Joni's Jottings

On Friday we made the long drive to Siracusa, one of Sicily’s oldest cities, nestled in a long bay on the coast of the Ionioan Sea. The drive was lovely, up and down rolling hills dotted with olive and pine trees, green meadows, and flattish fields of winter wheat being harvested. At lower elevations, roadway … Read more

On Thursday we visited Modica and Scicli, two of the Baroque Triangle hill towns, then drove down to the coast to visit Ragusa di Marina and la casa di Commissario Montalbano. Modica is more urban than Ragusa Ibla, with its center in the valley between two large hills. Note the very tall bridge in the … Read more

The drive from Agrigento to Ragusa is about 2.5 hours, made only slightly longer by getting lost about 6 times. (We’ve learned to dread that Google maps’ geboing that means “missed the turn again stupid.”) We passed miles and miles (literally) of hooped hothouses for growing vegetables, often filled with enormous tomato bushes. Sicily is … Read more

Our train ride from Palermo to Agrigento was packed with an amiable crowd of commuters who chattered to one another in Sicilian until they fell asleep, all at once, as if on cue. We traveled east along the coast with the sparkling deep blue Mediterranean on our left, steep hills with perched houses on our … Read more

On Monday, after a nourishing breakfast of arancini (rice dumplings stuffed with stuff) and sundry pastries, we ambled back up past Teatro Massimo to the Norman Palace to see more mosaics. Every middle schooler in Palermo was at the palace on what was apparently the designated field trip day to see both medieval splendors and … Read more