Syracusa (Terry)

We sailed from Porto Palo after a slightly disturbed night (wind across swell) and made good time to start with – wind was off our beam at about 20 and we made 5s to 7s for quite a while before it quit on us.  On with the noisemaker before the wind returned.  Unfortunately it was a Noserly so it just made the motoring uncomfortable as we had to head out directly in to it to avoid a no-go nature reserve that two other yachts didn’t seem to give a stuff about.  When we turned after clearing the corner of the reserve we had 20 knots on the forward side and turned off the engine to sail into the Grand Harbour of Syracusa.  Sailors have been coming into this harbour for thousands of years so we were probably boat number 1 squillion and twenty.

 

Entering Syracuse harbour

 

It is magnificent and when we arrived I saw a yellow boat in the distance.  It was Benoit, our friend from Monastir with his family and Guy and his family in front of them!  Off to the port was Eric, the solo French sailor we spent time with in Monastir, Lampedusa and in Malta.

 

Benoit, Flo and family aboard Baba

 



Wonderful.  Off we went to the market this morning – one of Europe’s best.  Got two large Sole for dinner – cleaned and skinned in front of us, €7.  Fresh baked ricotta, €4.  Stuff, stuff, stuff.

 

Then we walked all over town trying to find the Immigrazione (about time we behaved ourselves).  I think we are rare and nobody bothers because we got sent all over the place from Guardia Costiera to Immigrazione and finally to the Polizia Frontiere.  They were excited that we were there and about 5 of them came out to see us.  The man we were dealing with took our passports to stamp and came back and told us “Special stamp, Syracuse” and indeed it was, a Syracuse stamp in the passports.  Shook hands all round with him and his boss and off we went.  Legal!

We dinghied back later in the evening and went for a wander on the promenade.  We wound our way up the stairs to the Cathedral but couldn’t go in for a stickybeak because there was a wedding under way.  We went across the piazza a few metres for a drink and sat outside with children kicking soccer balls, kids riding bikes with dogs chasing them and a very accomplished accordion player entertaining us all.

The bride came out of the church to an honour guard and the whole square erupted in applause.  She was impossibly beautiful, and his nibs was just the picture of elegance and charm (possibly a little pride in there also?)  Off they went for a promenade to the north for a while, then they sauntered back for a promenade to the south and departed.  All the stuff of romance novels and movies.
 

Everyone in the bar switched from beer and wine to Aperol Spritz.  Although I have resisted being a trendy in the past, this seemed like a good trend to follow and a pleasant glass it was too.

 

Across the way, a couple of old-ish nuns came out of the Cathedral admin doors.  All at once, the group of children kicking the ball around ran over to the older of the two for a hug and a kiss.  They genuinely fussed over her and she hugged and kissed them all.  They went back to their game and the two nuns wandered off across the front of the Cathedral and another group of kids spotted them.  Same deal, they all ran over to the older one of the two for hugs and cuddles and kisses.  She must be somebody special because they all ran to her, boys and girls alike.

We wandered through the old streets for a while and then returned to our dinghy to get back to the boat.

What a wonderful city this is.

Next day was not so pleasant with some savage southerlies so we all kept our heads down.  We went into town for a visit to the Archimedes Museum (he lived in Syracusa) and a visit to the Fonte Aretusa for a Geocache (through a small aquarium which was nice).  We found a small deli for lunch and had afor €1.70 each.  They were the best arancini we have ever had anywhere. (they were a Sicilian invention)  I also discovered a beer made in Sicily called Ceria, which was twice the price of the arancini!  But it wasn’t bad at that.

One of my favourite TV characters, Inspector Montalbano, is a well known arancini lover and has contributed to the popularity of the dish.  I was very excited to see a TV Weekly type magazine in Malta that announced yet another season of Montalbano with almost all the original characters.  He is placed in the Ragusa area, where we are likely to spend next winter so I can see all the Montalbano places – there was a book in the bookshop we went into yesterday all about the series, with all the common scenes from the TV show.

Enough fantasy stuff.  Today we went to town to get some wine.  We were told by our friend Rene that there was a wine retailer over the bridge near a florist by the church with the round front (but not the ugly new monster church in Syracusa).  Off we went to find this purveyor of fine wines.

He is located in a small shop near two mechanical repair shops with a handpainted sign advertising different wines.  Inside are about 10 massive hogsheads with labels on them advertising the wines within.  The old man’s name is Sebastiano Russo.  We tasted a couple and bought 2 litres of a red for €3.20 and two litres of a white for the same.  He fills up used 2 litre water bottles for you to take.  4 litres for €6.40?  Of a three year old red and an aged white.  He also gave us a sample of a dessert wine that we will go back for – that was upmarket stuff at €3.20 a litre.

Then we wandered back over the bridge to the old city, picked up our laundry (€10 for 8+kg) and sat on the quay to have a couple of beers before dinghying back to Common Sense.

This is a nice place to be, for sure and certain.