Saturday 24th September

We were up late and decided to take a train to Syracuse. We took the 20 minute walk to Catania Centrale and after a slight hiatus were able to buy our return tickets for Syracuse at Euro 7.60 each. The train arrived on time at 12.40 p.m. and took us smoothly through then Catania airport stop, Lentini and Augusta to Syracuse in about 70 minutes. The outskirts of Syracuse were a mass of oil refineries and LNG storage facilities. Disembarking at Syracuse we started to walk to a restaurant that MAC had found on the internet yesterday. After a long walk we still could not find it and stopped at the nearest open place to get some lunch. This was in the Via Giudecca near what seemed to be an underground synagogue. During lunch we noticed many minivans coming up the narrow stree with wedding guests. After finishing lunch we decided to investigate what this was all about. The guests were assembled many in the finery outside a church which had no roof but which was decked out with all the trappings of a wedding, white carpet, many flowers and white chairs. We waited around and more and more guests arrived. Eventually after nearly an hour, a white vintage Volkswagen Beetle cabriolet arrived carrying the bride and her father. After much posing and arranging of heart train, they proceeded into the roofless church. Fortunately it was a bright sunny day, if it had rained, disaster!!

Syracuse

The wedding party awaiting the bride at the roofless church.

The bride arrives in style!!

What a way to get wed!!!

Then we walked on to Piazza del Duomo where another wedding was taking place but in the case, the mode of transport was a very handsome Ferrari which received more admiration from the male onlookers than the bride!! Also parked in the piazza was an old Fiat Millecento in sparkling condition and set up for yet another wedding.

The wedding cars of Syracuse!!

At this point the search for a bathroom became necessary but, unfortunately, there had been a water main break in this part of the city known as Ortigia and thus there were no bathrooms available!!

Having limited time we decide to take a tuk tuk (three wheeled taxi) for a brief one hour city tour. Our driver explained the Greek origins a of the city and pointed out some of the more important buildings as well as taking us to the sea front where there were some lovely vistas.

At the end of the tour, our guide dropped us off at the centeral station and as luck would have it a train for Catania was leaving in about two minutes!! We hopped on board for the journey back to Catania. The train had a working toilet!!! The journey back to Catania was uneventful and we walked from the central station to our ‘home’ but then diverted to the local piazza and found a restaurant where we had a pleasant dinner. Then ‘home’ as tomorrow we leave for Palermo.