Since 6:30 or so, I have been simultaneously checking my e mails, signing liberal petitions, reading some great DAILY KOS posts(check out this one, and that one), and watching the sun rise over the rooftops from my bed.
Rachel is of course still snuggling and snoozing, and I think we will stay in town today, and just walk around, enjoy the Architecture, and try and see some sights we have not visited yet, like the quarries, and the old Synagog bath.
Except for the first couple of days, we have been blessed with great cool and sunny weather the whole trip, and it looks like today will be the same. Our last day here will be devoted to a visit to Ragusa and Scicli, two major baroque towns we have not seen yet. On Thursday, we drive up to Taormina for the night, and Friday we drive back to Palermo, to fly out to Lyon on Saturday morning at 8. These 3 weeks+ in Sicily have gone fast...
We went to market in the late morning, and enjoyed all the produce and the fresh fish, some very long silvery eels:
Lots of kinds of sardines:
and big bloody tunas:
After a delicious lunch of coucous and mussels, we took a nap, before heading out in the car to see a couple of distants sights in Siracusa. Not much luck there, I wished I had continued my limoncello enhanced nap instead...
The Catacomba di San Giovanni were closed, with no sign or indication of when they might re open. The Parco Archeologico was the biggest rip off, bussing in tourists by the hundreds at 10 Euros a pop. The Theatro Greco has been outfitted for shows with wooden stage, wooden death covering nmuch of the original stonework, and big towers with stage projectors. It must be great to see a Greek Tragedy there in the Summer, but as an Archeological site, it is uninteresting. The rest of the ruins and quarries are not much either.
Fortunately, after dropping Rachel at the apartment, I decided to go to the Archimedes Museum, and in the process of hunting it down(it had moved), I ran across the most exquisite 316 years old Jewish "mini palace " at the corner of two tiny alleys behind our grand palace. It is modest, presumably not to offend the gentile neighbors to the North, and the doorway is unusually low, but the balcony and window on the second floor are grand, and even though the proportions could be considered wrong, it is a delightful structure, just Baroque Sicilian enough, but with taste and restraint. It had been restored, but not as much as some other buildings(the Cathedral facade looks too new for me), and is nicely weathered. It is my favorite building in all of Ortigia:
Rachel is of course still snuggling and snoozing, and I think we will stay in town today, and just walk around, enjoy the Architecture, and try and see some sights we have not visited yet, like the quarries, and the old Synagog bath.
Except for the first couple of days, we have been blessed with great cool and sunny weather the whole trip, and it looks like today will be the same. Our last day here will be devoted to a visit to Ragusa and Scicli, two major baroque towns we have not seen yet. On Thursday, we drive up to Taormina for the night, and Friday we drive back to Palermo, to fly out to Lyon on Saturday morning at 8. These 3 weeks+ in Sicily have gone fast...
We went to market in the late morning, and enjoyed all the produce and the fresh fish, some very long silvery eels:
Lots of kinds of sardines:
and big bloody tunas:
After a delicious lunch of coucous and mussels, we took a nap, before heading out in the car to see a couple of distants sights in Siracusa. Not much luck there, I wished I had continued my limoncello enhanced nap instead...
The Catacomba di San Giovanni were closed, with no sign or indication of when they might re open. The Parco Archeologico was the biggest rip off, bussing in tourists by the hundreds at 10 Euros a pop. The Theatro Greco has been outfitted for shows with wooden stage, wooden death covering nmuch of the original stonework, and big towers with stage projectors. It must be great to see a Greek Tragedy there in the Summer, but as an Archeological site, it is uninteresting. The rest of the ruins and quarries are not much either.
Fortunately, after dropping Rachel at the apartment, I decided to go to the Archimedes Museum, and in the process of hunting it down(it had moved), I ran across the most exquisite 316 years old Jewish "mini palace " at the corner of two tiny alleys behind our grand palace. It is modest, presumably not to offend the gentile neighbors to the North, and the doorway is unusually low, but the balcony and window on the second floor are grand, and even though the proportions could be considered wrong, it is a delightful structure, just Baroque Sicilian enough, but with taste and restraint. It had been restored, but not as much as some other buildings(the Cathedral facade looks too new for me), and is nicely weathered. It is my favorite building in all of Ortigia:
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