Driving in Sicily
Yikes. Certainly, there’s more to be said about it, but “yikes” kind of sums it up. Our adventure for the day was Noto, a beautiful baroque town rebuilt in the 1600s after a devastating earthquake knocked over all of the existing buildings and killed pretty much everybody. But in true Sicilian spirit (these people have been through a lot), five years later, they picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and rebuilt Noto a few miles away from the rubble pile.
But back to driving. To get to Noto, one has to drive. The roads in Sicily are very, very skinny, and walled on both sides. Every corner is blind. You just have to hurl your car out there and hope for the best. Lots of backing up and “oops, you first,” all accompanied by the hysterical dinging of the the car’s proximity alarm. Mike’s concentration was grim, Liz’s knuckles were white, and Charlie and Jane navigated patiently from the back seat. Amazingly, nobody honks.
Plane trees and street market
Once in Noto, we parked in the deep shade of the plane trees. Anything goes in the parking department. Forward, backward, sideways, upside down if you like, and you need to soap up to squeeze out of the car once you’re settled. Street vendors lined the shady walk, and we bought roasted almonds and honey-roasted nuts by the bag.
Historic Noto shows us her churches
A UNESCO World Heritage site, Noto is an easy walk through about six compact blocks of cathedrals, churches, monasteries, civic buildings, and ducal palaces. Al fresco eateries line the stone streets. At the Basilica S.Salvatore, we took the four flights of stairs up to be part of the tour led by lovely Anna Lisa, who apologized for her English, which we felt was quite perfetto (since our Italian stinks). The upper reaches were a prison of sorts for wealthy women who had been sent into this cloistered convent, where they stayed until they died. Every window was covered by a metal grate (a jalousie) through which they could look with longing out over a city they could never walk through again. Now, the building houses a monastery, with about 24 monks, some of whom we passed in the streets. (How come they get to go out and about and the women didn’t?)
For the Catholics among you, Padre Pio was a big presence in the Basilica S. Salvatore, but for unknown reasons. In one of our photos, you will see Liz admiring a life-size statue of the Padre himself. Plus, the Padre Pio festival is coming up in late September.
A pause for refreshment
After all of that tromping up and down the steps, we found the perfect spot for birra and chinotto. Jane always likes to order something unfamiliar, so she ordered chinotto, which comes in a black can and tastes like motor oil. Now that we are back at the villa, we can look it up on Wikipedia, which has this to say: “Chinotto [ki?n?tto] is a type of carbonated soft drink produced from the juice of the fruit of the myrtle-leaved orange tree (Citrus myrtifolia). The beverage is dark in color. Its appearance is similar to that of cola, but it is not as sweet as cola, having rather a bittersweet taste.
Chinotto soda dates back to the 1950s and is produced in Italy by several companies. It is mostly consumed in Italy and Malta.” So, now you know.
Gardens of Majolica
Sicily is famous for its majolica pottery. On the way back to our car, we happened upon an alley crammed with majolica pieces, along with a full-size fish market, in which all of the fish were ceramic. It’s the sort of thing you see and want to buy, but then stop to reconsider — where would one keep an array of ceramic anchovies?
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Driving in Sicily
