Siracusa (or Syracuse) was one of the strongest powers in the ancient Mediterranean world and the most important city of the entire Magna Grecia area. Today it is called the “modern” part of the city. Ortigia, the tiny island off of Siracusa called the “historical center” today, was settled by the Siculian tribes (one group of Sicily’s original peoples) about 3000 years ago. Both were colonized by the Greeks in the 8th century B.C. and naturally became a part of the Hellenized culture. A sophisticated urban city, Siracusa was home to many famous, historically known Greeks, including Archimedes. The city was noted by Cicero as “the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all.”

At 2:30pm on the dot, the bus left Palermo and headed south through the interior of Sicily, through some of the most beautiful scenery that I have ever been witness to. Miles and miles of green pastures, hills and mountains so high they seemed to reach the sky, vineyards, horse herds, sheep herds, cow herds, cacti with prickly pears growing on them, the sea… Nature. Untouched and untainted, in her freest form.

I was in heaven! Sitting on the bus, I indulged in my fantasy of living up in one of the hills, stealing a cow for milk and a horse for transportation, just Nature and I… Pure bliss. Or I could live in a Ficus tree. Seriously! I was locked in to it throughout the entire ride. To me, this is the right way to live – surrounded by Nature, wild and free. I was already the happiest I have been in a long time and our trip had only begun.

When we arrived at Siracusa, we were supposed to get dropped off on Corso Gelone, only we got dropped off around the corner from the train station. Since street signs tend to be a rarity, I asked the bus driver, “Is this Corso Gelone?” He said no and that it was pretty far away. Great. Now what? I called Lynn, our landlady and asked her how to get there. “Just take the small navetta bus, it’s free and it will take you right over the bridge in Ortigia.” Okay, sounds simple enough. The guy at the ticket booth told me it was bus #20 and to wait for it at “the end.” This was all I understood from his Italian/Sicilian dialect. What end is that exactly?

We ended up walking around for a few minutes, not finding any notation of where this bus came, so we said screw it and decided to walk all the way down Corso Umberto, the main street, over the bridge into Ortigia. It wasn’t that bad of a walk, only about 10 minutes.

Once we were over the bridge, we were in a totally different world! The streets were very tiny and had no type of street plan, they just curved around and most of them were lacking in street signs. Very cool, when you’re not hauling luggage!

We tried following Lynn’s vague directions to the apartment and ended up in all these different “Roncoes” (little alcoves, similar to a cul-de-sac, only not). It was all very small village-like. Finally, we found our way to our Ronco. Our street is about 2 people wide and I am glad we found it before it got dark out.

Now we are inside our little studio apartment. It’s nice but it smells moist like, I guess from it’s proximity to the sea. It’s also cold in here, and in this little village web of streets. Only when you get out in the open do you feel the sunshine.

I went through our cupboard to see what we had already and didn’t have to buy. Everything was moist and stale. I guess things don’t stay fresh too long here, because of the moisture. The Nutella was as hard as a candy bar and the breadsticks were stale and slightly wet. And you can’t drink the water here because it has a strange taste, unless you boil it. But I have read that things are like that in Ortigia, because it is a Tiny Island. I will say however, the sea is about 2 minutes from the apartment, and that’s a definite plus in my book and totally worth the moisture.

First impressions: I like the streets of the old city and you can smell what people are cooking for dinner. Anonymity is practically a no-go and everybody knows everybody, so when you are a newbie, they know and stare. I don’t mind though, it’s actually refreshing. It is easy to get lost in these tangled streets though, even with a map.

But we’ll be here for a week so it will be cake walk in no time! Or should I say “cannoli” walk…