Day 11: 6/19/24

 We travel to our departure city, Siracusa, today. Mike and I agree that we are ready to go home.

I took a picture of this contraption yesterday but only found out today that is for grinding flour.

I'm not sure how it works, but it looked pretty cool.

We had a final presentation by our tour guides on hand gestures. 

Here's Lea demonstrating thirsty (the English version - note the raised little finger).

I had to ask about the gesture that looks like "rock on" or "hook 'em horns" if you go to UT-Austin. It turns out Vince was right: it is obscene and pretty offensive.

We were in a room with an oil press.

We got into three cabs (nminivans) and drove to Siracua, actually Ortiega, an island connected to the mainland by two small bridges.

We got dropped off at the back door.

The front door is understated too.

The lobby is a little more ornate.

The elevator is glass with a view of an open atrium.

We had a walking tour with a woman hired by VBT.

The commercial streets that we walked on were filled mostly with pedestrians. This is looking back at our group. 

We walked to the Cathedral where we were in 2013. 

And some ruins, the Tempio di Apollo..

This is a fresh water spring, so important because Sicily is very arid.

That's papyrus growing down there.

We walked through the market looking for kitsch and food. We stumbled on the place our guide recommended and the food was great. It was a nice taste of authentic Siracusa, people yelling, throwing folding chairs and tables around, boxes of fresh produce getting dropped on the floor...

This is from our table looking at the alleyway. The front of the stall is where they sold fresh produce and across the alleyway was more seating, their counter, and kitchen. In the left part of the picture was their juicing stand. 

 

They brought the sandwiches in brown paper.

A bunch of our group ended up at the same place.

We walked back to the hotel to get recharged for the afternoon.

The task for the afternoon was shopping. We originally thought we might go to the archaeological site, and a couple of people from our group were making the 20-minute walk, but it was hot and we hadn't lined up a guide. We really like paying for a guide to tell us what we're seeing.

We had some success with shopping and then ended up in the plaza again. 

We sat down for some refreshment and watched what looked like a wedding.

They drove around the square and then got out. There were a lot of people really dressed up and milling around. We waited until 5:00, but there never seemed to be a time when they would actually go in or out of the church.

Some time ago, Carol (the wife of my Best Man, Bob) told me she was going to be in Siracusa this summer. She led a group of TCU students to Siracusa last summer and signed up to do it again. What a coincidence that we would be at the same place in Italy and the same time?!?!?!

Carol was supervising 14 students from TCU. She had to arrange the "night off" with the other adults, one other faculty member and staff person.

We went to MOON, a restaurant our VBT group had passed earlier that day. By this time, almost everyone in the group knew I ate plant-based and pointed it out to me. Carol (and Bob) are vegetarians and she had been there before.

It was a very cool place: part restaurant, part bar, part art gallery. 

This picture was from the men's room.

What people who are not familiar with plant-based don't know, is that it is much more than vegetable sides, although the grilled veggies this week were outstanding and I really like what they do with ripe tomatoes.

This was Fidati di noi ("Trust me") a sweet potato base with embedded strips of marinated soy, courgettes (zucchini), topped with a "rocket" (arugula) and avocado pesto. It was delish and really interesting.

Carol had something called "Mr. Tempeh".

The Primi was veggie carbonara. They split one order into two lovely presentations: a little bird's nest nest of pasta.

Here we are before it got dark.

But after dinner, the town was transformed with lots of lights, live music, and a really cool vibe. This is what you miss when you go to bed before the sun does down.