Wildflowers

Yesterday my sister's granddaughter, Francesca, and her uncle and I went for an after dinner walk.  The wildflowers have been blooming for awhile now.  I picked a small bouquet for the house.  My sister said they were just weeds but I think they are beautiful anyway.  We passed one property where the wisteria are in bloom.  They smell wonderful.

The wisteria climbed up the power pole.  We saw one in town that was trained into a small tree.  On our walk we passed a property that had quite a long fence just covered with wisteria. Beautiful!

Wild Orchid

Margarita

Wisteria

I don't know the name of this flower, but it was very interesting.  The purple part of the flower is one with the green part and looks like it was painted on.  I took this photo last week and yesterday I noticed a new development....a small, round bud-like thing coming from the centre of each little flower.  I'll keep an eye on it as I am curious as to the end result.

Flutterby

This butterfly was on the deck, and yes, the deck is marble as are all the floors in the house.  They must be deliciously cool in the summer as on cool evenings they are like standing on ice when barefoot. 

I have shown you just a few of the wildflowers. . .there are many more!

Prometeo

Near the home of Archimedes is this statue of Prometeo.

Prometeo

His mother was a queen and a very beautiful woman. When he was born she gave him away to be raised. When he became a young man he met this beautiful woman and wanted to make love to her.  She said, "Don't you know who I am?" and he said, "no".  She said, "I am your mother and I will send you out of this world the same way you came into it."

 I could not find any info on the internet, but that is the legend told to my sister by the tour guide.

Every field in this area is littered with stones.  There is no shortage of rock in Sicily.  They put the rocks to good use and you will see stone fences and retaining walls everywhere.

They usually don't use cement on these walls, although I see the odd wall with the final layer being a thin coat of cement. Some of the fences are very long and I think of how much work goes into erecting them.

Seafood

We went to a seafood store in Floridia called Mari & Sapori.  I had my sister ask if I could take some photos in the store. The owner grabbed his wife and they posed for a photo.  He said I could take as many photos as I wanted.

It was a really nice store...very clean and bright and the owners were very friendly.

Many of my friends back home enjoy seafood.  Personally, the only seafood I like is fish.  I just never developed a taste for it.  I thought I would send some photos with prices to give you an idea of costs here in Sicily.

I have never seen this particular animal before.  I can't imagine eating anything that looks like this. Roma says they have a black liquid inside (ink) that makes a delicious sauce. They are called seppie or cuttlefish. There are two types.

There was a variety of fish and shellfish plus various spices and sauces.  If you like seafood Sicily is the place to be!

Noto

Today we toured Noto which is a city famous for its Baroque architecture. As usual there was so much to see and I took many photos.

Noto Cathedral

Noto Town Hall

The cathedral is undergoing an interior facelift and there were scaffolds everywhere, but here is an inside photo.

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There are 34 Catholic churches in this city of about 24,000 people. There were 3 big churches on the first two blocks we walked.

Church of San Domenico

Noto Cathedral 

We went to one church that charged 2€ to go up to the bell tower.

The steps were very narrow and windy.  Roma got partway up and was dizzy so went back down.  I was tempted to pull the rope and ring the bell, but I behaved.  It was well worth the climb as I could see miles in all directions.

It was a beautiful day with temps in low 20's.  The locals were still in parkas.  When we arrived home I changed into capris and sandals for my walk and was still hot!

Greek Theatre

Today we went to the Greek Theatre in Siracusa.  My sister knew one of the groundsmen and he got us free tickets to enter.  There was so much to see there and I took quite a few photos.

You can only see about a quarter of it in the photo. It was constructed in the 5th. century B.C., redone in the 3rd. century B.C. and remains the same since then.  It is the largest built by the Greeks and seats 155,000 people.  It was later used by the Romans. Today, in the summer months, the locals perform Greek plays. They were constructing a platform for the plays while we were there today.

Ear of Dionysius

This cave got its name because of its shape.  Legend says that it was a prison for political dissidents and the acoustics are perfect.  Dionysius was therefore able to eavedrop on the prisoners in case they were plotting an escape.

Home of Dionysius

See, I really am here!  There was another,smaller amphitheatre.

Amphitheatre

Prisoners were chained to the centre post and the lions were released. Nice guys those Romans.

Tombs

These are tombs of wealthy people.  They have been emptied of all contents. Apparently these people were buried with some valuables and these are now in museums. 

These caves were homes.  I don't know who lived 

here...could have been servants, but that is just a guess.  They didn't look too inviting.

Home of Archimedes 

Home Sweet Home

We walked about a block and arrived at the home of Archimedes. He was killed by a Roman soldier.  I was only able to capture a very small portion of this large property. 

We left the Greek Theatre and drove about 5 minutes to McDonalds.  It seemed rather incongruous!

:-) 

Vehicles and Coffee

Vehicles here are small.  I see the odd big car and small motor homes.  Smart Cars are quite popular. The streets are narrow and parking spaces are scarce. On any street one will see both parralel parking and angle parking.  You fit in any way you can.  You park right to the edge of the intersection if you have to so one has to be careful at intersections.

I see a lot of these very, very small three-wheeled trucks.  Sometimes they carry vegetables and fruit and sometimes gardening tools or whatever.  I think they are rather cute.  A litre of gasoline is about 1.89€ a litre and diesel is about 1.90€ a litre.  It changes almost daily.  Roma's small Ford is diesel.

They like their coffee here but prepare it differently than we do back home.

They perk it in these little perculators and fill the little cup half-full of coffee.  They add a teaspoon of sugar and stir. It is very strong. I put a regular sized coffee mug for comparison.  

It has been cooler here than usual.  We just heard on the news that it is the coldest spring in two centuries, being about 17 degrees below normal for this time of year. It has been between 12 and 14C all week and rainy.

I am sending one of my favourite photos of Siracusa.

Now isn't this a pretty street?  It faces the sea.

What do I see?

We have been staying close to home waiting for the hot weather to get here.  It has been in the mid-teens, but cloudy and rainy. It seems colder as the humidity is high.  It is so much more enjoyable to be out on a hot day.

I thought I would share some photos of what I see on any given day.

Church Doors

These beautiful doors are on the Floridia church.  My nephew was married in this church. The doors are made of brass.  The interior is beautiful as well but I always feel I shouldn't take photos inside especially if people are inside.






What do I see when I go for a walk?  I see many orange, lemon and olive groves.

Orange Grove

My sister buys her olive oil
from her neighbour for 5€ a litre.  Today it takes $1.51 Cdn. to make 1€.  Of course this is pure olive oil.  They buy the stone ground oil.  It is preferable to the machine ground. Olives she picks from her friend's place.  She puts them in a saline brine and they keep for a long time.  She often mixes them with hot red peppers, oregano, garlic cloves, and mint leaves and covers them with oil to serve.

What do they cook in olive oil?  EVERYTHING!  There is olive oil on green salads, sauces, meat, and vegetables. About the only things without oil are desserts.  How much oil do they use?  LOTS!  I find it is too much for me.  The other day my nephew and family were here for supper.  Marco had a thin slice of beef and poured the oil on.  They are accustomed to this diet.  One tbsp. of olive oil is 150 calories and about 92% fat.  It is good for you though.

Pasta is served at least once a day.  Here pasta is served every lunch followed with meat and vegetables. I don't like to be a fussy eater but generally forego the pasta.

Prices in store (vary by store):
White flour:     .49€/kg
Brown flour:    .59€/kg
Tomatoes:         .30€/kg. summer
                            1-1.50€/kg winter
Eggs(10):            1.49€
Milk:                   .49€/litre
Sugar:                 .99€/kg
Beer:                    2.19€ for 6 small imported from
                            Germany
Wine:                  2.19€/one and a half litres

Wild asparagas and wild spinach grow here and we eat a lot of it.  Both are delicious. My sister is a good cook so everything tastes good.  She cooks and I do the cleanup.

Next posting I will cover other costs.