered the site [no problems getting back in again with our tickets] and walked down to Dionysis’ ear which is a large cave, set within a wooded grove - again it was nice and shady especially inside the cave of course and it was vey peaceful once a rather rowdy school party had gone.
By now we’d just about had enough of old ruins, so we decided to walk down to the museum via the very striking modern church, the Madonna delle Lacrime, its triangular spire pointing up into the sky and visible from most of the town. [the Madonna refer to nothing more romantic than the very ordinary plaster replica of Mary, made in a local factory which turns out thousands of these a year, which is said to have wept continuously for 4 days in a nearby house]. apparently you can see it in the crypt but we weren't very interested in it and by then we were hungry.
At this point we made a mistake - we should have stopped for some food immediately, but not seeing anything that really appealed, we pressed on, and then we found ourselves in a part of town where there was nothing at all or at least not at the time that we were passing. So our explorations of the church, with its impressive stained glass and dramatic exterior, and the museum, which holds a very fine collection of ceramics discovered in Sicily, including some beautiful drinking vessels, were not as thorough as we might have liked. Eventually we more or less fell into some seats at a restaurant down by the harbour, and had a late lunch of melon and prosciutto [me] and octopus and potato salad [DH] not to mention a large beer and a white wine and some water. Lesson learned [or so I thought!]
Feeling a great deal happier, we took a different route back to the hotel via the western side of Ortigia, and had a granita each at a little kiosk down by the area where some very posh gin palaces were tied up. From there it was possible to walk back up to the Duomo area via some steps and a small alleyway which brought us quickly back into town.
A few hours rest back in our re comfy room and we were refreshed enough to go out for a drink and perhaps something else, before the puppet show. This time we walked down towards the Castello at the southern end of the island, in the hope of seeing the sunset from the western side, but unfortunately it was a little cloudy and we didn’t see anything much. But we did find a nice bar serving cocktails which were accompanied by a very substantial helping of bruschetta and other nibbles. This seemed to be the norm in Ortigia, because the next night when we stopped in a different bar, we were offered a similar selection, all gratis.
And now for the puppet show - we really had no firm expectations, but we found ourselves in the second row of a tiny theatre, seating possibly no more than 30 people, with a stage at the front, with the conventional curtains. There was some martial music, a plea for everyone to turn off cameras, phones etc., and we were off. We had helpfully been given a sheet with the plot written on it, but try as I might, I was not really able to tie up what I was seeing with its description, and it wasn’t just a problem of translation as so far as I could see, it said the same in French, german and italian. At any rate the plot had to do with the adventures of Orlando and his rescue of a moorish girl who had been kidnapped by the false friend of her lover and taken to a Scottish island where she was being held captive. Much of the action involved fighting which was hilariously indicated by lots of banging of swords and noises off, but there were poignant moments too and some comedy when the princesse’s mother was explaining to her that marriage to a man she didn’t know wasn’t so bad - she hadn’t been able to stand her daughter’s father when they were first married but now she wouldn’t be without him. Not surprisingly the princess was unconvinced, and eloped before she could be married off to an old knight who she didn’t know, only to find herself shipwrecked, rescued and betrayed, all in the space of 5 minutes.
The puppets are clearly of ancient pattern, as was the plot, but it was a lot of fun and the hour went very quickly; it was only marred by a couple of the audience completely ignoring the request not to film or take pictures, which they did constantly. The lights from their camera screens were very distracting but even requests from other members of the audience to desist did not dissuade them.
After the performance we found a little bar further down the street where we had a coffee and then we retraced our way back to our hotel down the little alleyways and fell into bed.
Tomorrow - the Russians are coming!
Oct 12th, 2016, 07:53 AM
#68
thanks, Fra - I know, I should be bashing away at the laptop but having accompanied me to Sicily and "endured" its highs and lows, I thought that when DH said let's go to France for the weekend, I had to accept. such a sacrifice.
Oct 12th, 2016, 09:24 AM
#69
Enjoying your trip! So much fun to follow - we each had such different experiences! Though I will add looking for the busses in Siracusa/Ortygia were pretty impossible - if you recall, we were rescued by a local couple who ended up driving us to the archeological park!
Enjoy your weekend in France! This is where I am especially envious of those of you on the other side of the Atlantic from me--- it 's a whole lot more exciting to say, "I'm going to France for the weekend" than saying "I'm going to New Jersey for the weekend" (no offense meant -- really! -- to those of you in NJ!).
Enjoy your weekend in France! This is where I am especially envious of those of you on the other side of the Atlantic from me--- it 's a whole lot more exciting to say, "I'm going to France for the weekend" than saying "I'm going to New Jersey for the weekend" (no offense meant -- really! -- to those of you in NJ!).
Oct 12th, 2016, 12:24 PM
#70
progol - never having been to New Jersey, I couldn't comment. We are taking advantage of an offer from Brittany Ferries - return trip for us and the car from Plymouth to Roscoe, & B&B in a hotel in Benodet [southern Brittany] for 3 nights, all for about £340. The ferry we are catching lays on a special dinner on Thursday nights so we will indulge ourselves on the trip over, have [hopefully] a good night's sleep on the boat and be ready to hit the road as we leave the boat in the morning.
And yes, I know that we are lucky being able just to hop over the channel when we feel like it.
As for bus stops in Ortigia/Siracusa, we were directed to the one behind the hotel by the receptionist, [not that it did us any good] but we came across the one just at the end of the Corso entirely by chance. [I'd forgotten about your good Samaritans!]
We certainly didn't see meet on the way back as my feet could testify.
And yes, I know that we are lucky being able just to hop over the channel when we feel like it.
As for bus stops in Ortigia/Siracusa, we were directed to the one behind the hotel by the receptionist, [not that it did us any good] but we came across the one just at the end of the Corso entirely by chance. [I'd forgotten about your good Samaritans!]
We certainly didn't see meet on the way back as my feet could testify.
Oct 16th, 2016, 01:26 AM
#76
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As many of the puppet shows you'll see in Sicily use characters and situations from Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso or sometimes, the Song of Roland, the shows are similar. While in Sicily, you'll see depictions of these characters on the pottery, the painted carts, (and now the painted trucks) murals . . .and lots of other places.
Nov 14th, 2016, 03:42 AM
#77
you're right, Envierges, we did!
now, better late than ever:
Day 3 - the Russians are coming
This is a lovely hotel - the best nights’ sleep I can remember having in a hotel for a long time, and the breakfasts are pretty good too; my only complaints are the saltiness of the scrambled egg [ a matter of taste I suppose] and the coffee, which was greatly improved by ordering a cappucccino rather than drinking the hotel’s offering.
That accomplished we set off for the Fort at the southern tip of the island, which cost all of €2.50 each to enter. Even at 10am it was baking hot on the central parade ground and this set me wondering what it must have been like for the soldiers who had to march round in all weathers, would would often have been even hotter than that mid-September morning. Fortunately for us there were exhibitions in a couple of the cool stone-built rooms, one on the history of the fort, and another showing bronze copies of 2 statues of sheep which were both fun and impressive so we were able to shelter from the heat for a while, but those poor soldiers!
Anyway having got there we wanted to look round the whole complex so we followed the signs into the area where the munitions were kept, and were surprised to find that we were more or less surrounded by groups of ladies speaking what appeared to be Russian. They had no guide, but were wandering round, like us, and soaking up the atmosphere.
By the time we’d taken a few photos and walked around part of the ramparts we were ready for a drink so we walked back up into the town and grabbed a beer somewhere, not sure where at this point. We were still pretty hot so DH suggested that we go for a swim; the hotel was right next to the swimming platform on the eastern side of the island and whilst there isn’t a beach as such, there appeared to be some sand at the bottom of the steps as well as rocks a little further out so we donned our costumes, and ventured out onto the platform. This is not a structure which would pass muster with most health and safety executives but it seemed solid enough and we were able to have a very pleasant swim along with a motley selection of locals, tourists, and the odd pooch!
The hotel being so close we were able to go back and shower and change, [much needed as we had omitted to pack beach towels] and then we set out for the major task of the day - lunch! The night before we’d had a look at a few places and we found ourselves drawn back to a restaurant that we’d spotted a little off the tourist track, in a lane slightly south of the Duomo :
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restau...se_Sicily.html
Though this gets mixed reviews [not know to us at the time!] we were pretty impressed. The seafood antipasto that we shared was more than ample for two and was uniformly delicious and the pasta primi that we had for follow [spaghetti alle vongole for me, not sure what DH had] were pretty good too. We also had a bottle of house white which went down pretty well - by which I mean that we finished it.
With no room for puds we asked for coffee and while we were drinking the last of the wine plucked up the courage to enquire of the couple next to us, who had also just finished eating, where they came from, which turned out to be Moscow! Sadly neither of us speak more than a couple of words of Russian but the wife spoke quite good english, the husband some german, so between us we managed to have quite a reasonable conversation, and discovered that they were staying in a resort outside Siracusa in an apartment and using the the buses and trains to get around, which even with the limited amount of driving we’d done, sounded like a good idea. We also talked about the weather [of course - we’re Brits] and they shared the fact that in the last few years, winters in Moscow have been quite a lot warmer than they were used to.
After a half and hour’s chat they had to go to catch the train so we continued our explorations of the tiny streets of Ortigia, stopping for the odd gelato [or in my case granita, which I had quickly grown to love] and window shopping as we wended our way back to the hotel for a post prandial nap.
The evening saw us taking part in the Sunday evening passagiata and drinking cocktails in one of the bars near the Duomo which appear to come with quite large snacks as standard so that may be worth remembering for those who don’t want a full meal; sadly we were still full of lunch! While drinking we were looking at the map making our final plans for the morning, when we were due to set off on the next part of our trip - a drive to Ragusa where we had booked two nights in a B&B in Ragusa Ibla. Should we drive straight there thus avoiding leaving our luggage in the car while we explored some places on the way? Or could we take the risk of stopping off somewhere to have a look round, and possibly even a drink and a snack? Just how safe was it to leave things in the car?
All will be revealed tomorrow!
now, better late than ever:
Day 3 - the Russians are coming
This is a lovely hotel - the best nights’ sleep I can remember having in a hotel for a long time, and the breakfasts are pretty good too; my only complaints are the saltiness of the scrambled egg [ a matter of taste I suppose] and the coffee, which was greatly improved by ordering a cappucccino rather than drinking the hotel’s offering.
That accomplished we set off for the Fort at the southern tip of the island, which cost all of €2.50 each to enter. Even at 10am it was baking hot on the central parade ground and this set me wondering what it must have been like for the soldiers who had to march round in all weathers, would would often have been even hotter than that mid-September morning. Fortunately for us there were exhibitions in a couple of the cool stone-built rooms, one on the history of the fort, and another showing bronze copies of 2 statues of sheep which were both fun and impressive so we were able to shelter from the heat for a while, but those poor soldiers!
Anyway having got there we wanted to look round the whole complex so we followed the signs into the area where the munitions were kept, and were surprised to find that we were more or less surrounded by groups of ladies speaking what appeared to be Russian. They had no guide, but were wandering round, like us, and soaking up the atmosphere.
By the time we’d taken a few photos and walked around part of the ramparts we were ready for a drink so we walked back up into the town and grabbed a beer somewhere, not sure where at this point. We were still pretty hot so DH suggested that we go for a swim; the hotel was right next to the swimming platform on the eastern side of the island and whilst there isn’t a beach as such, there appeared to be some sand at the bottom of the steps as well as rocks a little further out so we donned our costumes, and ventured out onto the platform. This is not a structure which would pass muster with most health and safety executives but it seemed solid enough and we were able to have a very pleasant swim along with a motley selection of locals, tourists, and the odd pooch!
The hotel being so close we were able to go back and shower and change, [much needed as we had omitted to pack beach towels] and then we set out for the major task of the day - lunch! The night before we’d had a look at a few places and we found ourselves drawn back to a restaurant that we’d spotted a little off the tourist track, in a lane slightly south of the Duomo :
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restau...se_Sicily.html
Though this gets mixed reviews [not know to us at the time!] we were pretty impressed. The seafood antipasto that we shared was more than ample for two and was uniformly delicious and the pasta primi that we had for follow [spaghetti alle vongole for me, not sure what DH had] were pretty good too. We also had a bottle of house white which went down pretty well - by which I mean that we finished it.
With no room for puds we asked for coffee and while we were drinking the last of the wine plucked up the courage to enquire of the couple next to us, who had also just finished eating, where they came from, which turned out to be Moscow! Sadly neither of us speak more than a couple of words of Russian but the wife spoke quite good english, the husband some german, so between us we managed to have quite a reasonable conversation, and discovered that they were staying in a resort outside Siracusa in an apartment and using the the buses and trains to get around, which even with the limited amount of driving we’d done, sounded like a good idea. We also talked about the weather [of course - we’re Brits] and they shared the fact that in the last few years, winters in Moscow have been quite a lot warmer than they were used to.
After a half and hour’s chat they had to go to catch the train so we continued our explorations of the tiny streets of Ortigia, stopping for the odd gelato [or in my case granita, which I had quickly grown to love] and window shopping as we wended our way back to the hotel for a post prandial nap.
The evening saw us taking part in the Sunday evening passagiata and drinking cocktails in one of the bars near the Duomo which appear to come with quite large snacks as standard so that may be worth remembering for those who don’t want a full meal; sadly we were still full of lunch! While drinking we were looking at the map making our final plans for the morning, when we were due to set off on the next part of our trip - a drive to Ragusa where we had booked two nights in a B&B in Ragusa Ibla. Should we drive straight there thus avoiding leaving our luggage in the car while we explored some places on the way? Or could we take the risk of stopping off somewhere to have a look round, and possibly even a drink and a snack? Just how safe was it to leave things in the car?
All will be revealed tomorrow!
