It was a mistake. I’m talking about renting a car in Sicily. Definitely a mistake. But I’m still glad we did it. Mainly because now I absolutely know it is a mistake. So if I’m ever tempted to do it again, I’ll know better. To be clear, it isn’t so much the driving, though that can be it’s own special challenge. But the driving is manageable. The real problem is parking. And worrying about find a parking spot. It sucks the joy out of the theoretical freedom of having a car, because the car doesn’t actually give you all that much freedom. It mostly just limits your options. Which is why I’m so pleased that the place we are staying in Syracuse has dedicated private parking in an inner courtyard. I’m very happy about that, but it doesn’t change anything. And the car is staying put until we leave.
We did have one benefit of driving today – we had an excellent view of Mt Etna. The best view we’ve had so far this trip.
I didn’t crop out the roadworks sign in this photo because it is an integral part of driving in Sicily. Every few minutes Google Maps would announce “there is a lane closure ahead”. It would have been more efficient to announce “no lane closures ahead” except that never really happened. But we made good time, in spite of regular lane closures. We were able to check into our room immediately upon arrival, and park in our reserved parking spot. Pure luxury. Then it was time for lunch, and a chance to taste another variety of arancini. This time I went for Ragu, mainly because that was all they had. Tasty.
We still had a while before sunset, so we headed out to explore the old city, and check out restaurants for dinner. Right outside our room there was a Pomegranate tree with ripe fruit. We decided it would be wrong to pick it.
On the sidewalk we spotted a very large caterpillar. Probably a very hungry caterpillar as well. We included Jan’s shoe in the picture to show you just how large it was.
On our walk, we passed the remains of the Temple of Apollo, dating from 565 BC. It will not surprise you to hear that I stopped to take a picture.
I wanted to catch a picture of the setting sun. I just missed it, and the only angle I could get included a cruise ship. The cruise ships were probably the source of the groups we saw getting guided tours in the city. It confirms that cruises really aren’t our thing. But it was a nice sunset.
The most famous citizen of Syracuse is probably Archamedis. So we stopped to visit his statue. Tomorrow we may visit his museum. I know, shocking!
It’s getting dark early now because daylight savings time has ended. It has always been a mystery to me why we have daylight savings time in the summer, when we have more daylight than we know what to do with, and then we stop it in winter, when a bit more daylight would be really nice. Enquiring minds want to know! Where am I going with this, you ask? It was getting dark early, so we headed back to the apartment. Fortunately we are very near the duomo, so it is easy to spot from some distance. I learned today that this may be one of Jan’s criteria when selecting accommodation – near a tall structure. Who knew?
We have two days to explore Syracuse. Let’s see what we can find.
