Sicily - more

Tim: And so more of our time in Sicily. We've tried to take things as easy as possible, with one of the days involving a trip to a local lighthouse and some shopping. Since we are in a place where we can do our own cooking we thought we might economise by, well, doing just that. Shopping in foreign climes is always interesting for the things they have and don't have. For instance, in the alimentari we went to they only had two sorts of breakfast cereals, and one looked pretty plain so I got the other. Milk was also hard to find - but you should have seen the shelves of pasta... we got a number 87, a type I had never seen before. They also had the type strozzapretti which translates as 'strangled priests'.



The next day, a closer look at my breakfast cereal revealed why they had so few types on the shelf; with a wholesome mix of corn flakes, wheatflakes, bran and coco-pops, this one had all the bases covered! Ingenious! Hats off to the master ceral-craftsmen of Italy!



We drove to Noto, as we had read that it had a beautiful Old Town. We drove through but couldn't see anything very interesting, but then followed a sign to Noto Antica - Old Noto - which turned out to be a distance away and something different; a ruined castle and other meager signs of habitation back 2000 years or so. But there was no information to be had here except for the initial sign so after walking through the castle we left not having got a lot from the site.

We drove the 10km back to Noto determined to visit the cathedral that we could see from a distance. But as we got closer and the roads narrowed and twisted, and split-second navigation decisions were made based on which action was likely to give us the best chance of not going under the wheels of a truck, we lost sight of the cathedral, only to have it appear in the rear-view mirror as we were on the outskirts of town. Another attempt ensued with a similarly frystrating result. See, we were making the classic mistake, forgivable to travellers from a young country where the words 'city' and 'planning' sometimes appeared next to each other in sentances. Here, the narrowness or twistiness of a road doesn't bear on the

importance of a road. Had we taken a particular steep and twisted 'street' (paved donkey-path) like many other cars, we would have been right there. But we didn't. Finally we got within a km or so of the cathedral, so we hoofed it, only to find it at the bottom of the hill we were on, and, it turned out, closed for reconstruction; apparently a thunderstorm had caused the roof to cave in several years ago. It was only cakes and lunch that restored us for the long ascent back to the car, and the drive home.

Polly: I know we are on an island right - so I understand that seafood will feature as a regular on the menu. But some places we have been have only offered one or two non-seafood choices. I feel a bit like a vegetarian, being placated by some pasta and a jar of sauce. Thank God for the coffee.