Sicily Part I

We just spent a wonderful week in Sicily visiting some good friends and touring the island. Here are some photos from the first couple days of our trip.

We arrived on Saturday and were immediately dumped into some back alley of Catania by a bus driver who didn't want to admit that he didn't know where our rental car company was located. We somehow kept our cool and, with our superior pantomiming skills, were able to get assistance from four people working at an auto mechanic shop who were very surprised to see us wandering around with our luggage and a toddler. They called our rental company and then indicated that we needed to travel the half hour back to the airport by bus. Not bad communication considering it was all charades! Here we are getting on the plane, waiting for our second bus ride, napping on said bus and arriving to visit Roger, Leah, Abby and Seth. We enjoyed an early Thanksgiving dinner together on Sunday and were so happy to be reunited with good friends.



On Monday we headed south to Siracusa and visited the Greek theater. We got our first taste of Italian driving (bus ride not withstanding) and it was a little wild. Patrick did great and we found that we did the best when we discarded "rules" and thought of the traffic as more of a flow.



Brennan loved climbing the theater steps and was captivated by the waterfall in the grotto. Here is an inscription that is still readable after all this time, me honoring Coke Zero with a place in a diety niche, and some views from the top of the theater.



We also stopped by the Roman arena, used for bloodier entertainment.



We then headed into Ortigia, or oldtown Siracusa, for some pizza on the go. A nice elderly man stopped to take a picture of Brennan eating pizza from the Ergo backpack, (thanks for the loaner Fringers!) The Italians love children as much as the Germans, and once Brennan picked up "ciao ciao" he was a real hit. He's tri-lingual now! We wandered through town and enjoyed some fabulous gelato in the Piazza Duomo.



We bought a Sicilian wine and called it a day. Brennan slept the whole way back, what perfect timing!



That night Roger and Leah treated us to a fantastic dinner at a local agritourismo. We had the whole place to ourselves. First we were given a tour of the buildings and rooms in a mix of Italian and English. It seems that Richard Wagner's tombstone is there, not sure if he is with it or not though. We were then treated to champagne in a lounge-type room before heading into the restaurant to be fed whatever the kitchen had planned for us. The food was amazing and it was fun to spend some time with our good friends sans children.