Ortigia, day 2

We were out of the apartment early, before 8:30 to explore the town. Our apartment is in one of the little alleyways with large potted plants down the sides. I had total plant envy.

We found an excellent cafe/patisserie a couple of minutes away from us, past the piazza with the amazing Diana fountain with horses! Stunning. They sold the most amazing croissants stuffed with pistachio (which as grown here).

We walked along to the Piazza Duomo , it had just opened and was so quiet we popped in. It was nice but not as awesome as the Spanish insides. But outside has the wow factor - baroque beauty on a huge scale.

Next we walked along the coastline towards the Maniace castle where this huge statue of Mitoraj was. I really liked the statue it had an imposing presence looking out to sea.

We walked along the path skirting the shore and decided we needed a brunch. There were a few people sunbathing including an English lady we saw at the next table to us the night before with her husband and young son. What I noticed was that her skin on her shoulders was red raw burnt by the sun and still she was exposing it. Looked up google maps to see the nearest Cafe and walked a couple of streets in and found a lovely little place with outdoor seating under a tree for shade and ordered omelette then a plate of fresh fruit and a coffee. Lovely.

We walked back to the coastal path and continued our walk. By the time we had walked all the way it was around 2:30 so thought it was time for lunch. Katia who owns the apartment had given us a list of good local restaurants and we chose one where we had already walked by . There was a queue outside so we gave our name to the lady in charge and it was around 15 mins later she shouted a table was ready and luckily it was an outdoor table. The meal was delicious . I had prawns , we had bread, a potato cake and S had local sausages and brocolli . We ordered a tiramisu which was another brilliant one as light as air.

More walking and there was chiquequento
(I know that’s not the spelling) cars lining the street all varying colours and in excellent condition. We walked in to visit an artist (clay) who was working in her shop and had lots of her pieces and other peoples in display. They were unusual and Brilliant. Especially the massive head at the entrance to the shop. She was very chatty and spoke about her work.

Popped back to our apartment for a sit down and a cuppa. We were told not to drink the water in the island of Ortigia unlike Ragusa where is was perfectly safe to drink. We could smell strongly the sulphur or minerals or whatever when we run the tap but boiling the water was fine to drink.

Later back out for a wander and to see the sunset. We went back into another art exhibition which again was fabulous. We had a chat with the guy in charge. He asked me what I thought was the value of the Frida Kallo one and I had no idea I said 1k and he almost erupted and said this one was 10k. lol! I said I wasn’t disrespectful to the picture I just had no idea!

Another wander and home and yes, exhausted haha.


I’ve put some more pics in extras including the Frida Kallo that I misjudged on price! We had quite a laugh later talking about my faux pas !