Drinking a cappuccino in the square called “July 25th” I wondered, why name a square after a date? It is the day that Mussolini resigned in 1943. A  short walk from  the marina, the square is between the food market and the old town. The daily food market there is said to be the best  […]

For our next day’s exploration of local history we walked through the more modern parts of Siracusa to the caves where the Athenian survivors were imprisoned. Being part of an old quarry they go very deep.  Strange shapes resulted from the need to follow the good stone which was in seams. The prisoners were starved, […]

In search of the finest Baroque streetscape in all of Italy, we caught a bus to Noto and were not disappointed. This whole town was re-built after the major earthquake of the 1693.  All the main buildings are effervescent, show-off full Baroque pieces of fun. The designers re-located the town down the hill from the […]

Rounding the pale stone castle at the entrance of the bay we suddenly left a rolling sea for a sheltered calm lagoon. It had been a downwind motor sail with some seasickness on the way. Parrot says next time anyone leans out of the cockpit to give the old technicolour yawn, they must be told […]