Siracusa

Moving on down the coast just a short distance, as the weather is threatening again and I’ve decided I don’t feel like going too far today, I stopped in a small city called Siracusa. I figured this would be a good stop as it’s very close to Pachino, a place I wanted to see on the way, and there were some things worth seeing here too. Siracusa is located on the Ionian Sea and there is a small marina, at which you cross a tiny bridge like a street overpass, and there is another very small town called Ortigia on what is actually an island with more houses, shops and restaurants. It’s really a nice little city and it didn’t take me long to start liking it. I rode around until I saw a sign next to a door advertising “Bed and Breakfast”. I stopped and rang the bell and a man told me to come upstairs. Simone (see-moh-nay) greeted me and showed me a nice room with a bath, and there was even a small terrace between the guest rooms and his home for eating breakfast outside. Perfect. So I left my bags and went to explore the town for a bit. When I returned I had to do a little work on the bike, nothing major, just that the throttle was getting stiff and beginning to take it‘s toll on my right hand. So I got some oil from the motorcycle shop right next door to the B&B (turns out there were 4 or 5 bike shops within a few blocks of me, no wonder I liked it there) and fixed the throttle there on the sidewalk. As I finished and locked the bike to a tree Simone showed up and told me I could put the bike inside the foyer, next to his bike. Turns out he was into bikes too and we had some good conversations about racing and such, he was a good guy.
The next day I decided to stay there another night to give me time to see the local sites and do some laundry at the nearby lavanderia. I was the only one in the place, besides the girl who was working there. She helped me get tokens and soap for the machines and we started talking a bit. (note: all the conversations I’m having at this point are entirely in Italian, except for the occasional word I just don‘t know) She was pretty, with a slightly darker skin tone and a little different look than a lot of the Italians I've seen. Turns out that her mother was from Africa, but I don’t think she was black, maybe like Egyptian or something. One thing about Sicily is that because of it‘s location and resources it has been occupied by many different countries/civilizations since the begining of time so there are an interesting mix of people and cultures there. Anyway, we got to talking about Siracusa and California and so on, and then she told me how she recently got a divorce from her husband and how she lost her little shop in the process, so now she’s working there. I was surprised at how she opened up to me like that, but she really seemed to be enjoying talking to me as much as I was with her. We talked the entire time while my clothes washed and dried, and even chatted with a couple old ladies that came in to use the dryers, their clothes don’t dry out on the line very well on cloudy/rainy days ya know. So as I finished up I decided to see if she would have dinner with me that evening. When I asked she smiled, but then said she was seeing someone at the time, so no thank you. O.K., I didn’t see that coming, oh well. She said it was really nice to meet me though and gave me a big hug and the usual kisses on the cheeks. I took this as sincere, as people do not often hug someone here, the cheek kisses are actually a more casual hello/goodbye, so it seems. At any rate, I’ve got a bag full of clean clothes and had a nice time in the process, buonissimo! I then took a walk to Ortigia and did some sight seeing. It’s a cute little town with a quiet square occupied by a few stray cats. There is a nice promenade along the sea with restaurants and apartments, and a small castle on the point. There was even a big outdoor market that day with vegetables, fruit, lots of fresh fish and other things. I found a souvenir shop by the marina and decided to buy a couple t-shirts for my sisters. Then I went into the adjacent shipping store to see about shipping them home to the girls in time for Ronni’s birthday. As I expected, they wanted too much money to send them. I have been through this once before, spending 3 times what I paid for the items just to send them to California, so never again. I went into the also adjacent post office and they said it would be about $15, all I had to do was package them first. Back to the shipping store for a shipping envelope and some packing tape. I brought the package ready to go into the post office and began the process of filling out a form with my life’s history, making a mistake, asking a question, then I think doing another form. I finally hand it to the lady and she gets everything ready, then asks me for my codice fiscale. That is about the equivalent of a social security number for Italians, and “of course I don’t have one lady I’m an American”. Then she finally gets upset and calls Americans terrible and says I can’t send it. Can’t send a simple package? At the POST OFFICE? Where am I? Oh yeah, Sicily. I am sure there was some miscommunication in there somewhere. Guess I’ll try again in another town.
Now that my chores were done it was off to see the sights. Siracusa is famous for a few things, the modern church in the center of the city that looks like a giant concrete pointed hat, the large ancient Greek amphitheater, and the adjacent Roman theater. For some reason the church didn’t interest me too much, so I just took a ride around it and didn’t go inside. I did visit the theaters though. They are right next to each other and you buy one ticket to see both. The Greek theater is larger and in very good condition I think. They were doing some work to the stage area, and I would imagine they may still use it. The Roman one is smaller and oval shaped with seating all around. I can imagine it would have been awesome to see a show at either of these back in the day. I then took a ride around the outskirts of town where I got a nice view of the city, the sea, and the surrounding countryside, very nice.
That evening I went out to find some food, specifically something that my friend from the lavenderia recommended, a panino di cavallo, or, horse meat sandwich. As I found, these are only sold from mobile sandwich stands on the main square in the marina. I bought mine out of a double decker bus from London that had the lower level coverted into a kitchen. The sandwich was simple, with whatever you wanted in it. It tasted good, like normal meat, and went good with a beer while sitting at a plastic table watching the boats bob in the tiny harbor. Not bad, but some company would have been nice. The next morning I packed my things and went into Simone’s house where they serve breakfast. It’s a beautiful home with antiques all over, and there was a nice spread of food to choose from. I chatted with Simone a little about the upcoming MotoGP race while his two beautiful daughters moved about the kitchen area. Where were they two days ago? Oh well. So I said goodbye and headed out of town, the sun was out and I had some riding to do.