Ortigia, Siracusa, Italy
Caffe Latte
When you order a “latte,” that doesn’t necessarily mean “latte.”
Fratelli Burgio, piazza Cesare Battisti 4, 96100, Siracusa
We - that includes Kaoline, love swimming. So, our goals for Sicily are simple. Everyday, we will go to a beach. Today, we chose Parco Marino del Plemmirio.
But first, we needed some chow. “Breakfast” doesn’t really mean anything to us any more. We call it “first meal” now. Why? Because it turns out no one in Europe eats sweet things to start their day. People just eat whatever the hell they want, like a sandwich with aged meat and cheese. We walked to the market area in Ortigia, which was filled with stalls of fresh produce (tomatoes, eggplants, melons - it’s definitely summer, here) and fresh fish (tuna, sardines, squid). We ran into the Orange Juice Lady, who was selling fresh-squeezed orange juice - excellent hustle, lady. And, ducked into a deli, Fratelli Burgio, for a bite to eat.
When we sat, we ordered coffee. “Americano” for Bryan and Kaoline. “Latte” for Yennie. We took in the hustle and bustle while we waited (very excellent people watching). When our coffees came, Bryan and Kaoline got their Americanos. And Yennie, she got a cup of hot milk. Wah, wah. 😂 Yennie ordered a cup of hot milk on a summer day. We know that “latte” means milk, but we didn’t know you have to ask for a “caffe latte” to get coffee. Noted. We all had a good laugh and corrected the order. Our food was off the chain: sandwiches with coppa, aged cheese, and pickled artichokes. You can’t make this shit up. So, so good.
The first beach seemed to be a local secret, since there were just a few people there and only Italians - no tourists. The shore had no sand, just volcanic rock. We had to get into the water very carefully, eyeing a good place to land that didn’t have jagged rocks beneath. The water was cool and the sun wasn’t oppressive - the perfect mix for a beach day. But, we didn’t bring any water with us! We decided to move onto another beach for the rest of the afternoon.
Varca Venti3 is a solarium, which means you can rent a lounge chair and umbrella and take in the sun. We were in the company of some hot Italian girls, who were dousing on the baby oil to tan. It made for excellent people watching. We kicked back and took cat naps in the sun, periodically going into the water to cool off. We also sipped on watermelon granitas from the bar. Our server had originally said they were “cucumber,” but cucumbers aren’t pink. BEST GRANITA EVER. Sicily, keep ‘em coming. 🍧🍧🍧
For dinner, we went a restaurant right in the central square, at La volpe e l’uva. We were seated in front of the Duomo di Siracusa, so naturally a clutch of photographers with heavy equipment started to set-up right next to us as the sunset. This also made for some great people watching. We watched tourists take selfies and hardcore SLR photos while we dug into tasty pizza. Today is the Summer Solstice. But it is special because a full moon coincides with it. We walked to the edge of Ortigia and took in the view of this brilliant moon - a perfect way to end our beach day.
Birrifico Angelo Poretti Lager
0.4 Liters
La vople e l’uva, Piazza Duomo, 20, Siracusa
