Syracusa 4 Days

Tricotta cheese, tomatoes and olives from the market on board SY Matelot in Grand Harbour, Syracusa.




The anchorage in the north western corner of Grand Harbour is very safe and full of visiting yachts. The anchor takes readily into the muddy bottom and it is not long before we have a visit from Rick on board a Canadian boat who stops by for a chat in response to our friendly waves. Rick informs us that most of the boats here are headed for Ragusa for the winter. (From now on almost every boat we encounter is headed the same way.) We very quickly get the feeling that with so many people going there, it must be good, and are able to let go of some of our anxieties about committing to a marina which we have never seen, for such a long period of time.

The culture change is immediately apparent when we go ashore, parking the dinghy in a narrow canal under a bridge, right in down town Syracusa. It is a bit of a clamber getting out onto the narrow shelf!


We find a cafe which has internet and are straight into the wifi catching up on emails from home.


Just a few more steps along the same street is where we eat our first Sicilian Pizza. Just love the chairs and the simple room divider which hides the kitchen out back. The waiter is very cute!








Its dark by the time we make our way back to Matelot and we are all ready for a big sleep.






Now to the Market

Every day in downtown Syracusa, there is a produce market, where the fruit and vegetables, fish, bread, meat, cheese and you name it are available. It runs from early morning until around midday and is a huge part of the Syracusa experience for us.



The tomatoes are the reddest, sweetest, freshest tomatoes ever.



Everywhere one looks is a visual feast....stimulating the imagination to enjoy many gastronomic delicacies!



The cheese shop is the culmination of the walk along the main market street where one can sample many goodies before purchasing. In the foreground are rounds of delicious tricotta cheese, with its black, charred appearance.


The Old Town

The old town of Syracusa is a joy to wander around with its narrow alleys and ancient buildings.



The focal point of the main Piazza is the Syracusa Cathedral which is simply amazing, built over the top of ancient Greek columns, originally the Temple of Athena.












Inside the Cathedral, the crowds gather to admire the grandeur of this ancient place of worship.






Other parts of the old town are captivating but its difficult to capture the atmosphere of this charming place on camera.






Four days are hardly enough to really see Syracusa properly. The boat requires provisions and water and we have to find out how to check in to Sicily. Boat laundry has to be dropped off - luckily that one is easy as we find a superb laundry a short distance from where we park the dinghy.

In addition, as an important safety measure, a new sim card has to be purchased for the mobile phone and an internet connection for the boat to download weather forecasts and email has to be organised. It takes time (5 minutes) to research the deals available from the various providers and we settle on a deal from Wind. It involves purchasing a 'dongle' which plugs into the USB port on the computer. It runs at 14.5 mbs (megabytes per second) for a one off charge of Euro 49. It can take a sim card from any provider, but we take the promotional deal of 10 Gig per month for Euro 15 from Wind and use their sim card in the dongle. Its a pretty good offer and we have found it to be superb.

However, the Skype for some reason does not work. Will sort that later when we have time.

An unexpected problem occurs when Google notices that we are now accessing our emails from a different country. They request that we do a security check. Richard is fine but Pippy gets tripped up on the security questions as the phone number they are asking her for is old and she is not able to recall it. She is shut out of her emails which is pretty scarey. All our records and contacts are on Google. It takes 24 hours and an extensive search through old notebooks to turn up the NZ mobile phone number used when first setting up Google in 2008. Its also not that straightforward getting into the Google security settings to update them. Its a lesson learned and filed away for future reference. For some reason, Pippy is feeling quite wrung out around now. We know why Google are so security conscious as the cruising community has been hit very hard this year with 'identity theft'. Somehow the 'watchers' out there can tell when you are travelling. They can hack your email identity and then send 'help me' emails to all your contacts asking for money to be paid to get you out of jail etc. Its a scam originating in Nigeria, but horrible for those we know who it has happened to.

We (especially Pippy) recall that this is an issue each time we move from one country to another. All this 'stuff' has to be set up again. One ends up with many pin numbers, mobile phone and internet numbers etc and time has to be devoted to keeping on top of it.

On 1 October, a weather window appears which is good to passage southwards to Malta. Richard especially has not had a moment to see Syracusa, but we know we will be back here, so leave Grand Harbour, knowing that this wonderful place is still here and waiting for us to return. Malta here we come!

Syracusa at sunset: