Syracusa/Ortygia, Sicily

Our Yukon travel companions, Chris and Sarah, visited Italy a year or so ago. They really loved Ortygia, so they told us we should all come here for a visit. Syracusa is a more modern/conventional city and Ortygia is the historic city on an island right off the main city of Syracusa.

The age of the buldings in the old town of Ortygia gives it lots of character...oh so atmospheric, etc. - sort of what I had imagined an Italian city to be before I had ever seen Italy.

There is a beautiful sea wall and town square, with old buildings and restaurants and a port (which is apparently being upgraded to accommodate cruise ships...don't know if that will be a good thing for the atmosphere of the town, but I suppose there could be lots of money and jobs involved.

While we were in Ortygia, the town celebrated a Catholic religious procession - the Festival of Santa Lucia, the town's patron saint - that involves parading the silver icon of a female saint around the town. The town band also marched around the towna long with the local religious and community leaders It waas fun and kind of creepy at the same time.

Just before and during the procession I saw this little kid playing an instrument...think it might have been his first time playin gin the band in public...and he was arguing with his mom 9I'm guessing. Very cute display.

We stayed at a small hotel in Ortygia, where Chris and Sarah were already acquainted with Maria, who runs the front desk there. Maria introduced us to her husband, Elios, who spent some years as a chef in England, and who is fluent in English. Mario and Elios are running a smaller bed and breakfast outfit a little ways out of Ortygia along the Sicilian coast.

One day we all went on a day trip to Modica, a town that is home to many shops that specialize in making and selling chocolates and chocolate sauces. You can go in the shops and sample the chocolates and sauces. The spent the most time in and liked the best had a huge variety of choclate flavours, including chocolate with rosemary (and variations with other herbs), hot pepper, beef (?!) and a really yummy chocolate liquer.