Trip to Noto and Beyond

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Today our agenda is to visit another Baroque town called Noto. After having a quick breakfast and heading out the door, we drove the one hour drive to Noto through small winding towns and crazy morning traffic. Driving in Italy is crazy! You have to be very aggressive otherwise you wouldn’t get anywhere at all. No one seems to stop at signs or lights, and if you do do the speed limit, you’re going too slow. Cars fly by us as if we’re standing still which makes you wonder when you see all the roadside memorials.
Noto is the queen of southern Sicily’s Baroque cities. The earthquake of 1693 also destroyed much of this town as well and had to be re-built in the valley below. The old town is abandoned to its lonely hilltop. All the “new” buildings were built using the honey colour tufa stone which gives the town a golden look. Some people call Noto the garden of stone. Again we toured the main attraction which is the Duomo in the centre of town. It features an impressive set of stairs before you come to the main door that looks suspiciously Greek. The cathedral was built in 1776, but in 1990 the area experienced a small earthquake that was mostly ignored. However the church did exhibit small cracks which no one bothered to repair. In 1996 in the early morning hours, the cathedral’s iconic dome collapsed and luckily no one was hurt. It took until 2007 for the city to repair and painstakingly re-paint the entire church. We noticed on the church door that the Pope is planning to visit this cathedral in October to bless it now that it’s all repaired. Let’s hope they don’t experience another quake. The dark clouds lingered again today and the threat of rain was imminent. It was close to lunch so we kicked off to a side street and saw a little funky restaurant that was just opening. We were welcomed in and soon after being seated, more people started coming in drenched with rain. We had just made it inside before the skies opened up again and the river of water started flowing down the street. Lunch was very good with homemade pasta and fresh bread. The rain stopped by the time we left the restaurant and now it was off to find the car. Once we left Noto, the sun was shining and we wanted to get close to the sea and see the little towns that run along it. Off we went to the towns of Ispica, Pozzallo and the Donnalucata marina. We made a quick stop along the roadside when we saw the huge sand dunes and an old ruin of an ancient factory. The ruin had an old smokestack in varies stages of decay while the rest of the building was a shell of its former self. The beach was empty even though the temperature was about 27 degrees and humid. Even with the temperatures still hot, most Italians consider it fall season and don’t visit the beach like they do in the summertime. The beach had great sand, but unfortunately it was littered with lots of garbage like cigarette butts and pop bottles. Closer to the abandoned factory we noticed quite a few cars with a single guy in each of them, sitting there, doing nothing. It made us slightly uneasy especially when we started to see the used condoms on the ground. Even though the sea view was enchanting, we quickly got the heck out of there.
Next on our sea road tour, we came to the town of Scicli. It was a great little town with a small piazza in the center in front of the town’s church. Immediately we noticed all the little old men sitting in the square talking and smoking, in which we’re sure they had been there all day. When pretty girls walked by, they all looked with an approving nod and chatted some more. What we noticed especially was how they reacted when they saw Ron’s leg brace. Ron’s left knee is kaput and he has to wear a brace when he does a lot of walking. Ron always wear shorts which is a no no in Italy (men don’t wear short pants) but he’s a tourist and doesn’t care, however, the old fellas could see the brace that starts mid-calf and climbs to mid-thigh. Every one of them stared, pointed and gestured to their own legs and then chatted in a quick Italian frenzy. We gather that they have never seen one and wish to have one of their own, or they think Ron is the Bionic man. While touring the quaint streets, we stumbled across a man carving faces onto limestone right beside the opera house. The faces were modern but really neat with lots of expression, so we each bought one from him. I think we paid a decent price of $20 euros, but then again, it's just a rock. So the time came where we had to start heading back to the villa so we could make our dinner reservation at the resort's dining room. We punched in the coordinates for the villa into Bonnie and started heading home. Along the way, Bonnie told us to go through a series of side streets where we came upon a flooded part of the road. The water was about a foot high and moving fast which made us a bit weary but decided to go through anyway. That should have been our first red flag. The roadway that Bonnie had us on was a secondary highway and was quite scenic until Bonnie asked us to get off and onto a small farm road. Okay, common sense should have come into play, but this was now turning into an adventure. The little farm roads lined with stone on either side became narrower and narrower until we finally came to a point in the drive where the road was no longer a road. The hard packed gravel was now filled with large holes and big stones looking like no one had been that way for a very long time. The farms were off to the distance and the vegetation was thick as our car crawled along. Dan had to get out at one point to help Ron manoeuvre through the big stones to avoid damage to the undercarriage. Once pasted that hurtle and feeling like we have to keep going, we turned a corner and came across a big puddle. Both Dan and Ron went to inspect it and threw a large stone in it to gauge the depth, to which confirmed to us that it was way too deep for the car. (It reminded me of when we go quading with the Schlossers in Caroline) At this point, the sun was starting to set and Lissa was starting to freak out. We had to turn around, but Bonnie was very insistent that we stayed on course. All of us in unison told Bonnie to shut up! It took Ron a bit to turn the car around and to head back from where we came until we saw the highway again. Once back on the highway, Bonnie re-routed herself and found a different way. The drive home took over 2 hours and almost made us late for our dinner. Needless to say, you can't trust a GPS….ever.
Wine count is now 14.

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Photos

Strange Cars
This is one of the many strange vehicles in Sicily.

Noto Cathedral
The Noto Cathedral after renovations. Love the golden look of the stone.

Noto Cathedral
This image was so intense.

Dan on a beach in Sicily
Not sure where this was exactly but between Ragusa and Donnalataca.

Ruins
Ruins of a factory on the seashore.