Syracuse
This medium-sized city with about 125,000 inhabitants is a city like everyone else outside the old centre. But in the centre and in the area around the archeological park it is a beautiful city. Ortiga city centre is especially worth a visit. However, we first choose the archeological park, which contains a Greek theatre. But more importantly, you can enjoy walking there. Walking with Misty, she is not allowed to go, but she is cosy with us. Between lemon trees you walk through a particularly beautiful environment. You walk to the antique quarries (latomy). Here the building material for the city was mined and it was later used as a prison. Mega large caves are open to the public and I can imagine that it is even more pleasant to visit in the summer. It is nice and cool because of the caves and the trees.
One of the caves is called the Ear of Dionysius. It is a cave that is 23 metres high and runs about 65 metres into the rocks. By swinging the cave, it has a special acoustics and fantastic echo. It was, according to legend, also used to hear what the prisoners were telling. As a result, people knew well in advance what the prisoners were up to. Before we enter the old town (by bike) we first visit Santuario madonna delle Lacrime (Madonna of Tears). It is a huge pilgrimage church from 1966. Here in a simple house a statuette of Mary would have shown real tears for almost four days. This figurine is now in the church. No idea why they erected such a modern building. It is one of the busiest pilgrimage churches in the world. It seats 3,000 visitors. I especially liked the incidence of light inside, the modern style inside a bit less beautiful. The old town is located on the Ortiga peninsula. Here you will find many baroque buildings and churches again. All rebuilt after the great earthquake of 1693. What is also fun to do is walk along the sea around the town and grab a lovely terrace there. Exactly what we did :-).
Capo Passero and Marzamemi
The southeast tip of the island. Here, two sea currents come together and the cargo ships sail around the island. It was windy, the sea was wild, it was like Texel. Except that the sea had a different colour, more green and blue colours. It's not a very nice point in itself, but it remains special to see. On the one hand, the waves come from the left on the other side from the right and at Capo Passero this comes together. Justo al frente de la costa se encuentra la desierta Isola di Capopássero. Aquí están los restos de un pequeño castillo, una fábrica de atún y un faro. Cerca de este punto, los aliados desembarcaron el 10 de julio de 1943. Then we drove to Marzamemi. This village also originated around a tuna farm and a noble family. It is now quiet in the village, but it has cosy squares and a nice harbour. Given the amount of parking spaces just behind the coast (5 football fields), it will be quite busy in the summer.
Something with toilet paper
In the Netherlands it is common for you to throw toilet paper into the toilet and then flush it. You throw other things in the trash that is often next to it. In other countries it is sometimes something else. From France we know the squat toilets, which we also partly see in Italy. Sometimes you see a bidet that you can use after visiting the toilet. In southern Italy they have a thing for toilet paper. Already at the campsite in Salerno (under Naples) we see signs asking not to throw toilet paper into the toilet. And in Sicily we see this again. Then we started googling, because this is unusual, right? What turns out? The narrow sewage system is not calculated on the crams of paper. So it would become clogged. You are supposed to throw the toilet paper into the trash can that is next to the toilet. However, this is an ordinary open trash can.............. and not one with a lid on it. Rudolf is already used to it and just uses it, I have a little more trouble with it. I'm doing my best, because there will probably be more countries that use this. So keep it up :-).
Travelling is adapting to the customs and cultures of the country. That's a bit easier sometimes than it turns out the other time. Arrivederci from Palermo!
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