# Other Places Around The World > Italy Travel Forum >  >  Only a few hours before our journey begins. Lately circumstances made us a bit nervous, so I will just cross my fingers and hope we will get the travelling over with. Air traffic control strike, snow

## Karibien

Only a few hours before our journey begins. Lately circumstances made us a bit nervous, so I will just cross my fingers and hope we will get the travelling over with. Air traffic control strike, snow piling up in Sicily, hubby's coming down with a bad cold... All seems to be under control now, and I really long to wake up to a cup of espresso and a stroll on Piazza Duomo and Via Etnea :)
Report and pictures will follow
/K

----------


## andynap

Pleasant journey and good weather.

----------


## Karibien

Wow, what a day it has been. After one long bore of journey we have had a fabolous day that I just need to get off my chest before I go to bed.

The bad first:
Bad flight schedule had us leave home at 8 am, arrive at Stockholm ARN with five hours to kill. It's a boring airport. The Alitalia-flight to Catania via Milan was roughly 3pm-6pm and 9pm to 11pm. A long day.

Bad traffic arriving in Catania around midnight on a Saturday... The traffic is insane. Furthermore it's pitch black and you're trying to locate tiny white hotel signs stuck to walls and signpoles while keeping an eye out for those road signs "Catania porto" posted so high up the car headlights didn't reach them enough for easy reading. Needless to say, we were lost. Followed the signs to the port one to many crossroads, and hey presto, here's the port! We almost laughed when we looked around. We were not the only ones the that ended up there unwillingly. It was like a F1 pit stop, dozens of cars swinging by and then steering back on the road again. Zigzaging along one-way streets, trying to figure out where how to get the map to resemble the real deal, swallowing your heart back into your chest after holding your own through a four "lane" roundabout full of testosterone on wheels isn't much fun either when all you want is a comfy bed. On the issue of Catania traffic Lonely Planet conludes: "Remember to bear in mind that driving in Catania is only for the brave (or heavily insured). If you must drive, the best time to arrive and leave is between 2pm and 4pm or on Sunday, when everyone is safely at home and not in their cars." I second that. 2.30 on a Sunday was a perfect time to leave :)

Bad parking. Finding an empty spot to leave your car is difficult. Finding out if leaving it there is legal is even more difficult. The price for not knowing Italian.

Now for the good parts.
Baroque. We have seen houndreds of wounderful, grotesque, magnificent barouqe buildings. Lime stone and old lava stone carved as wood to complex designs. Wrought iron forged to flourishes in gates and balconies. Columns and capitals. Houses, palazzas, churches. Ssome faded beauties, others restored to old grandeur. I love it! (Catania was flooded in lava 1669 and hit by an earhtquake in 1693, and consequently rebuilt in the style a la mode)

The coffee. Whatever we call caffe latte back home isn't worth the name. My daughter almost licked the inside of her cappucino cup. "This is good. This is so strong. Good strong. Why does swedish baristas think that we like our coffee bitter?!"

Heureka. I have found it and I love it. Ortigia. The old part of Siracusa, located on an island next to mainland, is living history. Ancient Greek, Norman, baroque and more. Home to Archimedes. Narrow roads and alleys. Restaurants, shops, and dwellings in houses that look like an architechts study book. Whenever you turn around a corner the ambiance changes. Cosy. Imposing. Sad. Flamboyant. Easygoing.

The apartment hotel. And the apartment. And the shower. If it was only for the shower I would love this whole vacation. How can you not fall in love with the angular assymetrical arched-in mosaic tiled shower? Of course you can't. So we did. Luckily, the rest of the apartment is all good too. Nowhere near luxury, but space, function and history too. And not to forget, the super super. The concierge that ran stairs up and down and rummaged through boxes and bags until he found the adapter that made it possible for us to charge the laptop and get online. Some Spanish, a bit of French, a lot of Italian and very few words in English somehow got us connected to the electricity net and the wifi lan, transferred passwords and offered Indian fig (Opuntia ficus-indica). I love that too.

The climate. Leaving the windbreaker and the cardigan. Enjoying the sun on naked arms, and when beads form on our foreheads, longing for cool shade. By noon touching 80F/27C when hiding from the sun, compared to my hometowns 47F/8C in pouring rain and howling winds.

I am loving this!

/K

----------


## KevinS

Nice to hear that things are going well.  Enjoy!

----------


## JEK

> And the shower. If it was only for the shower I would love this whole vacation. How can you not fall in love with the angular asymmetrical arched-in mosaic tiled shower? Of course you can't. K



I'm booking the room now  . . . .

----------


## MIke R

I'm insanely jealous Karibien....enjoy...the chestnut harvest is in full swing....a nice bag of freshly roasted, with a glass of  Donna Fugato white......perfect

----------


## andynap

Nice descriptions- I feel like I'm there- ALMOST.

----------


## Karibien

All is still well. The sun is shining. We have been exploring the old town in Siracusa, Ortigia, and the more I see the more I love it. If you ever have the chance to visit Sicily, do not miss Ortigia!

JEK, ask for room number 9 at www.aretusavacanzes.com We love it. But I think it is more for the those who love that small place MikeR stays at. Clean, simple, airy, very friendly staff, excellent location.

MikeR, I'll post some pictures later to easy some of your pain. I will ask for the Donna Fugata next time out :)


Since the last time we have learned the exact price for not knowing Italian, and trusting a local to know enough English to translate the sign with parking regulations. 22 EUR. We moved to the big parking space on the other side of Ortigia, close to the bridges. 0.60 EUR/h, 24h.

We bought some fresh vegetables and fruits at the market, passed the salumeria and picked up some pancetta and mortadella. Made risotto for lunch (onions, garlic, red bellpepper, pancetta, and a bunch of basilico and prezzemolo).

Highlight of the day: the Duomo. It is absolutly beautiful. And if you look at postcard pictures, you should know that the baroque facade is just a facade. The real ancient church/temple is inside - and visible from the outside as well. Resting your hand at one of the columns from a far distant millenium - awesome...

/K

----------


## Karibien

Sorry, I made a spelling error in the webadress above, www.aretusavacanze.com

Okay, so the honeymoon is over.

This Tuesday started 2.30 am. Woke up hot because the ac had shut off. No way could we make it operate properly, just the fan mode worked. 

The breakfast menu has us pussled, who wants sugery buns for breakfast?

The first glance at the sky was met with a raindrop in the eye.

Today's first mission: pay the parking fee of 22 EUR.

Next mission: find our way out of the city. Howcome cities are so good at pointing signs at city center, but not at city exit? They don't want us to leave? They just want us to keep circeling around until we are tired and hungry and succumb to spending yet another bunch of tourist euros on life support?

Who pays the guy who issues licences to traffic school teachera? 

If we all just honked at the same time, could we then just get the bl-y h-l out of everybody's way?

So many beautiful cities and so little time. And so few parking spaces. We went straight through Modica Alta as there were nowhere to stop.

On the other hand, we came to a complete stop in Noto Alta. Winding down towards Noto Bassa we suddenly came to a one-way street, had to stop, back up and make a turn. Almost made it. And then I hit the ccrner stone of the sidewalk. Did you know you could actually dent a tyre? Yea well, a rim and hub-cap took some damage too.

When I finally found Donnafugata, it was over my budget. 39:50 EUR. I don't have the palate to appriciate that kind of wine.

By this time we had long since decided not to let things bug us. Fix or forget. We still love it here!

And what about the ac? Well, this is late October and not hot August so we managed just fine the rest of the night after we removed the down duvet. Later we found out the solution to the problem; tilting the automatic fuse for the ac. My guess is I caused the overload myself by cranking up the fridge.

Sugar sprinkled buns and honeysmeard bread can be avoided. There are other options on the menu, and the salumeria a couple of blocks away has mortadella for those who prefer salt to sugar on the breakfast sandwich.

The parking fine of 22 EUR is just slightly more than we would have paid had we stayed in a parking lot that 24 hours (0.60 EU/h)

The graphite grey clouds hovered but eventually dropped their rain elsewhere.

Everybody's will to live triumphed over the will to conquer, to be first, to master the traffic. We all got safely home today. When returning the car with a dented tyre, the extra damage waiver may prove to be valualble.

We did manage to stop in Modica Bassa, where I found a pair of glasses I might buy - I've been looking for nearly two years - I bought a bottle of liqueur - chocolate &amp; peperocino. And MikeR, some quick research found me Donnafugata at a reasonable price - at home, in Sweden! Donnafugata is  imported to the US too, have you checked where it is available for you?

All is still well in Sicily

/K

----------


## MIke R

I've only seen the DF white wine in our stores....and the DF over there is without the sulfites.....but yes they are starting to export...something they swore they would never do

----------


## Karibien

Yes it is over. The vacation. Adventure. The journey. The autumn.

We got up at 4 am for the first flight out of Catania. A bit of chill in the air, a slight drizzle, as we crossed Piazza Duomo to find the Alibus that would take us to the airport. The checkin-line were insane. One queue, eight counter. And not much motion. Slowly, slowly crept the queue forward. No way no how were we going to make the checkin in time for boarding. I ran on the outside to one counter; "I need to see the supervisor, we have a tight connection that we just have to make, there is only one flight a day from Milan to Stockholm so we really need to get on this flight to Milan now." And the answer was a somewhat reassuring "Yes she know of the problem, just wait in line and she will call you". The queue slowly creeping forward as the minutes zoomed by. No one called. I ran the outside on the right hand side this time, and got some action. Soon we were checked in, and other fellow Milan-travllers motioned forward.

No problem, we will wait until all passengers are checked in, the attendant at the gate told us. Wich now had us worried that we would be running late for the connection. No problem. It seems Alitalia schedules some extra time, so even with a 15-20 minutes late take off, you might be landing on time. The Catania-Milan flight was scheduled 1 hour 55 minutes, but took 1 hour 30.

Uneventful flight to Milan, and from Milan to Stocholm. What doesn't happen on Alitalias flights is food. We had time to grab a panini at the Milan airport, otherwise our breakfast would have consisted of 4 tiny cookies and a glass/cup of juice/Coke/te/coffee/water. Not what a Swede would have chosen for what we call "the most important meal of the day". Next flight: a piece of stale sponge cake or a cube of sandwich wonderbred-style. I can't believe I actually looked forward to the aiport and McDonalds after flying with an airline based in Italy, a country famous for its love of food?! I am sorry if I sound grumpy, but getting up at 4 am and not getting food does this to me. And if you are a diabethic, it might be very important to know about the non-existing breakfast.

Spending the air time going through some of the pictures for the trip. I love this part. How the pictures puts you back, with the sounds and the smells, and the sunshine on your face :) This time, as an experiment, I used only the camera on my phone. It was just way more convienent not to hang the digital camera around my neck when I already had a camera in my pocket. I don't expect a lot from the pictures, I took all the touristy pics and then some, mostly using automatic mode minus flash. The phone is new to me, and I didn't want to spend the vacation reading manuals. Picture proof will be posted shortly, just have to get the unpacking and washing up thing done first.

And oh, as autumn is now offically over, we need to go put the winter tyres on today. The first snow settled in Sweden as we flew home yesterday.

I knew there was an added bonus to taking the vacation pics with the phone camera - whenever the weather is bad and I long to be somewhere else I will have the vacation pics in my pocket!

/K

----------


## andynap

Waiting for the pictures.

----------


## Karibien

Hi,

one of the last days in Ortigia I picked up a couple of bottles of wine in the local shop. They had only two types of Donnafugata, one white, and one red, so that's what I bought. Now, the red is Sed

----------


## andynap

From Babelfish

Native Catarratto 50%, other varieties 50%. Wine that is opened delicate in the floreali scents and yields to you, in which it detaches the yellow apple. To the palate it is dry, fresh of acidity, of moderated alcoholic and balanced degree. Damaskino the 2005 vintage year fresh has put in greater light the aromatic peculiarities of the vitigni uses you: Native Catarratto and other varieties. The Damaskino 2005 confirmation its characteristic proverbiali of immediate pleasantness; to enjoy like aperitif or in order to accompany pietanze to read.
Card Technica Tipologia: White man - IGT Sicily Gradazione: 12-12,5% vol. Vinificazione: The grapes, collections in the first decade of September, come subordinates to soft tamping. Must Fermenta to controlled temperature. The wine comes put in commerce after a sharpening in bottle at least 2 months. Grapes: Native Catarratto 50%, other varieties 50%. Breeding to controspalliera and pruning to speronato cord. Medium density of system 5,000 stocks for hectare and production of approximately 85 q.li/ha. Land of medium paste. Description: Wine that is opened delicate in the floreali scents and yields to you, in which it detaches the yellow apple. To the palate it is dry, fresh of acidity, of moderated alcoholic and balanced degree. Couplings: For these its dowries are adapted to accompany appetizers, warmth or colds, first plates of the kitchen of sea. Perfect on bubbled fish. Two Prescriptions: Garganelli with trout threads. "Babbaluci", that is the scrolls, with garlic, prezzemolo and pepper. Like serving it: In it decreases us of medium amplitude without embrasure, to open at the moment, optimal to 9-11

----------


## Karibien

"Couplings: For these its dowries are adapted to accompany appetizers, warmth or colds, first plates of the kitchen of sea. Perfect on bubbled fish. Two Prescriptions: Garganelli with trout threads."

LOL

Next cold, I'll ask the doctor for some trout threads instead of aspirin

These online translators are fun, but a bit hard to understand. Seems the wine has been "sharpening in bottle at least 2 months" before sold. I won't bother to try and distinguish any oakflavours then...

Thanks Andy, I needed a laugh this morning

----------


## andynap

What? You don't like "bubbled fish"? Thought you would enjoy that translation.

----------

