A very long time ago, last millennium in fact, we visited Greece. The kids were much younger, and at the start of our trip we tried tzatziki at Sami’s Restaurant. It was divine. That started us on a search for tzatziki better than Sami’s. We never found it, but the search was fun. On that same trip, the breakfast buffet had baklava. It isn’t exactly part of a balanced breakfast, but we were on holiday, so why not. The kids had never had baklava, so I suggested they try it. They were dubious, but I said “just try one little bite”. I didn’t have to ask them to have a second bite. And that started a search for breakfast baklava. Much later, when I was visiting Jordan, I fell in love with shankleesh. That started the great shankleesh experiment where we tried many variations, and eventually learned how to make it ourselves. By now you can probably see where this is going. On this trip we have been in search of different types of caponata, arancini, and gelato in Sicily. We’ve also been sampling cannoli. This was from dinner last night which we finished with cannoli and limoncello.

We don’t do a lot of shopping when we travel, but we have been known to search out a few special (and small) items. Wooden spoons (we love cooking), scarves (Jan loves scarves) and Christmas ornaments (who doesn’t love Christmas) are our favourites. We found these in Syracuse this morning.

Today was a travel day, and we are staying at an airport hotel tonight before we fly to Rome tomorrow, so it was a perfect day to wander in Syracuse before we headed out. Last night we noticed that several streets had been blocked off and stalls set up. By today, the vendors were beginning to set up.

One of the stalls had Etna Honey. On our tour of Etna we learned that some of the best honey in Italy comes from one small village on the slopes of Etna, and sure enough they were setting up a stall.

It seemed early for a Christmas market, so we did a little research to see what it was all about. Turns out that it’s a celebration of All Saint’s Day. Jan still insists it is celebrating her birthday…

Yesterday I posted a picture of the Syracuse Cathedral. We had some time today to explore so I did a bit of research and discovered that the original Doric temple was incorporated into the walls of a Byzantium cathedral in the seventh century. When the Arabs conquered Sicily, it was converted into a mosque, and then when the Norman’s conquered Sicily it became a cathedral again. We had to have a closer look. Once we knew what to look for, you could clearly see the evidence of the Doric temple from the outside of the cathedral.

We actually bought tickets and went inside. It was fascinating. The columns of the Doric temple were even more visible from the inside.

The floors date to the Norman period.

If you look at this picture, you can see one of the stones on the left is illuminated. The light is coming from the sun, through stained glass windows high on the other side.

Because the building has transitioned across several religions and cultures, you find a fascinating mix of styles. The base of the columns under the pulpit are lions.

This baptismal font had been a Doric storage jar, and the art on the stained glass and walls shows clear Islamic influences. Fascinating.

Then it was off to Catania airport, where we checked in and then I managed to find the Hertz rental location. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. The charge for the scratch to the car was modest, and I was happy knowing that I never have to drive in Sicily again. We may be back, but not with a car.

Tomorrow we fly to Rome.