Today was Syracuse and Ortigia. Mama opted out of this excursion and decided to rest so it was just me and Jack, but of course, first, we ate breakfast at the hotel buffet. It was funny they had the toast machine together incorrectly so Jack fixed it and taught them how to use it... in English - when they spoke Italian. It was humurous.
The drive to Syracuse was about 1.5 hours so I enjoyed the scenery on the way over. The tour guide was fairly interesting and had an interest in horticulture so we learned about the plants as well as the historical location. The archaeological site was mainly a set of mines that were hand chiseled out by slaves for the limestone, this created massive caves that were fairly interesting to see. There was also an amphitheater that is the original greek seats. They had them covered as it is in the season and they are actually putting on plays in the original Greek style; they covered them so ladies' heels, etc... do not damage them.
I must say the heat was a bit much - I'm grateful Mama didn't come as she would have been suffering. Toward the end, we sat down and a stray cat saw Jack get his water bottle out and ran to him - Jack gave him water from his hand which he happily drank and then cleaned himself. It was so sweet.
After this, we drove down to Ortigia which was really a bunch of nothing. There were some greek columns in the middle and then you walk down this road to a big plaza with a Greek Temple to Athena which has been converted into a church. It was pretty but by this time we were hot, hungry and sick of hearing this guy talk about Greek Columns. If he said it 1 time he said it 10 times that the church was not what was interesting; it was the Greek Columns. I swear I wanted him to eat a Greek Column by the time we were done.
Jack and I then walked down to the waterfront and took a few pictures before trying to find something to eat. And then we had the classic - what do you want, I don't care what do you want, I don't care. Ok let's eat here - no I don't want that discussion. This is why I always research restaurants ahead of time. We stopped at this one place for pizza but they never waited on us so we used their bathrooms and left. We ended up getting an ice cream and then grabbing this fried rice thing. It was sooo good - it's a common food in the area and it was delicous!
We then got on the bus and I slept almost the whole hour and a half back to the hotel.
I got a shower - we met up with Mama who really enjoyed her day of rest and then we headed out for a delicious dinner with the group. After dinner, Mama and I walked down the beach to these rocks left over from the lava. They were so warm to the touch - it was awesome.
By the time we got back we were both tired - the sand is rock here and rough to walk on.
So now it's time for bed before we go see a volcano tomorrow. Sleep well guys :)
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