April 11- Ortigia, Sicily

Nice early rise to join Wendy and André for their daily morning stroll around the outside of the town, near the water. The fishermen were coming in with their catches. They leave the fish in their nets until they return to port, then they untangle them one at a time. We also have a walk through the market and buy what we need for the day: strawberries, oranges, calamari, mussels, bread, and olive oil.

Beautiful clear water.

Fishermen finding their catch

Lonely boat

André and Wendy’ fisherman friend.

Nice reflections this morning.

After our hour walk we return to have breakfast. Around 10:15 we walk to rent bikes to be able to ride along a trail. We pay 3 Euro per hour and are gone for two hours. We bike for about 7-8 km, so a leisurely stroll. After we drop off the bikes, Wendy has decided to have her last Pistacchio and Dark Chocolate gelato, in this area. I can’t watch her eat alone so I have the same combination, and André has another sort of ice cream specialty. We sit and eat and it starts to rain. Nothing serious. We walk back to the market as we want to get some little sweet peppers and the guys want to buy a sandwich made by the man that we saw making them yesterday. There is a line up so rather than wait for him they go into the store and get another guy to make one as they will be sharing. It is large enough for two people. 

A real mouthful 

Just one half. The whole sandwich is 6 Euros. 

Wendy and I make a nice salad to have. A few hours later we head out for another walk. Lots of schools groups around and tourist groups in general. It’s nice and the sun is in and out. We decide to have a drink in a sheltered area but overlooking the water.

Having a beer and a little bottle of Champagne

Sharing a beer 

Our sheltered seats

We return to the apartment for some down time. Wendy has a bit of work and André decides to start cooking. Tonight we have decided to make some apps for supper. Actually André is the one cooking all of them. We try to help by dicing or peeling, etc but he is main guy. We have bruschetta, cheese and  meat platter, artichoke, mussels, squid, and a mixed fried veggie dish. Everything was so yummy. Thanks André. Of course we swallowed everything down with some red wine. After the first 4 apps we went out for another walk. The cooking and eating finished upon our return. We have packed and we’ll be ready to leave tomorrow morning around 9:00.