Portugal, Paris, Sicily and Florence

[ellen10]

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]

 

[ellen10]

 

[ellen10]

 

[VPS]

I agree. I found Ortigia much cheaper than Taormina

 

[ellen10]

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]

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

 

[ellen10]

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]

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.

 

[ellen10]

And the wines

 

[ellen10]

we thought Ortigia was our favourite town, but then we traveled to Ragusa Ibla. A beautiful baroque town with an ethereal atmosphere, with its cute alleyways, and such a lovely quiet feeling at night.
It is the old town and Ragusa is the newer town (still old) with its streets more grid like.
Ragusa Ibla is full of little alleys going here there and everywhere and lots of stairs. And so quiet and atmospheric at night.

Our B&B is in old building, with grand stairs to our room, which is huge and has 25 foot ceilings.

Our host Simone, feeds us a delicious breakfast on the balcony overlooking the valley.

The small town is full of churches and it’s lovely to hear the bells tolling, especially in the evening The are cute cafes and restaurants. And only locals can drive into the main part of the town, so you can wander around easily.

I will try and post some photos, but our Wifi is not working.

 

[ellen10]

The view from our balcony

 

[ellen10]

Just a few more of Ragusa Ibla
I also love hearing the tolling of the bells in the many churches in the town. And also far less tourists I had not heard of many Aussies going to Ragusa Ibla, but I did a bit of research and am very glad we came. It just felt calming and refreshing. And oh so pretty at night to wander


Not sure what this is but it was on a church wall

Looking across to Ragusa superiore from our balcony at night

My ala spina (tap beer) with lemon granita. So delicious on a hot day!

 

[RB001]

Not sure what this is but it was on a church wall

It's an Italian Hours sundial.

RAGUSA . SICILY . SAN VINCENZO FERERRI – Vertical Dial

Andrea Schaffer CC by 2.0 SAN VINCENZO FERERRI . RAGUSA . SICILY The church was built by Dominican monks and dates to c1509. In 1693 it was largely destroyed by an earthquake. Rebuilding followed b…

gaudiumsubsole.org

 

[ellen10]

It's an Italian Hours sundial.

RAGUSA . SICILY . SAN VINCENZO FERERRI – Vertical Dial

Andrea Schaffer CC by 2.0 SAN VINCENZO FERERRI . RAGUSA . SICILY The church was built by Dominican monks and dates to c1509. In 1693 it was largely destroyed by an earthquake. Rebuilding followed b…

gaudiumsubsole.org

Thanks @RB001 thats the exact church I saw it on. Interesting article, thanks for sharing.

 

[ellen10]

Our last day in Italy we saw our first rainy day.
We had plans to go to Modica by bus.
So we donned spray jackets and umbrella. Now one thing to learn about using public transportation in Sicily, is that it very rarely runs on time.

Ragusa Ibla’s narrow streets are serviced by little mini buses that circumnavigate the streets and alleyways. It’s a great little service for 1.5euro each. It has 3 different routes 1,2&3 We caught the first one that came at our stop as they all stop where we wanted to go, the bus terminal in Ragusa superiore (new town).

Our destination was Modica and with the trains having track work, bus is our only option.
So we arrived with plenty of time to catch the 10.30am bus, with about 10 other people. We waited and waited, people paced, people checked their phones, people shrugged their shoulders, but no bus!
So at 11.20 a bus finally turns up, what happened to the earlier bus, driver shrugs his shoulders cancelled
On we get pay the driver for 2 return tickets to Modica 30 minutes away. 8.40euros cheap!

Modica like all Sicily has many churches, as it was raining we only visited the main one, quite a rich church. But our main aim is the famous Modica chocolate! Brought to Sicily from the Aztecs, it is not as sweet as regular chocolate and does not melt, just crumbles.

We found the authentic Modica chocolate shop (which also does tours, but sadly all booked out for the day) the kind girl behind the crowded shop counter gave us a few samples. Mmmm yum! I am not a chocolate fan usually, too sweet, but this chocolate was good.
We bought quits few bars, some flavoured, but the two original are plain and cinnamon, yummy.
MrEllen10 the chocoholic spied people ordering yummy treats, so he thought he ordered a chocolate cannoli and a chocolate granita, but only got the cannoli.
Oh well we left the very crowded store and visited the main church, whilst Mr took photos I sat and just looked. I then looked at our docket and yes we did order and pay for a granita. So back down the steep wet church steps in the rain we hurry, only to walk into the again crowded store at the back and the young shop assistant spies us and calls out Mr Ellen10’s name with delight, everyone looks at us as she hands over his most delicious chocolate granita!

As it was still drizzling our next mission was somewhere to have lunch. We spy a very small hole in the wall deli, that served paninis with all kinds of toppings. But Mr Ellen10 spies someone eating cheeses and salamis on a board, he is a sucker for this type of meal. I order it for one, the server questions “only one?”, ok I say for two.
We grab the last two seats at a bench and are then presented with a continuous procession of open paninis, cheeses, salamis, olives, sun dried tomatoes and so much more. So much so that we asked to pack up all that we could not consume And we are it for lunch the next day.

The little place had people hovering over us ogling our food and coveting our stools. All up with two beers it cost us 23euros! Amazing!

The deli consisted on one man preparing, slicing all food and one young waitress.
The deli was called A’nciminata ( also the name still given to the name given to the bread of the past, which lasts a week) it is yummy bread!

The chocolate place is called Antica Dolceria Bonajuto. Put them on your list!

Photos to follow