Blanca & Ian's Travels

Sicily

Trip Report - 2009

Doin' the Ruins
(With a slice of Roma thrown in)

Roma, Taormina, Siracusa, Modica, Menfi, Palermo

Ortygia (Siracusa)

Residence Alle Guidecca
Via Alagona, 52 96100 Siracusa, Sicilia Italia

http://www.allagiudecca.it/

Accommodations:  Rm 12.  120€  Very nice double-twinned (pushed together to make a double).  Satellite TV via SKY, small cooking area - stove + small fridge, good-sized rooftop balcony with chairs, breakfast room

Located in the old Jewish Ghetto in Ortygia

The Negatives:   Can't really drive up to it.  Park & walk. Room sizes & locations vary wildly.
 

Day 7 Friday May 29

We got up raring to go.  Well, one of us anyway.  My wife got up dreading the curvy drive down to the Autostrade.  She doesn’t do well on mountain drives, but I was really looking forward to it.  I wanted to rent a convertible but she flatly refused to let me.  Oh well.  Anyway, after breakfast we packed & retrieved the car & hit the road.  The Villa Ducale was a very nice stay btw . . . I highly recommend it.

Since the heat wave in Roma, I haven’t really talked weather except for passing comments.  It stayed warm in the high 20s C for most days during our entire stay in Sicily , dipping into the mid-high teens at night.  Except for Taormina, which was always mostly cloudy.  For the rest of our stay, the sun was out more than in, but most days had some passing cloud at one time or other & we had one very brief shower during siesta in Ortygia.  When you were in the sun, it was hot.  But when you hit shade or were near the sea, it was much cooler & tolerable.  A jacket proved useful at night.  Humidity was not an issue.  Ideal traveling weather imho.

Back to the drive to Siracusa . . .

Once we descended to Taormina – a truly nail biting experience for my wife & a fun 2nd gear twisty arm exercise for me . . . I was surprised to wind down to the Autostrade on a totally different route & enter via an earlier (as in further south) exchange than the one mentioned above, thereby bypassing the long Taormina tunnel.  Once on the Autostrade, it was a nice drive to Catania.  The traffic started picking up just before the Enna/Palermo cutoff.  Roads are always signed to their final destination, although you will usually see secondary signs at some point too.  Therefore, if a road ends in Palermo on the other side of the island, it will be signed 'Palermo '.  

After Catania, the 4 lanes crapped out & dumped the southbound traffic onto a much slower 2 lane road well away from the sea.  This is where your powerful engine comes in handy (you didn’t really rent a Punta did you?).  Drivers have a habit of poking their noses out further into the road than most countries when turning onto a road, so it’s up to you to swerve around them safely.  You go up & down hills & cars & slow trucks come & go.  As for speed limits, the posted limits are only suggestions to Sicilians.  Much of the traffic moves at 20 – 40km/hr faster than whatever is posted.  Except the ones that don't.  Unless you want to be a mobile roadblock – and I am not kidding here - you should hustle too - but of course, never exceed your ‘comfort zone’.  And for all of you net police, I am not condoning speeding, just stating the facts as I saw them . . .

The scenery is pleasant & you pass some towns in the distance.  The cutoff for Siracusa is quite undramatic.  Follow this road in with its merges & turns & you will hit the rotary in the middle of town.  Depending upon the traffic volume, rotaries display the true mettle of Sicilian drivers.  In other European countries, there are reasonably well-respected rules for rotaries.  You know when to yield & when to enter etc – it’s all quite politely done.  In Sicily (and Napoli too for that matter), the rule is: that there are no rules.  You launch your car in & pick your way thru the maze of conflicting traffic whirling around you to the exit of your choice.  Just think of it as a hundred cars, motorbikes, trucks & buses all engaged in some crazed choreographed dance.  It’s terrifying the 1st time you experience it in a busy rotary but use kindly aggression & you will get the hang of it.  Try to drive through in as straight a path as possible.  I must have hit this one around the lunch time madness because it was a zoo.  I missed the correct road because I wasn't aggressive enough worming my way across the 1st time so I had to re-circle the rotary - which was just awesome fun.

Since our hotel was in Ortygia/Ortigia (and yours should be too if you booked correctly imho), I was over the bridge & zooming up the wider main shopping street Corso Giacomo Matteotti in no time.  And then my GPS led me into the maze that makes up much of the island.  Do you sense imminent disaster approaching here?  I faithfully followed her directions until she led me down a narrow car-lined street that ended abruptly in a dead end around a curve.  The road she expected me to turn onto to get to my hotel was merely an alleyway & too narrow for cars.  Meanwhile she was cheerfully telling me that once I made that turn I will have “reached my destination.”

With no parking possible, I gingerly backed out of this street (no easy task btw - did I mention that it is narrow & that it is car-lined?) onto another & pulled over.  My wife jumped out & said she would have a look & off she went.  Then a truck came up behind me & sounded his horn.  Hmm.  Lost in a maze with no wife & no option but to drive ahead.  I went about a half a block around a corner & pulled over again allowing just enough room for traffic to get by.  Luckily my wife had the wherewithal to follow me on foot or we would have had a much bigger problem.  I finally made it to the road that encircles the island on the outer edges & found a parking spot.  Yes, I swear a beam of light came down from the heavens & illuminated that spot as I approached. 

GPS & inadequate map in hand we walked to the hotel – the Residence Alla Guidecca which we found after erroneously inquiring in the Pension Guidecca.  They kindly supplied a better map with my destination circled on it.  Grazie, grazie.  It was right where the GPS had told me, but the one-way street it was on was blocked with construction but I guess I could have backed up the street to the hotel.  I think not.  The pleasant girl at check-in outlined the designated areas where parking was possible on the outer ring road.  You have to supply your car details on a master sheet that mystically appears to keep the police from booting your car.  We moved the car to one of these areas & parked it for the next 2 days.  We had to haul our bags (bless the little baggage wheelies) about 2 paving stoned blocks to get to the hotel.  We later discovered that there is a larger parking area on the north end of the island that costs 1€ a day, so this is the lot any day-trippers should use.

The Residence Alla Guidecca was a dice roll.  I researched every hotel on & around Ortygia to find one that met our criteria.  And yes, you do want to stay in Ortygia.  Siracusa is a normal gritty Italian town while Ortygia is a much quainter hangover from the middle ages on a connected island stuck out into the harbor.  I had researched numerous hotel options in a range of prices & some good Fodor’s suggestions in posts but the balcony necessity was a tough one.  As it turned out, the RAG was a perfect choice.  It is a 3 story building with rooms that are clustered around a central staircase – no elevator here folks.  We had room # 12  right at the top of the stairs which had a large living area, a nicely sized bedroom with a largish balcony that sported a great rooftop view to the sea.  More of an apartment than a hotel room.  All for 120€ per night including breakfast.  We were very pleased.  I think this place is a real ‘find’ so I included a bunch of pictures above.  Note that I have heard that the rooms do vary dramatically & some are even across the street in another building so be particular when booking . . .

After the drive & eventual success at finding our hotel & baggage hauling (3 flights of stairs was not the funnest part of this hotel btw so be forewarned) we hit the street for a late lunch.  We found the Piazza Archimedes that we had driven through & it had a couple of café options.  We chose one – sorry no name here.  Service was semi-cafeteria style.  You go in & choose your food & the waiter brings the food & beverage to your outside table.  We had some yummy fried bready thing with meat & red sauce inside (arancino di riso).  And a glass of wine . . . I forget the price but it wasn’t expensive.  Ahh . . . I knew sitting there that we were going to really like Ortygia.

Me looking very relaxed 
Note the near empty glass of wine . . .

Fontana di Diana that dominates the piazza

After the repast, we just bummed around the streets a bit.  What a cool town - now that I wasn't driving.  You have to dodge cars & motorcycles on the narrow streets but that's Italy.  You never really know where you are but you are never far from anything in Ortygia.  The famous spring - the Arethusa fountain - was not too terribly exciting or photogenic but the resident ducks seemed to be enjoying it.  The Piazza Duomo is tourist central for the town, with a street of tick-tacky attached at one end & several piazza-tourist-style restaurants on the side.  But the town seemed only lightly touristed with the odd group trooping by in the middle of the day.  The nice thing is that residents do use the piazza too - in the evening with kids playing football & moms with carriages etc.  After this bit of recon, we crashed at the hotel for a siesta.

After a rest, I tried to call our chosen restaurant (L’Ancora - Via Guglielmo Perno, 7 - 0931462369) for reservations but there was no answer.  We decided to walk over for a look even though it was far too early for dinner – it was only 6:30 pm.  We walked through Piazza Archimedes & down the Corso Giacomo Matteotti window shopping the Italian fashion on the way.  The restaurant wasn’t open but staff were milling around so we reserved a table outside in the ‘tent’ area for 8 pm.  Reserving was a very wise decision since it was Friday night & the restaurant was turning people away by 9:00 pm.  And the ‘tent’ area seats were the primo ones so they disappeared very quickly.

To kill time we walked the streets & viewed the 6 BC Greek Tempio di Appolo that dominates the main piazza nearby.  It was obvious from the traffic stream that a lot of Siracusa heads to Ortygia for Friday night food & fun.  And we walked to the channel that separates Ortygia & Siracusa.  Three bridges span the short distance.  You can take short cruises from here but we never worked up the energy in our time there to do it.

Dinner at L'Ancora was great.  This is an all-seafood restaurant that appeared to be very popular with local upscale families & groups.  Make reservations.  We split a clam spaghetti appetizer & we each had some whole fish as a main.  We are not big seafood eaters but it was very good.  The waitress even felt compelled to help us debone the swimmy thing after witnessing our clumsy attempts at it.  Food that looks back at you when you are eating it has always been mildly disturbing to me.  88€ with some 22€ Nero D’Avola wine that I forgot to write down.  Highly recommended.

Some night shots I took in the seriously cool & spooky laneways in the old Arab quarter on the walk back.  Please excuse the blurriness – but these are ‘art’ shots anyway . . .

Tempio di Appolo

Day 8 Saturday May 30

After breakfasting at our hotel, we made our way over to the Parco Archeologico.  This is the area over in Siracusa that sports the major ruins.  I didn’t want to lose our prime parking spot near the hotel (or deal with parking in Siracusa) so we taxied over & back for minimal cost.  The Parco is a tourist zoo with buses & tour groups galore - not to leave out the school groups.  To get tickets, you have to ‘run the gauntlet’ of ticky-tacky vendors to the ticket office way down at the end.

Across the road in the park, you enter left to see the Roman amphitheater or go straight to get to the other ruins.  The amphitheater lies in an unkempt field & could use a good grooming.

The Greek theater was a big disappointment.  My Michelin Guide calls it “one of the most impressive theaters to survive from Antiquity.”  Well, it looks like the local arts community has made sure that it is almost unrecognizable.  They are obviously staging a major production in it this summer & they had some awful silver backdrop installed as well as some humped platform in the theater bed that they were building.  They overlaid many of the seats with wooden ones & numbered cushions.  While I am a supporter of using these old venues today – if fact I have been to the Roman theater in Vienne, France for the jazz festival on 2 separate occasions – but they really killed it from a touristic standpoint.  I assume that it is all reversible but it certainly marred our photo ops & those of thousands of visitors.  I know that I am whining but it was disappointing.  So I refused to buy a postcard in protest.  That will show them.

The overgrown Roman amphitheater

We went back to Ortygia for lunch in one of the tourist restaurants in the Piazza Duomo.  We had a cheap pizza & cold drinks for 10€.  It wasn't bad either.  We popped in very briefly to look in the Duomo & got hissed at by a priest.  My wife had too much shoulder showing . . . I didn't see it happen or I would have hissed back.  After that we wandered the town & discovered a Saturday market over on Via de Benedictis or thereabouts near the Apollo Temple.  What a nice find!  We picked up some spices & goodies to bring home.  I wish we could buy tomatoes like that at home.

Browsing the market

Tuna head display

For dinner, we followed someone’s internet recommendation & we booked the Osteria da Mariano (Vicolo Zuccola, 9 – 093167444).  This small restaurant spills out into a narrow alleyway - too narrow for cars.  The owner greets you & seats you & takes your wine & appetizer order.  We opted for red ‘jug’ wine because it seemed to suit the place & some meat dishes, primi & appetizer etc.  We had a great meal sitting in the alley for 50€.  Good simple food & a score of 10/10 for atmosphere.  People were lined up waiting for tables when we left so reservations would be advisable.  Highly recommended.

Ortygia is a maze of twisty streets with many wonderful old decrepit buildings.  It yields the best feel of medieval/baroque town that we have ever visited – especially at night.  Many of the buildings are peeling & crumbling but there is scaffolding on a number of the streets as renewal takes place.  Baroque palazzos are sprinkled everywhere with the sea never more than a few blocks away.  It is wonderfully walkable although you are constantly dodging cars & motorcycles on the busier streets.  It is touristed but not crushingly so.  We loved it.  We found that 2 nights was enough for us to enjoy it immensely.  Another day would have been easy to take here but we were still ready to go.

Narrow roads

Courtyard

Plant road

Letting the dogs out

Palazzo Beneventano del Bosco

The sea is never far

The sea from our rooftop