Weekend of Sicily

 

This is where we went swimming in the first town we visited, Giardini-Naxos. The bus we took there was real swank. It had curtains, and tables, and the seats were so comfy. I was kinda tired from not sleeping on the train but the first thing we did when we got to this town was get an espresso. And Marty and I got these pinenut cookies that were so good! And also in this town Lindsey got bit by a dog! She ran up to this golden retriever in a car, cause he was really cute, and she put out her hand to pet him and he bit her! It was kinda scary. She was dripping blood. Its healing ok, she didn't have to go to the hospital, but she said it still hurt today. The weather was not the nicest, but it was still pretty, and the water was really warm. There were tons of little fishes on the bottom that nibbled our toes. 

You would have loved it.
 

This is the cannoli I got! You really would have loved it. This was in a town called Taromina. It was cute. High up on a hill, lots of little shops and boutique stores. There was some interesting churches there. One had a skull and crossbones on it, and we were told it was a superstitions thing, to protect the town. It really made it look like an old pirate village. In one of the churches some one was getting married! All the guests had these beautiful shoes and dresses on. We didn't get to see the bride though. After we drove all the way to Siracusa! Which wasn't that far, only like two hours. We had dinner at the hotel. It was pretty gross. They gave us swordfish, and it still had all the bones in it, and the spine and everything, and i tried it anyway but it took a lot of effort. The dessert was Tiramasu which was good. It was still raining, but we walked to the center of town after dinner anyway and went to a bar. It was nice, talking to people and stuff, but were still really tired so we went back pretty soon. Weren't too sure how to get back, but we asked some people along the way and figured it out.

 This is a crazy church that was right across from our hotel in Siracusa. It was called the Sanctuary, and apparently there was a statue of Mary that cried real human tears. It was huge and we used it as the light to guide us home, cause you can see it from practically anywhere in the city. Our hotel was called Hotel del Sanctuarium. Thats a pic of the roman ampitheater.

This the huge cave near the ruins that had been emptied to use the stone inside it. It echoed a lot and the guide sang for us.

This is Sarah. They gave us these delicious peaches as a snack at the CATacombs. After that we went to the market where the fish stalls were so gross i couldn't even take a picture of them. Sicily is known for its pistachios so we got some and some Pistachio pesto. Sarah wanted to try the pesto so we are going to have her apartment over for a dinner party one night and eat it all together.

 Alyssa and I had brought our own lunch (that we stole from the hotel at breakfast) so while everyone else went to a restaurant we walked to the end of this jetty. It was made of these huge concrete stones that looked like building blocks for giant babies.

After lunch time we went on a boat around the edge of the Island. It took us into different grottos (little caves on the water). They smelt of sulfer (eggs) so bad though, it made me nauseous. This one grotto looked like a heart!
We went swimming off of the boat. The water was really nice again and so clear! It must have been at least 30ft deep and we could see right down to the bottom.
After the boat we had free time and we went to the city center, walked around, I fell asleep on a bench and we saw a Caravaggio! One of his last.

 On Sunday we went to this town called Noto. The architecture was baroque and was beautiful.

This little man was riding around on the streets of Noto. It was a little electronic car that his dad was controlling. He even had a little sweater tied around his shoulders!
After Noto, bus to the train station, train, ferry, train, class, nap time.