Waking up in Syracuse

It's Saturday, April 19th, and I haven't had time to sit with the blog. I've woken up to a beautiful morning - we're in the old quarter, Ortigia, of Syracuse - or Siracusa - a town, which is on the south east coast of Sicily.

I left off on the Tuesday evening, still in Palermo, when we decided to try another Matteo restaurant  indication. The Osteria dei Vespri was a short walk through dark alleys from our hotel, situated beneath the grand, crumbling Palazzo Vaguarnera-Gangi, which LuchinoVisconti used in his movie version of "The Leopard." All tables were occupied by quiet Japanese ladies from a cruise ship, and Alberto Rizzo, one of the owner brothers, instructed us to head over to another piazza nearby for a drink and return in half an hour. A different scene altogether - a huge group of young people laughing and smoking, sitting outside under an awning. We joined them and I had a Bellini, Oswaldo a Rossini - prosecco with peach and strawberry juices respectively - while Victor chatted up a very cute German waitress. Then it was time to return to our splendid meal, beautifully served on golden sous-plats.

We chose a delicious red wine

 - rated 4.1 on Victor's Vivino app and started with an interesting amuse-geule

followed by a spectacular looking lobster honoring the Italian colours with a poached egg on top

No need for dessert when these delicias appeared on the table after our dinner - with a nice glass of dry Marsala, of course.

It was a good thing we had the 10 minute walk back to the hotel to walk off this amazing meal.

On Wednesday morning the driver waited for us outside our hotel at 10pm. He took us to the airport where Victor and Oswaldo returned glowing from Avis with an upgrade to an Audi 3 from our original, more modest choice. Why was I not surprised? 

With the GPS it was no problem to find our next destination, Erice, an old Norman stronghold, high on a mountain on the westernmost point of Sicily. The climb up the hairpin curves was intense, but also very pretty with views of the surrounding flat countryside, the sea and the mountain ahead. The borders of the road were filled with masses of wildflowers in bloom.

We were not prepared for the intense cold, which hit us when we stepped out of the car. We put on all the layers we could find and 

struggled uphill to the the ancient construction, originally created to revere the goddess Venus, 

 whom we met in the local museum.

The worn pavement in the ancient little town got quite slippery when cold rain started pelting down, and we sought refuge first in the museum and then in Maria Gramatica, the pastry shop renowned for its marzipan. The choice was daunting, piles of sweets and pure marzipan Easter lambs, and, thus fortified, we headed back to the car, because we had a longish drive to the Planeta Wine Estate in Menfi on the south coast. By the time we reached our destination the bag of sweets was empty. They were seriously good!