Travel to Sicily: Siracuse

When I arrived in Sicily, the transportation strike was indeed on. One lone, poor, barely-past-his-teens Italian was in the bus ticket booth, trying his hardest to fight off the belligerent masses, who were bombarding him with both questions and insults. By the time I made my way to the front of the mob and asked about the status of the buses in my best Italian, his only reply was that he didn't know if any buses were coming at all. Sure, it might show up 3 hours from now, but there was no guarantee. (The oddest thing to me was that these people acted as if they had no idea there was a strike, and yet it had been in every publication for the last several days.) Leave it to the Italians. So after a 100 Euro taxi ride (What other choice was there?), I made it to the first destination: Syracuse. This was once the most powerful city in the known world (long before Rome). I found the city to be free from the general hustle and bustle of Rome, much more laid back and relaxing. It was smaller than I had expected, very quaint. The most touristy part of the city is the island of Ortygia, which still has a Venetian-influenced main piazza. Although much further south, the ocean breezes made Siracusa much cooler, so it felt wonderful to stroll around the city in the evening. After exploring for about 6 hours on foot, I stumbled upon a Sicilian gelateria where I tried both Cannella (Cinnamon) and Ricotta flavored gelato! Mmm! (New flavors to add to my rotation!)

Day 2: Started off the day by touring the catacombs of San Giovanni, the largest catacombs in the Roman Empire (and possibly anywhere?) with room for more than 20,000 burials. (It was used as a hiding place during the bombings of WWII.) Because of the difference in climate, I saw all kinds of different plants I'd never seen before: figs, date palms, and even papyrus, growing in the fresh spring, Fonte Aretusa, praised in poetry by both Pindar and Virgil. The best part of the day was running into Mafia man #2. (Okay, I don't REALLY know that he's tied to the Mafia, but you tell ME how a guy who runs a sandwich shop can take off two months to travel (this year for example) to Texas, Mexico, Panama, Uraguay, Argentina and 5 other countries I can't recall. I'm pretty sure it's not being covered by Fulbright!) After chatting him up a bit he offered me my first "arancia," not really an orange, but a rice ball, resembling an orange with various kinds of stuffing.