Fortunately we had not planned to hike up Etna (it’s far too snowy and we are not interested in snowshoeing, plus it’s up in the overcast somewhere anyway and, as it turns out, it is about to erupt but we did not know that at the time), because Phyllis’ foot was very stiff and sore today.  It was perfectly fine for changing car gears though, so we drove around the west side of Etna and into better weather, at least for a time.  But first, we had a great farmhouse breakfast at the agriturismo.  Freshly baked pastries and cake, fruit, fresh squeezed blood orange juice, coffee (Americano for Phyllis), home made yoghurt.  Interestingly, no eggs despite there being chickens in the barnyard; this has been the case throughout Sicily so far, with only the occasional hard boiled egg offered.  Francesco’s mother is the cook, and she came out of the kitchen to ask (in Italian, of course) how the injured foot was doing.

Later, as we were admiring the old photographs on the wall of the dining room, she indicated that these were the current buildings in their original state, before they restored them.  Francesco had already told us that they started the agriturismo business in about 2001 after fixing things up, but we had no idea how run down it had originally been.  The buildings were originally built in 1865 so they were entitled to look a little old.  We had seen many ramshackle stone buildings throughout our drives, and this place had been exactly like that.  What a lot of work they put into it.  While winter is a slow time, summer is apparently quite busy thanks to a couple of contracts with foreign tour companies, and we were glad to learn that they are doing so well.  However, Phyllis asked Francesco if he could cook, and when he said no, only his mother, we wondered what will happen when she passes away.  What a shame it would be for this place to be lost to tourism…

After breakfast, our drive was through small cities that were not particularly scenic, but the mountain gradually emerged from its veil and provided a nice view.  Rather shocking was the amount of garbage by the side of the road in this area, which we’d not seen before.  And not just the occasional piece of trash, but on turnouts along the road there were huge piles of trash bags, many broken or torn open.  Plus assorted mattresses and other large junk.  We were shocked, and wondered if this indicated that areas between towns did not have local garbage service.  Later however we saw the same situation within towns, so we still do not know what to make of this.

Back on a highway after winding our way around Etna, and after seeing numerous billboards for something called “Etnapolis, Scily’s Largest Shopping Mall”, we could not resist checking this out.  After a couple of wrong turns we found the main entrance and browsed the shops and had a late lunch in the food court.  We resisted McDonalds (which is very pricey here) and settled for pizza.  On the road again, we arrived in Siracusa in late afternoon.  Ortygia, the old part of town, where we were staying, is an island attached to the mainland by a couple of bridge/causeways.  We stashed the car in a municipal parking lot just over the bridge (otherwise, it would require negotiating another old town center full of narrow cobblestone streets and limited parking) and walked down to our B&B on the far end of the island.  It was just a 20-minute walk, but it was windy and threatening to rain again.  After meeting our host and talking politics for awhile, both Italian and American (yes, he asked about Sarah Palin and was pleased to see our facial expressions in reaction), we headed out for a walk around the old town before it got dark.

Siracusa has a beautiful old cathedral (duomo) fronting onto a large piazza, and an evening service was just ending when we walked by so we went in to see the interior.  Like so many other major structures in Sicily, it was built on top of an ancient Greek temple, this one of Athena.  In fact, you can see parts of the old temple columns incorporated into the duomo walls.  Several baroque palaces, most now used for governmental functions like “city hall”, surround the entire Piazza Duomo.  From here we walked on around the waterfront promenade, to the Fountain of Arethusa (originally a spring-fed pool, now enclosed by stonework with a papyrus-filled reservoir in the bottom).  We saw lots of rather large fish just outside the seawall but only one fisherman with no catch thus far.  On our rounds, we scouted for a light dinner spot, having eaten far too much food in the last 24 hours.  A small beer and bruschetta for Phyllis, larger beer and hamburger (of all things) for Craig, and our day was done.