Portugal, Paris, Sicily and Florence

ellen10 · Friday at 5:43 AM

I just love a good food market and Ortigia’s market did not disappoint.
Lots of great food stalls, some giving free samples. Lots of seafood of all kinds. Great fruit and veges. I purchased some tasty strawberries, oranges, peaches and cherry tomatoes. All so flavoursome. Mr Ellen10 enjoyed a plate of oysters, accompanied by some fowl white wine.

We enjoyed a delicious cold meats and cheese platter for lunch from La Salmeria Fratelelli Burgos, also famous for their tasty fresh made sandwiches. We purchased from the inside deli some prosciutto and aged cheese for later on.

They also had a souvenir market filled with lots of things to buy and the prices were much cheaper than Taormina.

Wifi if not so good here. So I will try and post photos later.

ellen10 · Friday at 5:45 AM

ellen10 · Friday at 5:47 AM

ellen10 · Friday at 5:48 AM

VPS · Friday at 9:21 AM

I agree. I found Ortigia much cheaper than Taormina

ellen10 · Friday at 10:49 PM

We did an afternoon trip to Noto caught the local Interbus, $18 for two, a 1 hour trip. The trains are not going south because of track work.
Noto is a baroque town especially lovely in at the afternoon, when the sun sets on the honey coloured buildings. There is quite a few tour groups that come here for glow of the afternoon.

We wandered around and then sat and had a cool drink people watching. We then joined the bus scrum trying to catch the right bus back to Ortigia. The buses never run on time, so when a half sized bus arrived, going to our destination, we jumped on with a couple of young Aussie girls living in London. Lucky to get a seat, we didn’t have a ticket the bus driver didn’t care he just wanted to get out of the mess!

ellen10 · Friday at 10:52 PM

Wifi will not let me load too many photos at a time

ellen10 · 2025-09-27T15:37:33+1000

Near our wonderful apartment is the museum of puppetry. A very interesting story on how they made the puppets and how it has been part of Sicily for 100s of years.
We also saw a performance in the little local theatre, although in Italian was very entertaining and masterful

ellen10 · 2025-09-28T00:58:02+1000

Our last day in Ortigia, we wandered around the lovely alleyways and walked down to the very tip of Ortigia and visited the Castello Maniace, which was more like a fort than a castle. We saw the fountain of Diana, which is a bit of a main hub and home to Me Ellen10s favourite cafe for his daily 1.20 euro espresso!

@VPS asked about our restaurants etc.
We enjoyed some good food and some very nice wines bars.
Of course we loved the Mercado Di Ortigia and La Salmeria Fratelli Burgos
Castello Florentino, down a little alleyway, I had a delicious zucchini gnocchi, Mr had seafood linguine
A favourite wine bar was Enoteca Solaria, lots of nice wines to try by the glass and the best bruschetta of our trip, nice sitting out on a barmy evening.
Our last night favourite was a wine bar called Evoe, where you could do a wine tasting of as many wines as you like. You just paid for a half glass of each wine. The owner talked to you about your likes and preferences. Mr Ellen10 started with 2 whites and the 3 reds.
I started with reds(I had 5 altogether). The first one was fruity red right through to a delicious full bodied red. After each glass we said what we liked or disliked and he crafted each subsequent tasting on our likes. It was the best wine tasting we have ever done. He described the region of the wine, the soil and terrain. Most were from smaller wineries. He said he has over 250 wines to try.

We finished this wonderful experience with platters of Sicilian cheeses, and a large selection of meats and salamis and those cute little paper bags of bread and the best tasting olive oil and balsamic and a full glass of our favourite tasting.
I bought a bottle of the réserva to take home in my suitcase.