Italy

---

Yesterday, after a wonderful week in Greece, we arrived in Italy, where we will spend much of the next two weeks.

The first stop was a very small city on the “ball of the boot”, called Cortone, Italy. This was a very small city, and for my money, was really not very interesting. We spent about 1 hour in the old town and went back to the boat for a little pool time. It seems there are some interesting ruins outside of town that you could only see on one of the excursions. For sure, we have seen enough interesting ruins.

Today we went lower in Italy, arriving at Siracusa, Sicily. I was really looking forward to arriving here because it is ironic that two days before Father’s Day, I arrive in a place my father first stepped foot onto Italian soil during World War II, 75 years ago. I remember very well growing up how he could speak Italian and wrote letters, in Italian, to a friend he had back here.

What a beautiful city this was, with possibly the most amazing piazza’s I have ever seen. We visited the main Duomo, which was originally built as a temple to Athena, and includes columns built by the Norman’s. What a beautiful place.

We stopped in the piazza at an outdoor restaurant where the waiters could barely speak english, but had a very nice bottle of Italian wine and shared a pizza. A pizza in a piazza!

We were photobombed by the owner, who must have been the great, great, great, grandson of Don Corlone.

What a beautiful place this was.

---