This morning we went out for breakfast. Lonely Planet had warned that in Italy they eat only pastries for breakfast. Of course, we only found pastries. We tried ciambellas, which are like Krispy Kreme donuts, but instead of the goopy glaze they are rolled in granulated sugar. No joke Krispy Kreme must have stolen the recipe from the Italians. You can get plain, chocolate filled, cream filled or ricotta filled. Eric went for cream. Christi got a chocolate and a ricotta. She found the chocolate to be too rich, but loved the ricotta one. The donuts here are also noticeably larger than Kristy Kremes.

After breakfast, we rented a car so to do some sightseeing outside of the Ortigya. Beyond the island, it is still mostly very old buildings for quite a ways. How old they are is questionable — probably not Baroque, but certainly in the more than a hundred years category, probably multiple centuries old. It turns into an industrial area with a mix of crumbling old buildings and new buildings. Beyond the industrial area was the outskirts of town.

We turned around and went another direction, driving around what seems to be the heart of the newer city. The buildings are mostly mid-rise, 3 10 stories tall. Most are built in the 20th century and plain, blocky structures, though here and there are a few aesthetically appealing modern buildings. Occasionally, you’d see a few historic buildings scattered in and amongst the new buildings.

We passed by three churches, all of them very unique and highly modern in design. We certainly wouldn’t have pegged any of them as churches were it not for the cross at the top. We only got a picture of two of them. The third is an odd art deco design with crazy angles everywhere.

We passed by most of the Greek and Roman ruins, a few areas here and there that are fenced off in the middle of the urban area. We didn’t actually go in, though. From Lonely Planet’s description, it didn’t sound like they were too impressive. From what we could see the ruins were uh still ruined. We have kind of had our fill of Greek and Roman era ruins, and are most interested into moving on to other eras of history. Modern Siracusa is a nice city. Overall it is clean and attractive, except for a lot of graffiti.

Italian driving is worse than Turkey. The roads are more crowded and people drive faster. Too many of the intersections do not have lights or stop signs, so right of way is a game of chicken. Traffic circles (roundabouts) don’t work well when there is too much traffic, and merging in and out of them can be scary. Italian drivers are very aggressive. Eric has adjusted his driving habits of late and has become quite an aggressive driver now. You absolutely have to be here. Even though he can hold his own, he found the driving to be stressful. The streets are fairly wide (once again, relatively speaking), but people double park all over the place, leaving less room to drive. Literally, on some streets there is a line of double parked cars. We wished we got photos, but we were moving to fast.

Oh, and speaking of traffic, we are bemused by the stop signs here and in Greece. They say STOP. In English, not in Italian/Greek.

After we had poked around Siracusa enough, we headed up to Catania, a city a little over an hour north along the coast, to check out the famous Sicilian Baroque architecture there. We found a freeway, which made life good. Outside of Siracusa, the scenery is similar to Crete and Turkey. In the non-urban areas, there are a few olive tree groves, a lot of fruit tree orchards, a few plots of farmland, a couple fields with cows, and a few scattered buildings here and there — some houses, some industrial, some abandoned. There is also an abandoned building that looks like it was a small castle. The vast majority of the land is uncultivated. All the grass is dry and dead, and so are most of the smaller plants. While the foliage is similar, there are a lot more cactus, eucalyptus trees, pepper trees, and a tall stalky plant that looks kind of like a cross between corn and bamboo, and less oleanders and pine trees.

In between Siracusa and Catania is Augusta, an ugly industrial port town dominated by three incredibly large refineries. From Augusta, we could see the outline of Mt. Etna in the distance behind the hazy skies. The closer we got, the clearer and blacker the mountain looked.

Catania is the second largest city in Sicily. The southern end of Catania is also an industrial port area with a smaller refinery, but nicer looking than Augusta. We got off the freeway and headed north on the thoroughfare along the water. We drove for quite a while and realized we had probably already passed downtown. We were in a new looking area, with attractive high rises on the left side of the highway and smaller, more non-descript buildings lining the beach. It kind of reminded us of downtown San Diego. We decided this was as good a place as any for lunch. We found a parking lot on the water that has the same carnival sort of rides as on the boardwalk in Siracusa and parked. We wandered south along the coast in search of a restaurant. Like the waterfront on Ortigya, it was mostly housing with a sprinkling of restaurants and hotels. Not a single restaurant was open. Weird. The beach is black sand strewn with large lava rocks, and is not hospitable looking. The water is a clear blue-green and is inviting, though. The farther south we got, the more high dollar the homes were becoming and the less restaurants and hotels in between houses. We turned around and headed back to the car, figuring we’d find the old town and get food there.

It took us a while to figure out where we were and where we needed to go, but after driving around for a while finally we finally found the old town. The bulk of the city seems to be made up of tall, blocky buildings that look to be from the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. A lot of those buildings look like they could use some updating. As you moved north it got newer and nicer and more aesthetically appealing, although you still had the scattered historic building here and there. Most buildings are in the 5 to 10 story range, though there are quite a few taller ones, too.

Once we got to the old town, we had lunch at a small hole in the wall. Like the place with the awesome food in Egypt, the grill was out in front of the restaurant. There was no menu. Next to the grill was a refrigerated case with the selection of meats to choose from. Inside the restaurant was another refrigerated case that had an assortment of cold foods to choose from. We pointed to the meats and side dishes we wanted. The husband went outside and grilled away while the wife scooped out our side dishes for us. We actually have had a hard time ordering here in Italy because it seems none of the restaurants have English menus. Several times now we weren’t sure what was going to come out.

We are pleased to report the food was awesome. We got potato pancakes, marinated bell peppers with pine nuts and tomatoes, and hamburgers stuffed with cheese and ham. And, it was amazingly cheap. Gotta love hole in the walls.

From there we started sightseeing. We were parked in front of an interesting gateway, made of limestone and volcanic rock. It looks to be part of that Sicilian baroque look, graced with several statues of angels, a gargoyle head, an eagle statue and a clock. We think it is funny that there are so many magnificent gateways around here, but no fences.

From there, we proceeded down the street to the Piazza del Duomo, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Beyond the gate, the buildings go from being late 1800’s or newer to being more like late 1600’s. In the center of the town square is a fountain that is considered the symbol of the city, built in 1736. It is an elephant carrying an obelisk on its back. The obelisk is supposed to have magical powers that keep nearby Mt. Etna from big eruptions. Odd that an animal that doesn’t exist on the island would be the symbol of the city.

The fountain stands in front of the St. Agata Cathdral. It was originally built by the Romans as a pagan temple in 1094 on top of a thermal bath. Somewhere along the way it was converted to a church dedicated to a local woman, Agata, who had been martyred during the days when the Romans persecuted Christians. Her remains are kept inside, along with some Aragonian royalty. The current church façade was completed in 1761, and it sounds like they tried a few other looks before settling on this one.

The exterior is classic baroque. Baroque is kind of a compilation of every art style in existence at that point in time. There are Greek pillars, Byzantine domes, Venetian appointments, etc. The whole place is dripping with Greco-Roman style statues portraying various saints. This cathedral exterior, while incredibly ornate, is actually tasteful and pretty. Often times baroque can be too busy. Unfortunately, they weren’t letting people inside.

We admired the buildings around the cathedral, most of them also in Baroque style. We walked north a couple of blocks. We passed a Roman era gymnasium that looked like an office building, not a gym. We went inside and saw there was no field or track or anything. However, there is a really cool gigantic mosaic in the courtyard.

Opposite the gym is a Roman era university that is currently under reconstruction, so we couldn’t go in. The exterior is fairly similar to the gym. We got to yet another Baroque style church when we decided we just couldn’t walk around anymore. The day was sultry oppressively hot and humid. It is not good to be walking around in such heat and it wore us out. We headed back to the car and tried to drive around some more. The most historic areas are closed to car traffic, but a few streets with old buildings allowed cars. The Baroque buildings extend for several blocks around the piazza, with a couple new and modern commercial buildings here and there.

We went back to Siracusa. As we were driving, there were actually a few drops of rain. We haven’t seen a single drop of rain since leaving the Maldives. Unfortunately for the parched earth, it was only a few drops.

Back in Syracuse we had dinner at a fish restaurant near the canal. Eric wasn’t feeling great, we suspect from the heat, and didn’t want a big meal. The menu was in Italian (of course), so we asked the waiter to translate several menu items. He said one of them was a tomato soup. Eric ordered it. We were shocked when a huge plate of mussels in the shell came out, apparently cooked in a tomato broth. Eric isn’t a big mussel fan. He complained to the waiter he was told he was getting tomato soup. The waiter shrugged. Eric tried one and was surprised to find it was the best mussel he has ever tasted. He ate the whole thing.

On a side note, fresh seafood prices are incongruous from what we are used to seeing. Restaurants charge roughly 45 Euro a kilo ($31USD per pound) for a whole fresh fish, but Eric’s enormous plate of mussels was only $8.00 USD. We find the fish overly expensive and the mussels surprisingly cheap. Also, restaurants charge a cover of about $3.00 USD per person to eat in their restaurant. Included in the cover is plain bread (with no butter). Some restaurants in Greece also charge a cover, but not very many.