Siracusa, Catania, Padova
Mediterranean driving is one of weak expectations. Things that would end badly back in places with stronger expectations about rule-following, folk get away with because everyone is much more alert to sudden actions. Hence Mediterranean driving is a process of constant and assertive negotiation. Noticeably less use of traffic lights than in comparable Australian cities. We have seen various types of police (municipal, regional, carabinieri, garda di finanzia) in Sicily but no sign of traffic police; hence the traffic code not being so much a code as more of a general guideline.
Thin cats and enthusiastically swirling swallows are to the two most vivid images of the fauna of Catania (though there was a thin and piteous kitten trying to cadge some of our lunch at Siracusa).
Thursday
Took a day trip by bus to Siracusa, after another croissant-with-custard and hot chocolate (Cioccolata calda) breakfast at Cafe Bruca. Bus dumped us at a stop with no information. Found some Roman ruins which had very impressive gate and fence keeping you away from them. Walked back to the old city. This is Sicily, so the foreshore is a place to put police, military, railways, freeways. Not, however, in the old city proper, which has some of the best use of foreshores we have seen so far, Walked up the seaside foreshore around to the C13th castle and C16-early C19th fort on the promontory. This turned out to be another (rather splendid) castle built by Frederick di Svebia (Stupor Mundi). Having seen two of his castles, and pictures of others, N has decided that, if he comes back to Sicily, he would settle for a tour of castles built by Frederick, any Norman bits actually still standing, forget the rest.
Castle Mancia even had (oh joy!) a guide book (quite a good one). N had spotted it and bought it. I was going to buy one when I got back to the ticket office. This is Sicily; it closed at 1pm so I was out of luck. But the castle was great. The cannon fort was moderately impressive but, as N said, it would have seemed much more impressive if we hadn't recently been to Valetta.
Walked back down the habourside. Stopped at Lungolatte Ristobar with a spectacular view over the Bay of Syracuse for lunch. We had a glass of vino bianca each. I had grilled fish (sardines and spectacular sea bream) followed by tiramasu. N had scaloppine with lemon and a lemon torte. Walked into the main square, which was surprisingly large for a medieval city. The cathedral was a striking conjunction of a Greek temple into which a Romanesque Norman cathedral had been constructed with later Baroque add ons. There was one, completely unnamed, apparently condemned clearly medieval building, a couple of C15th buildings, a C15th city gate, but the old city was mostly Baroque or Neoclassical. Walked down to the foreshore and into the newer parts of the city: Siracusa is much better supplied with public gardens with shade trees than Catania. But it clearly also has the advantage of "taking off" only in the C20th, so has less space issues.
Walked up to the archaeological park. Saw the Roman amphitheatre, which mostly overgrown but far more extant than Catania's. Found what we thought was the box office for tickets wasn't, so had to walk back the way we came to an area with tourist traps laid on. I succumbed to a t-shirt and a cute picture of a classical Greek scene. Bought the tickets and then back the way we had gone (again) to the Greek theatre. Which had lots of scaffolding, modern sound gear, wooden planking, etc for an event being planned there. It was sought of nice that it still being used. Its setting was magnificent, with the Bay of Syracuse behind it. Then, after going diametrically the wrong way, walked to the reputed tomb of Archimedes, which you can look at from a distance through another fence grill. Then walked back to the bus terminal, had an Italian lemon soda at a streetside bar while we waited and bused back to Catania.
After a small break, had another meal in the Trattoria Sapora in the local Piazza Marconi. N had the Fantasia alla Chef (excellent seafood on spaghetti), I had a very fine carbonara and then we both had some grilled horse, which we both enjoyed. We shared a rather pleasant bottle of white wine. Then we walked down to the Piazza di Martiri where the electric blue neon halo over the statue of St Agatha was on! So we appreciated the spectacle, walked back to the central square where we were able to buy bus tickets at an open tobacconist and then we each had two of St Agatha's breasts (small marzipan iced cakes with a red cherry on top), me with Cioccolata calda (hot chocolate) and N with tea, at Cafe Presidio. Then back to the flat and packed, ready for an early departure next morning.
Friday
Got up, did morning things, had breakfast (cornflakes and sugar for N, cheese and bread plus bread,butter and honey for me), cleaned up and left Vico Castro for the final time. Walked down to the bus terminal, inquiry directed us to the correct bus, bused to airport, which proved to be a model of efficiency (once we worked out to go to the machines, get our boarding passes, and which was the already-checked in baggage queue. The Air Italia flight was very smooth and we got to Venezia airport early, with the baggage becoming available shortly after we got to the terminal. N said it was fine to go out the market exit as we had nothing to declare; I pointed out that it was an internal flight and so we weren't going through customs.
Getting a bus (and even more a ticket for the bus) for Padova (Padua) turned out to be a bit more exciting. N tried to buy our tickets when we got off at Padova, but the driver wasn't interested. Still, we got there (via Venezia, because that is the bus route). Northern Italy is visibly richer than Sicily. Also, we travelled a total of about 40+km and did not hear a single car horn. There were speed trap warnings. I even saw a policeman who had clearly pulled over a truck. We may, indeed, be in a different country (culturally if not legally).
We stopped at the Railway Station (which looked rather Fascist era in architecture) to get a map and stop for a light repast--no hot chocolate at Briccocafe, but the wrap was superior.
Walked to hotel in the middle of the medieval town. Nice facilities; WiFi not so much, though we could get some access by alternating using N's iPad (only one machine at a time could be logged in; or so it appeared--if you ignore the error messages and just wait, apparently it is all fine).
We wandered off and had pasta (tagliattate bolognese for me, lasagna for N at Livorno Bar, circumnavigated around the (enormous) medieval cathedral, then into the main square where we paid to go into the Palazzo della Ragione, the C13th political and legal centre of Padua. It contained an enormous, magnificent medieval hall with a very high vaulted wooded roof and frescoes around the wall. There was an enormous wooden horse plus an exhibition of uninteresting mid C20th art collected by a doctor brother and wife (there were three interesting pieces and two striking ones; the rest was a monument to mediocre taste). Stopped for a sparkling water, N also had a cappuccino.
Padua also has beggars (those in Catania tended to be more stationary and passive). We walked down to the Basilica of St Anthony, a magnificent (and very large) Romanesque cathedral with Baroque add-ons. Kept wandering through Padua, which is very much a lived-in city. New buildings have generally built in a style sympathetic to the existing buildings. We investigated the C16-18th bastion walls, but it turned out little was left apart from the line of the dry moat. Walked down to a major park, in the middle of a huge open space, full of (it appeared) C18th statues of prominent folk from Paduan history on either side of, and looking away from, a surrounding water feature. Then back towards and into the old city. Stopped for gelati for N (he tried for lemon and got mint chocolate) and sparkling water for me. (The sparkling water has been persistently superior; the bread in Sicily was also consistently good.) Then back to the University of Padua, where we waited to sign up for the 5.15 tour. I took a break in a hole-in-the-war bar, having an arianciata (I have always liked Italian soft drinks) and a hot chocolate (my attempts to say ciocolatta con panne failed miserably, until rescued by an English speaking student or young member of faculty.) Then it was off to the tour, which started in the University Senate room which was originally the anatomy theory lecture theatre. It had portraits of various professors of anatomy back to the first in 1535, and (mounted and in glass case) the skulls of some of said professors, who had donated their bodies to the faculty. Then in it was into a room next for the famous (and first anywhere) theatre of practical anatomy, where background information was given before smaller groups could go in and have a "body's eye view" of the theatre. Then down to commemorative statue of the first woman graduate anywhere, who graduated in 1678.
Then a casual wander back to the hotel, passing through a flea market.
Thin cats and enthusiastically swirling swallows are to the two most vivid images of the fauna of Catania (though there was a thin and piteous kitten trying to cadge some of our lunch at Siracusa).
Thursday
Took a day trip by bus to Siracusa, after another croissant-with-custard and hot chocolate (Cioccolata calda) breakfast at Cafe Bruca. Bus dumped us at a stop with no information. Found some Roman ruins which had very impressive gate and fence keeping you away from them. Walked back to the old city. This is Sicily, so the foreshore is a place to put police, military, railways, freeways. Not, however, in the old city proper, which has some of the best use of foreshores we have seen so far, Walked up the seaside foreshore around to the C13th castle and C16-early C19th fort on the promontory. This turned out to be another (rather splendid) castle built by Frederick di Svebia (Stupor Mundi). Having seen two of his castles, and pictures of others, N has decided that, if he comes back to Sicily, he would settle for a tour of castles built by Frederick, any Norman bits actually still standing, forget the rest.
Castle Mancia even had (oh joy!) a guide book (quite a good one). N had spotted it and bought it. I was going to buy one when I got back to the ticket office. This is Sicily; it closed at 1pm so I was out of luck. But the castle was great. The cannon fort was moderately impressive but, as N said, it would have seemed much more impressive if we hadn't recently been to Valetta.
Walked back down the habourside. Stopped at Lungolatte Ristobar with a spectacular view over the Bay of Syracuse for lunch. We had a glass of vino bianca each. I had grilled fish (sardines and spectacular sea bream) followed by tiramasu. N had scaloppine with lemon and a lemon torte. Walked into the main square, which was surprisingly large for a medieval city. The cathedral was a striking conjunction of a Greek temple into which a Romanesque Norman cathedral had been constructed with later Baroque add ons. There was one, completely unnamed, apparently condemned clearly medieval building, a couple of C15th buildings, a C15th city gate, but the old city was mostly Baroque or Neoclassical. Walked down to the foreshore and into the newer parts of the city: Siracusa is much better supplied with public gardens with shade trees than Catania. But it clearly also has the advantage of "taking off" only in the C20th, so has less space issues.
Walked up to the archaeological park. Saw the Roman amphitheatre, which mostly overgrown but far more extant than Catania's. Found what we thought was the box office for tickets wasn't, so had to walk back the way we came to an area with tourist traps laid on. I succumbed to a t-shirt and a cute picture of a classical Greek scene. Bought the tickets and then back the way we had gone (again) to the Greek theatre. Which had lots of scaffolding, modern sound gear, wooden planking, etc for an event being planned there. It was sought of nice that it still being used. Its setting was magnificent, with the Bay of Syracuse behind it. Then, after going diametrically the wrong way, walked to the reputed tomb of Archimedes, which you can look at from a distance through another fence grill. Then walked back to the bus terminal, had an Italian lemon soda at a streetside bar while we waited and bused back to Catania.
After a small break, had another meal in the Trattoria Sapora in the local Piazza Marconi. N had the Fantasia alla Chef (excellent seafood on spaghetti), I had a very fine carbonara and then we both had some grilled horse, which we both enjoyed. We shared a rather pleasant bottle of white wine. Then we walked down to the Piazza di Martiri where the electric blue neon halo over the statue of St Agatha was on! So we appreciated the spectacle, walked back to the central square where we were able to buy bus tickets at an open tobacconist and then we each had two of St Agatha's breasts (small marzipan iced cakes with a red cherry on top), me with Cioccolata calda (hot chocolate) and N with tea, at Cafe Presidio. Then back to the flat and packed, ready for an early departure next morning.
Friday
Got up, did morning things, had breakfast (cornflakes and sugar for N, cheese and bread plus bread,butter and honey for me), cleaned up and left Vico Castro for the final time. Walked down to the bus terminal, inquiry directed us to the correct bus, bused to airport, which proved to be a model of efficiency (once we worked out to go to the machines, get our boarding passes, and which was the already-checked in baggage queue. The Air Italia flight was very smooth and we got to Venezia airport early, with the baggage becoming available shortly after we got to the terminal. N said it was fine to go out the market exit as we had nothing to declare; I pointed out that it was an internal flight and so we weren't going through customs.
Getting a bus (and even more a ticket for the bus) for Padova (Padua) turned out to be a bit more exciting. N tried to buy our tickets when we got off at Padova, but the driver wasn't interested. Still, we got there (via Venezia, because that is the bus route). Northern Italy is visibly richer than Sicily. Also, we travelled a total of about 40+km and did not hear a single car horn. There were speed trap warnings. I even saw a policeman who had clearly pulled over a truck. We may, indeed, be in a different country (culturally if not legally).
We stopped at the Railway Station (which looked rather Fascist era in architecture) to get a map and stop for a light repast--no hot chocolate at Briccocafe, but the wrap was superior.
Walked to hotel in the middle of the medieval town. Nice facilities; WiFi not so much, though we could get some access by alternating using N's iPad (only one machine at a time could be logged in; or so it appeared--if you ignore the error messages and just wait, apparently it is all fine).
We wandered off and had pasta (tagliattate bolognese for me, lasagna for N at Livorno Bar, circumnavigated around the (enormous) medieval cathedral, then into the main square where we paid to go into the Palazzo della Ragione, the C13th political and legal centre of Padua. It contained an enormous, magnificent medieval hall with a very high vaulted wooded roof and frescoes around the wall. There was an enormous wooden horse plus an exhibition of uninteresting mid C20th art collected by a doctor brother and wife (there were three interesting pieces and two striking ones; the rest was a monument to mediocre taste). Stopped for a sparkling water, N also had a cappuccino.
Padua also has beggars (those in Catania tended to be more stationary and passive). We walked down to the Basilica of St Anthony, a magnificent (and very large) Romanesque cathedral with Baroque add-ons. Kept wandering through Padua, which is very much a lived-in city. New buildings have generally built in a style sympathetic to the existing buildings. We investigated the C16-18th bastion walls, but it turned out little was left apart from the line of the dry moat. Walked down to a major park, in the middle of a huge open space, full of (it appeared) C18th statues of prominent folk from Paduan history on either side of, and looking away from, a surrounding water feature. Then back towards and into the old city. Stopped for gelati for N (he tried for lemon and got mint chocolate) and sparkling water for me. (The sparkling water has been persistently superior; the bread in Sicily was also consistently good.) Then back to the University of Padua, where we waited to sign up for the 5.15 tour. I took a break in a hole-in-the-war bar, having an arianciata (I have always liked Italian soft drinks) and a hot chocolate (my attempts to say ciocolatta con panne failed miserably, until rescued by an English speaking student or young member of faculty.) Then it was off to the tour, which started in the University Senate room which was originally the anatomy theory lecture theatre. It had portraits of various professors of anatomy back to the first in 1535, and (mounted and in glass case) the skulls of some of said professors, who had donated their bodies to the faculty. Then in it was into a room next for the famous (and first anywhere) theatre of practical anatomy, where background information was given before smaller groups could go in and have a "body's eye view" of the theatre. Then down to commemorative statue of the first woman graduate anywhere, who graduated in 1678.
Then a casual wander back to the hotel, passing through a flea market.