After 3 uneventful flights we arrived in Rome to begin our adventure.

However after arriving in Rome it turned to “shit”.

Firstly , when collecting our luggage , our suitcases had obviously been physically man handled and were definitely not in the same condition as when we checked them in!

Next, our mobile phones refused to work which delayed us contacting the car lease company , but after one hour and the assistance of some poor unsuspecting Italian lady who kindly allowed us to use her phone, we were able to arrange the pick up of our car. We have named him Antonio but will now be called “Tony” for short!

We finally left Rome and travelled to Rende for our first night. However during the trip down , numerous and we mean a lot, of Italian drivers tried hard to run us off the road. Welcome to Italy! They really are mad drivers, and we hadn’t even got to Sicily where they are worse. We also endured some extremely heavy rain which slowed us down….not the Italian drivers though.

On arriving in Rende it took us over an hour to eventually find our Hotel. We were both rather tired and emotional , needed a drink and a good pizza!

After a half decent sleep we set off to make our way to Sicily. We got on the ferry and did as is the custom…..had an arancini ball on the way.

We arrived at our first stop at Siracusa and despite the horrendous traffic found our “home” for the next week. It is a great little apartment and Tony can be parked out the front quite easily!

The city of Siracusa is made up of 2 parts , the more modern mainland (where we are) and the small historic island of Ortigia connected by 2 bridges and a 10 minute walk from the apartment.

We went for a walk near to the apartment this morning around the harbour , it was a gorgeous sunny blue sky day….sorry Melbournites..and 20 degrees. We loved all the fishing boats on the harbour.

Then we wandered over to the island of Ortigia.

We walked across the bridge ,the Ponte Umbertino, which is the Gateway to the island.

We stopped at Piazza Archimede , named after Archimedes, the Greek scientist , who was born in Siracusa!

We then moved onto Piazza Duomo, which not surprisingly has the Duomo at its centre. The structure was originally a Greek Temple, and through the years has been influenced by Byzantine, Arab, Norman and Baroque styles. We opted not to enter, just admired it from the outside.

The Piazza is considered to be one of the most beautiful in all of Italy! Maybe ????? We reserve judgement on that one!

We then continued onto Castello Maniace, a citadel and castle and fort built in 1038. It was free entry as it is Republic Day here in Italy so decided to go in. Lucky we didn’t have to pay the 5 euro entry as we would have been disappointed!

We wandered the narrow winding streets , of course stopped for a drink or 2 , then Greg had to find a restaurant for lunch that served Rhonda’s favourite “spigola”, and he succeeded!

We stopped at “Daves” , a very Italian sounding name for an Italian restaurant, for lunch and chatted to a lovely English lady. Charlotte , we hope you enjoyed your spigola, and Happy Birthday for Monday!

The spigola was great, it was the first of many more to come!!!

We are liking Siracusa so far , but still have a lot more to see.

It is that time again!

Ciao ciao

Greg and Rhonda.