East coast Sicily Day 15 Pozzallo to Ortigia

We leave Pozzallo by train, our destination is Siracusa. The first time we saw Siracusa was in October 2000 and it was the extra day of our honeymoon in Italy. These extra days are often particularly interesting for some reason, the 8th (or 9th!) day of the week-long holiday in Granada when we sit on a sun-baked bench in Sacromonte and drink cold beer and just admire the Alhamabra and listen to locals chatting, the 22nd day of the three week holiday in West Sicily when we go to Mondello beach which is clean empty and hot and I have one of my best swims ever, that extra night you can fit in because the flight is cheaper or I've got no work commitments. In October 2000 we were in Catania and on our last and extra day we took the train to Syracusa to visit Ortigia, saw our first Ortigia sunset and fell in love with the place nearly as much as with each other. After a couple of years we visited again but just for an afternoon on the way somewhere else. So, why it has taken us 17 years to go back and visit Siracusa properly is a good question, or perhaps, like Granada, some places acquire such a special resonance that you keep them in your travel destinations drawer like a superbly embroidered white tablecloth which can't risk a wine stain.

Finally, here we are again. Our Airbnb host is a charming Romanian lady who looks after 'our' apartment and the others belonging to her boss when said boss is elsewhere. She is very kind, she picks us up from the station, which also involves some waiting as the train, as so often happens is subject to a mysterious stop in the middle of the countryside and chugs reluctantly into the station over twenty minutes late. 

I had had high hopes of the apartment and used my Airbnb superhost bonus to cut the cost a little and am not disappointed. It is right on the east-facing seafront of Ortigia, on the second floor and the view of the sea is total and spectacular. 

The apartment is on two floors and the bedroom is like looking out from a ship, sitting up in bed all you can see is the sea. I am delighted. To help my descent from cloud 9 I then have to defrost the fridge which is so iced up it doesn't even close properly. Even this does not deter from my enthusiasm which says something considering how much I like defrosting fridges.

We venture out to visit Ortigia and stock up on basics in an impossibly small corner shop which has a selection of products you would normally find in a large supermarket in the square meters you would normally find scarce for your living room. Oh, yes and the staff are friendly and prices are absolutely normal, too. We take the shopping back home and then return towards the sunset, except, the unexpected happens, it starts raining.

Well yes, I had noticed that there were dark clouds about, but rain, in Sicily, in Syracusa?? It takes us totally by surprise and is a torrential downpour not just from the sky but from many gutterless roofs and others with guttering which stops midway down the side of buildings spraying torrents of water in all directions and on to the soon slippery streets which become hazardous ankle-deep streams. We arrive back on ship drenched, with shoes squelching and amazed and slightly offended at such a wet welcome. Never mind, I finish dealing with the frige, cook pasta in abundance and we sleep soundly on board, with the noise of the wind and the waves just the other side of the street. Can one come home to a place one visited one afternoon 17 years before?