In Search of Montalbano - the ups and downs of 10 days in Eastern Sicily
Nov 17th, 2016, 12:52 AM
#84
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I'm really curious to watch “Inspector Montalbano” now. I've been to Sicily too, but during only 3 days, and it's not enough at all. It's so charming I would not hesitate a second to go back.
Enjoying your trip report^^
Enjoying your trip report^^
Nov 17th, 2016, 10:39 AM
#85
thanks, lreynold and FF. I really am thinking about the next episode but life and work keep on intervening.
FF - it was a lot of fun seeing some of the places that feature in the TV series - in fact I don't think that we spent long enough doing that and I'd really like to go back to that area, but there is so much else to see too! In retrospect I wish we'd spent more time there and scrubbed Taormina, but there were some good bits about our time in that area too, so we'll just have to force ourselves to go back!
FF - it was a lot of fun seeing some of the places that feature in the TV series - in fact I don't think that we spent long enough doing that and I'd really like to go back to that area, but there is so much else to see too! In retrospect I wish we'd spent more time there and scrubbed Taormina, but there were some good bits about our time in that area too, so we'll just have to force ourselves to go back!
Dec 8th, 2016, 11:36 PM
#86
finally, another instalment - at this rate they'll have changed the format before I finish this!
Day 4 - Whose turn to drive is it???
Today we were leaving Ortigia and the lovely hotel Livingstone, so after another great night’s sleep we were up reasonably early, packed and then breakfasted, all by about 9.30. Well we didn’t want to be so early that we got caught in the early morning traffic, did we? So while I paid the bill [in crisp new € notes, bought just before the Brexit referendum, a deal on which we saved approximately the cost of an evening meal comparing the cost of €2000 before and after the vote] Paolo retrieved our car from yet another parking spot, packed it with our luggage far more efficient;y than we had managed at the first attempt, and after rewarding him with a suitable tip, we were off on the next part of our trip.
This morning it was my turn to drive and DH’s to navigate, and it was with some trepidation that I negotiated the first few kms that took us out of Ortigia and Syracuse and towards Ragusa. Of course I’ve no idea what the early morning traffic would have been like but at that hour of the day it really wasn’t too bad and apart from the odd roundabout where Rule One of driving in Sicily seemed to apply [Rule one - there are no rules, rule two - see rule one] we emerged unscathed. So far I had definitely had the luck of the draw so far as driving stints were concerned and DH was looking decidedly miffed that it was all so easy for me.
As google maps and our Tom-tom agreed that it was only about an our and a half to Ragusa, our plan was to stop off mid-morning at a town called Palazzo Acreide which proved to be a pleasant enough little spot. What had not been entirely clear from the map was that the old town was on the top of the hill, so for the first but not for the last time, we coaxed the Fiat up the winding roads to the town centre, where we quickly found a parking space. Could this be real? Was it safe to leave the car with the luggage in it? Certainly Palazzo Acreide did not look like a hot bed of robbers and car thieves but who knows? We were somewhat reassured by the fact that there was a parking warden [I think] wandering around, and the car was in plain sight of a couple of cafes, so we thought that we’d risk it.
Finding the space had been easy enough but finding the machine for the tickets was another matter. It quickly became apparent that there were several people wandering around the square looking for the darn machine and none of us knew where it was. Time to dust off the Italian! So I accosted the aforementioned traffic warden, and guessing more or less at what he said, followed what I believed to be his directions. Well it must have worked as we found the ticket machine down a side road, and we were able to point quite a few others in the right direction. We even had the right change!
After a wander round the church [which was being prepared for a funeral service so we didn’t linger] we spotted the tourist information bureau, grabbed a map, and started to walk around the centre. Another church was indicated up yet another hill so we set off only to find that we had to go down before we went up, but nothing daunted we decided to press on. I can’t remember much about it, so i suspect that it wasn’t very spectacular, but it made for an interesting walk as we explored the little streets and in some cases steps going between the houses, which eventually took us back to where we started.
Time for a drink so we sat down at a table outside one of the cafe in the square where we could see our car, and ordered a beer and a fruit juice. I was tempted by one of the pastries that I could see inside, [which looked suspiciously like cornish pasties] but in the end we decided to pass, and just as our parking ticket was running out, we were ready to leave.
This time it was DH’s turn to drive and as luck would have it, getting out of our parking space was nowhere near as easy as getting into it as the road had been blocked off for parking for the funeral, so barriers had to be moved and other cars negotiated. But after a few minutes we were free and following the map [and directions from the Tomtom] to Ragusa.
The map showed that to get to the main road to Ragusa, we had to take a minor road and the Tomtom agreed so what could go wrong? The first 5 kms or so were fine but then they took a turn for the worse as the road surface deteriorated as did our mood. One side of the road had fallen almost completely away in places and DH had to swerve around quite wildly to miss the worst pot-holes. As it was we still hit a few of them, though he was going very slowly. Thank goodness for that extra car insurance! Negotiating this “short cut” took what seemed to be an inordinately long time and in the end it would have been quicker to go to Noto! However we finally hit the main road and breathed a sigh of relief [which turned out to be somewhat premature!]
[In retrospect we should probably ignored the warnings about not leaving things in the car and have gone to Noto en route to Ragusa anyway, rather than trying to cut across country. If the opportunity had come up later in the trip, it wouldn’t have worried me at all but this being the first day of driving I was feeling nervous about such things, so we missed it. Next time I hope!]
In what seemed no time at all we were on the outskirts of Ragusa and following the instructions given us by our B&B owner to find the property. Yet again we were heading up winding little streets that got narrower and steeper as we climbed. DH not happy again! Eventually we found ourselves in what seemed to be the right place and DH squeezed the car into a tiny parking place so i could get out and find the property. Which I did but it was just a door. A large door in the middle of a building but nothing else. However there was a bell with the B&B’s name on it so I rang it, to be answered by a disembodied voice which said that he would be down in a minute. Assuming that he was somewhere in the building, I was somewhat disconcerted to have the owner of the voice arrive behind me a few minutes later! He had clearly been somewhere else.
However he volunteered to help us with the luggage, so DH drove the car up to the door, and risking the wrath of those stuck behind us, we unloaded the bags, and the door was opened to reveal a long stone staircase stretching up and round a corner. oh dear. DH was not happy. But with the help of the owner we got the bags up to the top, where on the other side of a small courtyard, we found our room. Or should I say rooms as we had a large kitchen/sitting room, a bathroom and hall area, and a good sized bedroom, and all very clean and quiet. Cool too as the stone walls were tremendously thick.
There was however no time to dally as our car was blocking the road so locking up quickly, we descended and our host jumped into the car with us and guided us [or rather me as DH was refusing to drove!] up to the parking at the top of the town where the main part of the B&B turned out to be situated. Once we’d parked [easier said than done] he showed us round the rest of the property. As well as more rooms, there were a breakfast room, a garden with swimming pool, and a small office where we handed over our passports and completed the formalities. Then we were shown how to get back down to our room on the road below, down some steps between the houses, and that was it!
This where we stayed:
http://www.giardinosulduomo.it/home
It bills itself as a boutique hotel but IMO it had more the air of B&B albeit a very nice one - there was no bar and no common areas save the breakfast room, and the garden of course but the room we had was very well appointed and comfortable, apart from a leaky shower head which was going to be replaced the day we left. And the view from the garden over the roofs of Ragusa was fantastic; my only sadness was that we didn’t have long enough there to really make the most of it.
Having found our way back to our part of the hotel and deposited the smaller of our bags, it was time for lunch so we walking in what we thought was the direction of the town and just past the Cathedral found ourselves at the top of a scene well known to Montalbano fans - a large sloping piazza with the Cathedral at the top, and large buildings on each side. One of these was a cafe serving lunch at tables in the middle so we grabbed one under a nice shady parasol, and each ordered a salad and wine/beer - there was no way we were going to be driving again that day.
While we were eating [nothing special, but the situation was nice] we discussed our plan for the afternoon - I remembered someone here had mentioned a bus that went from the bottom of Ragusa Ibla [where we were staying] up to Ragusa Superiore so we could walk down the many steps for which the town in famous, rather than walk up them. So after another tiny coffee, we walked down through the town spotting restaurants for later in the day, buying a few post cards, til we reached the public garden where the bus stop was supposed to be situated. Which was closed. No bus stop. Nothing to tell you where it was. Niente. So we sat down on a bench for a few moments to see if anything or anyone turned up. Eventually a few people with cases started to gather by a notice board so we wandered over and guess what? There was a timetable. So that was the bus stop. The timetable wasn’t easy to follow but it looked as if there was a bus in about 15 minutes. Then we saw people going to and from a little shop and on asking, we discovered that they sold the bus tickets there so we got two singles and waited and in 10 mins or so, there was the bus.
We clambered aboard with everyone else, validated our tickets in the machine, realised that there were no seats so we were going to have to stand, and hung on while the bus circled the old town of Ragusa Ibla and then headed up to Ragusa Superiore. The guide book said that after the earthquake of 1693 when the hilltop city of Ragusa was destroyed, along with many other, most of the the locals started to build a new town on another hill even higher up, but the aristocrats didn’t want to move so they rebuild their palazzi on the original site, thus producing the two hilltop cities. The bus can’t go through the old streets or up the many flights of steps so it needs to go round, consequently it was difficult to work out where to get off but in the end after consulting the map [not all that easy to do in a speeding bus, and one of the reasons I decided I might need new glasses] we decided we’d probably gone far enough and jumped off at the next stop.
Initially we started off by going in the wrong direction [up hill] but we quickly realised that was a bad idea and having oriented ourselves, headed for the middle of Ragusa Superiore which to our eyes at least, was remarkable for having the longest steepest main street I’ve ever seen. Why did they do it? I can understand building towns on hilltops in the Middle Ages and even why those towns were rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake that destroyed not just Ragusa but several other hill towns too, which is why we now have the pleasure of being able to visit so many baroque gems in eastern Sicily, but why build a NEW town higher up still than the original? Anyway, while we were contemplating this mystery or more like consulting the map for the nth time, we were approached by an elderly couple who, addressing us in French, enquired if we could tell them the way to the port? Sadly we told them that we too were strangers to the area but we thought that it was a little too far away to walk, and bade them au revoir. This still strikes me as a strange encounter; they didn’t enquire whether we spoke french but just launched into their enquiry which makes me think that they assumed they would be understood but what were the odds of their finding people who understood french in the middle of Ragusa? Of course Brits have a reputation for assuming that the rest of the world speaks English, but the French? not quite so much. Anyway it was nice for me to find that my french had not been supplanted by the italian I’d been speaking for the last few days and the pleasure of being able to say “Je suis desoleé” to a french person cannot be underestimated, though I could never approach their air of indifference whilst saying it of course. The other thing that was odd was that Ragusa is really not anywhere near the sea - the nearest is at Marina di Ragusa about 20kms away.
After this puzzling interlude we continued walking down the main street heading for the flights of stairs that would take us back to Ragusa Ibla and in truth though the guide books say that Superiore can be a good place to stay we didn’t see anything of great interest there; there would undoubtedly be a lot of walking up and down hills involved in a stay in that part of the town. Eventually we got to what one might see as the jewel in the crown of Ragusa - the part of town between the two towns where one follows in countless footsteps down [or in some cases up] down endless flights of steps taking one past tiny houses, churches and shops. It wasn’t always easy to see which way to go and in the end we just walked towards the people who where climbing up the steps, some of them with huge backpacks, and eventually we found ourselves back in our part of town and stopped for a well-earned beer. The bar we were in turned out to be opposite some sort of working men’s club and it was interesting watching them sitting outside their club and chewing the cud, as old men everywhere do. But they too scuttled inside when it started to rain, so we headed back to our B&B for a rest before dinner.
Though we had every intention of going out early enough to visit the cathedral somehow we didn’t make it, and after a long traipse round the town, we discovered that neither of us was particularly hungry so we settled for a supper of salumi and wine in a small bar off the main street, where it turned out that they had some terrific gelato so we had some of that too. Then after some very cheap brandies in the Cafe del Duomo, we turned in.
Day 4 - Whose turn to drive is it???
Today we were leaving Ortigia and the lovely hotel Livingstone, so after another great night’s sleep we were up reasonably early, packed and then breakfasted, all by about 9.30. Well we didn’t want to be so early that we got caught in the early morning traffic, did we? So while I paid the bill [in crisp new € notes, bought just before the Brexit referendum, a deal on which we saved approximately the cost of an evening meal comparing the cost of €2000 before and after the vote] Paolo retrieved our car from yet another parking spot, packed it with our luggage far more efficient;y than we had managed at the first attempt, and after rewarding him with a suitable tip, we were off on the next part of our trip.
This morning it was my turn to drive and DH’s to navigate, and it was with some trepidation that I negotiated the first few kms that took us out of Ortigia and Syracuse and towards Ragusa. Of course I’ve no idea what the early morning traffic would have been like but at that hour of the day it really wasn’t too bad and apart from the odd roundabout where Rule One of driving in Sicily seemed to apply [Rule one - there are no rules, rule two - see rule one] we emerged unscathed. So far I had definitely had the luck of the draw so far as driving stints were concerned and DH was looking decidedly miffed that it was all so easy for me.
As google maps and our Tom-tom agreed that it was only about an our and a half to Ragusa, our plan was to stop off mid-morning at a town called Palazzo Acreide which proved to be a pleasant enough little spot. What had not been entirely clear from the map was that the old town was on the top of the hill, so for the first but not for the last time, we coaxed the Fiat up the winding roads to the town centre, where we quickly found a parking space. Could this be real? Was it safe to leave the car with the luggage in it? Certainly Palazzo Acreide did not look like a hot bed of robbers and car thieves but who knows? We were somewhat reassured by the fact that there was a parking warden [I think] wandering around, and the car was in plain sight of a couple of cafes, so we thought that we’d risk it.
Finding the space had been easy enough but finding the machine for the tickets was another matter. It quickly became apparent that there were several people wandering around the square looking for the darn machine and none of us knew where it was. Time to dust off the Italian! So I accosted the aforementioned traffic warden, and guessing more or less at what he said, followed what I believed to be his directions. Well it must have worked as we found the ticket machine down a side road, and we were able to point quite a few others in the right direction. We even had the right change!
After a wander round the church [which was being prepared for a funeral service so we didn’t linger] we spotted the tourist information bureau, grabbed a map, and started to walk around the centre. Another church was indicated up yet another hill so we set off only to find that we had to go down before we went up, but nothing daunted we decided to press on. I can’t remember much about it, so i suspect that it wasn’t very spectacular, but it made for an interesting walk as we explored the little streets and in some cases steps going between the houses, which eventually took us back to where we started.
Time for a drink so we sat down at a table outside one of the cafe in the square where we could see our car, and ordered a beer and a fruit juice. I was tempted by one of the pastries that I could see inside, [which looked suspiciously like cornish pasties] but in the end we decided to pass, and just as our parking ticket was running out, we were ready to leave.
This time it was DH’s turn to drive and as luck would have it, getting out of our parking space was nowhere near as easy as getting into it as the road had been blocked off for parking for the funeral, so barriers had to be moved and other cars negotiated. But after a few minutes we were free and following the map [and directions from the Tomtom] to Ragusa.
The map showed that to get to the main road to Ragusa, we had to take a minor road and the Tomtom agreed so what could go wrong? The first 5 kms or so were fine but then they took a turn for the worse as the road surface deteriorated as did our mood. One side of the road had fallen almost completely away in places and DH had to swerve around quite wildly to miss the worst pot-holes. As it was we still hit a few of them, though he was going very slowly. Thank goodness for that extra car insurance! Negotiating this “short cut” took what seemed to be an inordinately long time and in the end it would have been quicker to go to Noto! However we finally hit the main road and breathed a sigh of relief [which turned out to be somewhat premature!]
[In retrospect we should probably ignored the warnings about not leaving things in the car and have gone to Noto en route to Ragusa anyway, rather than trying to cut across country. If the opportunity had come up later in the trip, it wouldn’t have worried me at all but this being the first day of driving I was feeling nervous about such things, so we missed it. Next time I hope!]
In what seemed no time at all we were on the outskirts of Ragusa and following the instructions given us by our B&B owner to find the property. Yet again we were heading up winding little streets that got narrower and steeper as we climbed. DH not happy again! Eventually we found ourselves in what seemed to be the right place and DH squeezed the car into a tiny parking place so i could get out and find the property. Which I did but it was just a door. A large door in the middle of a building but nothing else. However there was a bell with the B&B’s name on it so I rang it, to be answered by a disembodied voice which said that he would be down in a minute. Assuming that he was somewhere in the building, I was somewhat disconcerted to have the owner of the voice arrive behind me a few minutes later! He had clearly been somewhere else.
However he volunteered to help us with the luggage, so DH drove the car up to the door, and risking the wrath of those stuck behind us, we unloaded the bags, and the door was opened to reveal a long stone staircase stretching up and round a corner. oh dear. DH was not happy. But with the help of the owner we got the bags up to the top, where on the other side of a small courtyard, we found our room. Or should I say rooms as we had a large kitchen/sitting room, a bathroom and hall area, and a good sized bedroom, and all very clean and quiet. Cool too as the stone walls were tremendously thick.
There was however no time to dally as our car was blocking the road so locking up quickly, we descended and our host jumped into the car with us and guided us [or rather me as DH was refusing to drove!] up to the parking at the top of the town where the main part of the B&B turned out to be situated. Once we’d parked [easier said than done] he showed us round the rest of the property. As well as more rooms, there were a breakfast room, a garden with swimming pool, and a small office where we handed over our passports and completed the formalities. Then we were shown how to get back down to our room on the road below, down some steps between the houses, and that was it!
This where we stayed:
http://www.giardinosulduomo.it/home
It bills itself as a boutique hotel but IMO it had more the air of B&B albeit a very nice one - there was no bar and no common areas save the breakfast room, and the garden of course but the room we had was very well appointed and comfortable, apart from a leaky shower head which was going to be replaced the day we left. And the view from the garden over the roofs of Ragusa was fantastic; my only sadness was that we didn’t have long enough there to really make the most of it.
Having found our way back to our part of the hotel and deposited the smaller of our bags, it was time for lunch so we walking in what we thought was the direction of the town and just past the Cathedral found ourselves at the top of a scene well known to Montalbano fans - a large sloping piazza with the Cathedral at the top, and large buildings on each side. One of these was a cafe serving lunch at tables in the middle so we grabbed one under a nice shady parasol, and each ordered a salad and wine/beer - there was no way we were going to be driving again that day.
While we were eating [nothing special, but the situation was nice] we discussed our plan for the afternoon - I remembered someone here had mentioned a bus that went from the bottom of Ragusa Ibla [where we were staying] up to Ragusa Superiore so we could walk down the many steps for which the town in famous, rather than walk up them. So after another tiny coffee, we walked down through the town spotting restaurants for later in the day, buying a few post cards, til we reached the public garden where the bus stop was supposed to be situated. Which was closed. No bus stop. Nothing to tell you where it was. Niente. So we sat down on a bench for a few moments to see if anything or anyone turned up. Eventually a few people with cases started to gather by a notice board so we wandered over and guess what? There was a timetable. So that was the bus stop. The timetable wasn’t easy to follow but it looked as if there was a bus in about 15 minutes. Then we saw people going to and from a little shop and on asking, we discovered that they sold the bus tickets there so we got two singles and waited and in 10 mins or so, there was the bus.
We clambered aboard with everyone else, validated our tickets in the machine, realised that there were no seats so we were going to have to stand, and hung on while the bus circled the old town of Ragusa Ibla and then headed up to Ragusa Superiore. The guide book said that after the earthquake of 1693 when the hilltop city of Ragusa was destroyed, along with many other, most of the the locals started to build a new town on another hill even higher up, but the aristocrats didn’t want to move so they rebuild their palazzi on the original site, thus producing the two hilltop cities. The bus can’t go through the old streets or up the many flights of steps so it needs to go round, consequently it was difficult to work out where to get off but in the end after consulting the map [not all that easy to do in a speeding bus, and one of the reasons I decided I might need new glasses] we decided we’d probably gone far enough and jumped off at the next stop.
Initially we started off by going in the wrong direction [up hill] but we quickly realised that was a bad idea and having oriented ourselves, headed for the middle of Ragusa Superiore which to our eyes at least, was remarkable for having the longest steepest main street I’ve ever seen. Why did they do it? I can understand building towns on hilltops in the Middle Ages and even why those towns were rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake that destroyed not just Ragusa but several other hill towns too, which is why we now have the pleasure of being able to visit so many baroque gems in eastern Sicily, but why build a NEW town higher up still than the original? Anyway, while we were contemplating this mystery or more like consulting the map for the nth time, we were approached by an elderly couple who, addressing us in French, enquired if we could tell them the way to the port? Sadly we told them that we too were strangers to the area but we thought that it was a little too far away to walk, and bade them au revoir. This still strikes me as a strange encounter; they didn’t enquire whether we spoke french but just launched into their enquiry which makes me think that they assumed they would be understood but what were the odds of their finding people who understood french in the middle of Ragusa? Of course Brits have a reputation for assuming that the rest of the world speaks English, but the French? not quite so much. Anyway it was nice for me to find that my french had not been supplanted by the italian I’d been speaking for the last few days and the pleasure of being able to say “Je suis desoleé” to a french person cannot be underestimated, though I could never approach their air of indifference whilst saying it of course. The other thing that was odd was that Ragusa is really not anywhere near the sea - the nearest is at Marina di Ragusa about 20kms away.
After this puzzling interlude we continued walking down the main street heading for the flights of stairs that would take us back to Ragusa Ibla and in truth though the guide books say that Superiore can be a good place to stay we didn’t see anything of great interest there; there would undoubtedly be a lot of walking up and down hills involved in a stay in that part of the town. Eventually we got to what one might see as the jewel in the crown of Ragusa - the part of town between the two towns where one follows in countless footsteps down [or in some cases up] down endless flights of steps taking one past tiny houses, churches and shops. It wasn’t always easy to see which way to go and in the end we just walked towards the people who where climbing up the steps, some of them with huge backpacks, and eventually we found ourselves back in our part of town and stopped for a well-earned beer. The bar we were in turned out to be opposite some sort of working men’s club and it was interesting watching them sitting outside their club and chewing the cud, as old men everywhere do. But they too scuttled inside when it started to rain, so we headed back to our B&B for a rest before dinner.
Though we had every intention of going out early enough to visit the cathedral somehow we didn’t make it, and after a long traipse round the town, we discovered that neither of us was particularly hungry so we settled for a supper of salumi and wine in a small bar off the main street, where it turned out that they had some terrific gelato so we had some of that too. Then after some very cheap brandies in the Cafe del Duomo, we turned in.
Dec 9th, 2016, 08:05 AM
#87
the pleasure of being able to say “Je suis desoleé” to a french person cannot be underestimated, though I could never approach their air of indifference whilst saying it of course
parfait, perfetto
parfait, perfetto
Dec 9th, 2016, 12:00 PM
#89
Day 5 - Wot - no towels?
Though not quite as comfy as the bed at the Livingstone, [which is going to be my benchmark for hotel beds from now on!] we had a good night’s sleep with the only problem being the rather poor shower caused by the damaged shower head. I would like to think that the reason it hadn’t been fixed was because it hadn’t been reported to the management by other occupants of the room and certainly a new shower head had arrived the morning after we reported it but of course it should also have been found and reported by the cleaners. Fortunately we don’t as a whole get too dirty, so it wasn’t that much of a problem, but it could have been and apart from that, the hotel got high marks.
After a pretty good breakfast, [though I missed my fresh ricotta] we headed out to do a tour of the southern baroque towns. Of course it was my turn to drive this time, so heart in mouth, I pointed the car down the hill and slowly negotiated the many twists and turns of the road out of Ragusa, and made for Modica. Unfortunately my planning broke down at this point [no map] and try as we might, we could not find the baroque centre of the town despite parking and walking round for a while. In retrospect we should have tried my phone but we didn’t and in the end we gave up and just drove down to Modica Bassa where we had a little wander round, but didn’t find anything special. Nothing daunted however, I remembered how much another fodorite had liked Scicli, so we cut our losses, and made for it. We managed to park on the edge of the centre, and after a short walk found ourselves on a leafy promenade with several restaurants, and, it was lunchtime! hooray!
One looked particularly nice with large shady umbrellas and once we announced that we wanted lunch, we were moved to another smarter table under a larger umbrella. The antipasto della casa immediately leapt out at me, and DH fancied the melon and parma ham as well, so we ordered that and two glasses of wine and we were done! What a feast. I don’t remember exactly what we had but I certainly remember how delicious it all was - a great mixture of fish and vegetables, some bread, and the melon and ham of course. Certainly there was no room for anything else apart from one of those tiny coffees. Perfetto!
Without finding anything startling, we enjoyed exploring Scicli a little more and then as it was very hot [the hottest we’d found it so far] we decided to drive down to the coast and try to find a beach to go swimming. Somehow [and this is another tribute to my planning] we managed to miss the beach where Montalbano’s house, now a B&B, is situated, but eventually we arrived at Marina di Ragusa and after finding a shady parking spot, we changed into our swimming togs, which we had “just happened” to bring with us. I can now officially announce that the back of a Fiat Punto is not an easy place in which to get changed into a swimming costume. DH managed ok, but when it was my turn to clamber into the back and try to manoeuvre my way into my cossie it took forever, and I was getting hotter and hotter. Phew - I really needed that swim.
Not wanting to leave anything valuable in the car or on the beach we had to swim separately, but that was ok, and then of course there was the lack of towels. Having realised when we got to Ortigia that we’d forgotten to put beach towels in the luggage, we’d kept an eye out for somewhere to buy them but failed, and as we didn’t want to use the ones from the hotel, to dry ourselves off we had to stand around with our arms out, a bit like cormorants! It took about 30 mins I suppose to get dry enough to put some clothes on; we amused ourselves by being chatted to by a couple of people - first of all the elderly lady who wanted to know where we were from, why we were in her town, etc., then the Bangladeshi hawker who lost interest as soon as he realised we weren’t buying [not that I’m blaming him for that] - and then we watched a young man showing off to some lads by doing acrobatic back-flips onto the sand.
As we walked back to the car we found a little gelateria selling granita, including pina colada flavour, so we treated ourselves to one each, and then I drove slowly back to Ragusa, so I got the pleasure not only of driving down that hill, but back up it again! The good news was that I remembered the way back up to the car park [which we realised was level with the roof of the Duomo] and that there was a space! Hooray!
We’d managed to shower ourselves off on the beach a bit so the lack of a decent shower in the bathroom wasn’t such a problem, and after a bit of a rest, we ventured out to see if the Duomo was open and to find somewhere to eat. Oh no - we’d missed it again! Rats.
After extensive reading of menus and seeing where we could find a table, and almost overwhelmed by the choice of restaurants, we ended up here:
http://www.ristoranteilbarocco.it/ristorante/
Why? well, they had a table outside, there was something on the menu that each of us liked [not always a given] and we just liked it. oh yes, and the price was right. Of the two of us, I think that I was the luckier, while DH had a pasta dish that was ok [and I’ve forgotten what it was] I had perhaps the most delicious plate of food that I tasted in whole of our trip - spaghetti with squash and ricotta. How could such simple ingredients taste so good? For main course DH had a huge steak and I had lamb chops, and truthfully we only needed one of those - a good lesson to learn, though we had asked whether they were serving Sicilian portions of each course and they said yes. [Sicilian portions are, we had been told, a large serving of pasta but a small serving of meat or fish to follow]. So after a coffee each we waddled back up to the cafe del Duomo and imbibed some brandy, and then staggered back to our room. Tomorrow we would be leaving Ragusa with regret, because there were a lot more restaurants we wanted to eat at, not to mention seeing more than the outside of that Duomo. Perhaps we could squeeze that in in the morning before we left?
That remains to be seen….
Though not quite as comfy as the bed at the Livingstone, [which is going to be my benchmark for hotel beds from now on!] we had a good night’s sleep with the only problem being the rather poor shower caused by the damaged shower head. I would like to think that the reason it hadn’t been fixed was because it hadn’t been reported to the management by other occupants of the room and certainly a new shower head had arrived the morning after we reported it but of course it should also have been found and reported by the cleaners. Fortunately we don’t as a whole get too dirty, so it wasn’t that much of a problem, but it could have been and apart from that, the hotel got high marks.
After a pretty good breakfast, [though I missed my fresh ricotta] we headed out to do a tour of the southern baroque towns. Of course it was my turn to drive this time, so heart in mouth, I pointed the car down the hill and slowly negotiated the many twists and turns of the road out of Ragusa, and made for Modica. Unfortunately my planning broke down at this point [no map] and try as we might, we could not find the baroque centre of the town despite parking and walking round for a while. In retrospect we should have tried my phone but we didn’t and in the end we gave up and just drove down to Modica Bassa where we had a little wander round, but didn’t find anything special. Nothing daunted however, I remembered how much another fodorite had liked Scicli, so we cut our losses, and made for it. We managed to park on the edge of the centre, and after a short walk found ourselves on a leafy promenade with several restaurants, and, it was lunchtime! hooray!
One looked particularly nice with large shady umbrellas and once we announced that we wanted lunch, we were moved to another smarter table under a larger umbrella. The antipasto della casa immediately leapt out at me, and DH fancied the melon and parma ham as well, so we ordered that and two glasses of wine and we were done! What a feast. I don’t remember exactly what we had but I certainly remember how delicious it all was - a great mixture of fish and vegetables, some bread, and the melon and ham of course. Certainly there was no room for anything else apart from one of those tiny coffees. Perfetto!
Without finding anything startling, we enjoyed exploring Scicli a little more and then as it was very hot [the hottest we’d found it so far] we decided to drive down to the coast and try to find a beach to go swimming. Somehow [and this is another tribute to my planning] we managed to miss the beach where Montalbano’s house, now a B&B, is situated, but eventually we arrived at Marina di Ragusa and after finding a shady parking spot, we changed into our swimming togs, which we had “just happened” to bring with us. I can now officially announce that the back of a Fiat Punto is not an easy place in which to get changed into a swimming costume. DH managed ok, but when it was my turn to clamber into the back and try to manoeuvre my way into my cossie it took forever, and I was getting hotter and hotter. Phew - I really needed that swim.
Not wanting to leave anything valuable in the car or on the beach we had to swim separately, but that was ok, and then of course there was the lack of towels. Having realised when we got to Ortigia that we’d forgotten to put beach towels in the luggage, we’d kept an eye out for somewhere to buy them but failed, and as we didn’t want to use the ones from the hotel, to dry ourselves off we had to stand around with our arms out, a bit like cormorants! It took about 30 mins I suppose to get dry enough to put some clothes on; we amused ourselves by being chatted to by a couple of people - first of all the elderly lady who wanted to know where we were from, why we were in her town, etc., then the Bangladeshi hawker who lost interest as soon as he realised we weren’t buying [not that I’m blaming him for that] - and then we watched a young man showing off to some lads by doing acrobatic back-flips onto the sand.
As we walked back to the car we found a little gelateria selling granita, including pina colada flavour, so we treated ourselves to one each, and then I drove slowly back to Ragusa, so I got the pleasure not only of driving down that hill, but back up it again! The good news was that I remembered the way back up to the car park [which we realised was level with the roof of the Duomo] and that there was a space! Hooray!
We’d managed to shower ourselves off on the beach a bit so the lack of a decent shower in the bathroom wasn’t such a problem, and after a bit of a rest, we ventured out to see if the Duomo was open and to find somewhere to eat. Oh no - we’d missed it again! Rats.
After extensive reading of menus and seeing where we could find a table, and almost overwhelmed by the choice of restaurants, we ended up here:
http://www.ristoranteilbarocco.it/ristorante/
Why? well, they had a table outside, there was something on the menu that each of us liked [not always a given] and we just liked it. oh yes, and the price was right. Of the two of us, I think that I was the luckier, while DH had a pasta dish that was ok [and I’ve forgotten what it was] I had perhaps the most delicious plate of food that I tasted in whole of our trip - spaghetti with squash and ricotta. How could such simple ingredients taste so good? For main course DH had a huge steak and I had lamb chops, and truthfully we only needed one of those - a good lesson to learn, though we had asked whether they were serving Sicilian portions of each course and they said yes. [Sicilian portions are, we had been told, a large serving of pasta but a small serving of meat or fish to follow]. So after a coffee each we waddled back up to the cafe del Duomo and imbibed some brandy, and then staggered back to our room. Tomorrow we would be leaving Ragusa with regret, because there were a lot more restaurants we wanted to eat at, not to mention seeing more than the outside of that Duomo. Perhaps we could squeeze that in in the morning before we left?
That remains to be seen….
Dec 9th, 2016, 01:48 PM
#90
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Gee you people complaining about the next installment are restless!
We're still waiting for the rest of the trip report from Australia. As the cricket went south (for England), so did Annhig's trip report...but that was only 3 years ago!
Still plenty of time!!
We're still waiting for the rest of the trip report from Australia. As the cricket went south (for England), so did Annhig's trip report...but that was only 3 years ago!
Still plenty of time!!
Dec 10th, 2016, 01:17 AM
#91
oh margo! I'd forgotten about that one.
And then there's the unfinished report from our trip to Cuba last January!
not to mention the odd shorter trip that we've taken that i never wrote up at all.
And then there's the unfinished report from our trip to Cuba last January!
not to mention the odd shorter trip that we've taken that i never wrote up at all.
Dec 10th, 2016, 03:34 AM
#92
Thia report piques my interest in convincing Mrs. P to consider a trip to Sicily. My own glitch would be trying to navigate those tiny streets with a manual shift. Are there any small automatic shift cars available there?
Dec 10th, 2016, 10:26 AM
#93
Just catching up on this. I really enjoyed Sicily, nice to revisit through your perspective. Was not a Montalbano fan when we visited, but have since become a convert.
AJ, modern manual transmission cars are much easier than the kind I grew up driving in the 80s and 90s. In fact, I kept thinking I had stalled the Alfa Romeo Giulietta we drove and really it was just an incredibly quiet engine.
AJ, modern manual transmission cars are much easier than the kind I grew up driving in the 80s and 90s. In fact, I kept thinking I had stalled the Alfa Romeo Giulietta we drove and really it was just an incredibly quiet engine.
Dec 11th, 2016, 04:16 AM
#94
nice to know that I may have made a convert to Sicily, AJP.
I have to say that from my perspective [as someone who lives in rural Cornwall where narrow roads are commonplace] it wasn't so much the width of the roads as the behaviour of other drivers, and the difficulties of driving up [and down] the extremely winding roads to get to and from the hill towns. Having gears is actually a help [well it normally would be if you were in a car that had more power than the Punto we were driving] though I did occasionally long for my Merc, though I'd have been terrified driving it there.
Others have said that they did not find the driving as bad as we did - but it may be a case of when and where you try to drive.
I am sure that you can get small automatics - you would probably need to collect it from an airport in order to get the widest range of cars, use one of the bigger rental firms, and be prepared to turn up and be greeted by "dispiace, non abbiamo una macchina automatica oggi" [no automatics available today, sorry].
One alternative is to use public transport, and there is at least one TR here by someone who did just that - Dayle I think.
Happy to answer any more questions, if I haven't completely put you off the idea!
I have to say that from my perspective [as someone who lives in rural Cornwall where narrow roads are commonplace] it wasn't so much the width of the roads as the behaviour of other drivers, and the difficulties of driving up [and down] the extremely winding roads to get to and from the hill towns. Having gears is actually a help [well it normally would be if you were in a car that had more power than the Punto we were driving] though I did occasionally long for my Merc, though I'd have been terrified driving it there.
Others have said that they did not find the driving as bad as we did - but it may be a case of when and where you try to drive.
I am sure that you can get small automatics - you would probably need to collect it from an airport in order to get the widest range of cars, use one of the bigger rental firms, and be prepared to turn up and be greeted by "dispiace, non abbiamo una macchina automatica oggi" [no automatics available today, sorry].
One alternative is to use public transport, and there is at least one TR here by someone who did just that - Dayle I think.
Happy to answer any more questions, if I haven't completely put you off the idea!
Dec 11th, 2016, 04:19 AM
#95
Leely - nice to see you here. I would love to go back to Sicily, not just to see more of it but to revisit some of the places to which I feel we didn't really do justice, especially the "Montalbano" areas. Glad you like the series - apparently it's a big hit with Italians too, my italian teacher's mother loves it. [She lives on Ischia which is where my teacher comes from].
Dec 11th, 2016, 06:34 AM
#96
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Hi ann and AJP,
No, I drove solo for 9 days of my 3.5 week trip. Those were the areas where it made the most sense time and convenience wise to drive. I did also rent a car for a day on both Lipari and Salina.
My biggest surprise in Sicily was how easy the driving was! I was braced for horrible traffic, crazy drivers, etc., but I just didnt encounter any of that.
My driving frame of reference is that I grew up in so California and now live in Utah. I learned to drive on the freeways in a stick shift and now drive in the mountains in the snow.
Still, I only saw two instances of crazy passing. The only light traffic I found was in Siracusa and Agrigento at the shopping mall on a holiday!! Just like so. CA!
No, I drove solo for 9 days of my 3.5 week trip. Those were the areas where it made the most sense time and convenience wise to drive. I did also rent a car for a day on both Lipari and Salina.
My biggest surprise in Sicily was how easy the driving was! I was braced for horrible traffic, crazy drivers, etc., but I just didnt encounter any of that.
My driving frame of reference is that I grew up in so California and now live in Utah. I learned to drive on the freeways in a stick shift and now drive in the mountains in the snow.
Still, I only saw two instances of crazy passing. The only light traffic I found was in Siracusa and Agrigento at the shopping mall on a holiday!! Just like so. CA!
