Athens, Greece ✈️ Ortigia, Siracusa, Italy
Default Blend
Eh, it’s early.
Fresh Hotel, Sofokleous 26, Athina 105 52
Today was a travel day. We left our hotel before the hot, hot heat set into Athens and took the subway to the airport. The airport is about 44km outside the city, so the ride is long - long enough that we both got a fair amount of reading done. And, long enough for us to enjoy an impromptu accordion concert, performed by two little kids. The elder performer couldn’t have been more than 8-years-old and yet, she picked a soulful, old school tune: the theme song from The Godfather. The choice was uncanny: we were traveling to Sicily!
We arrived in Catania about an hour before Kaoline, our friend and travel-mate for this leg of our trip. Before we left, she told us that her EasyJet flight had been oversold, so there was a chance she wouldn’t get on the flight. 😨 But, thankfully, it all worked out. We greeted her at the arrivals gate and embraced like we hadn’t seen her for years (Yennie saw her just a few months ago - LOL). We forgot how wonderful the arrivals gate is, since American airports are overwhelmed with security. In Italy, you had families, greeting their visitors with hugs, kisses, flowers, and even Sicilian rice balls. At one point, Yennie was moved to tears while she waited. It was so nice.
Off to Ortigia! Between the three of us, we had no cell data, so we had to get a bit clever on how to connect with our Airbnb host. After killing some time at an overpriced bar (this bar charged us for a bottle of water we brought with us 🖕), we walked over the Airbnb, only to discover that our host didn’t give us an apartment number to ring. What to do, what to do. Oh! Ring another random apartment, instead. WRONG. When we had asked for “Francesca,” we buzzed into the building, so we assumed that by some dumb luck we picked the right apartment. Instead, we met another woman, named Francesca who lived in the building, along with her husband who gave us a hard time about bothering them. It was very confusing and frustrating. Please, just let us into our Airbnb!
Finally, after we bummed some WiFi from a neighboring bar, we got in touch with the Real Francesca and got into the building. Oh, did we mention that there isn’t any street parking in Ortigia, so we had to park and bring our luggage from about 0.5 miles away? 😂 We were in the mood for a reward, which we found in a quick dip into the ocean (technically it’s the ocean), right off the sidewalk near our place. The sun had already set, but our frustration and anxiety just seemed to drift away into the water.
We took the pressure off ourselves for dinner. No TripAdvisor, no Googling. We walked outside and just started to look around. We picked a restaurant off the main street, down a narrow corridor. It had sparkly lights and waiters in vests. 👌 Osteria da Mariano turned out to be a local favorite, with families coming in for Sunday dinner. The restaurant owner was shaking hands with his customers, kissing cheeks of little kids. It was the right place to be. Dinner was unforgettable: caponata, a mix of antipasti, spaghetti with squid ink, spaghetti with stuffed, fried squash blossoms, and spaghetti with clams and bottarga. We had wondered if we just stumbled into the best restaurant in Ortigia, or if this is just how good all the food is in this country. We’re hoping the latter is true. 😍
Red Wine
0.5 Liters
Osteria da Mariano, vicolo Zuccola, 9, 96100, Syracuse
