Syracuse, or in Italian Siracusa

This area of Sicily is where my great, great grandparents lived. It has Ancient Greek history. You will remember in the Bible Paul stopped in Syracuse. Ortigia is an island in Syracuse that is a beautiful historical area. In the middle of Ortigia there is the square. Most towns in Italy have a square. The squares come alive at night. Not alive in the way like people out partying, but family eating dinner out or getting gelato. Parents with strollers and kids playing ball. Italians don't seem to eat dinner till 8 pm. In the summer it's too hot earlier, so 8 pm is when it's cool enough to go out.

It's fun to sit out in the square and watch everyone chatting, enjoying pizza or looking in the shops.

In this middle of this square is an Ancient Greek temple that at some point was turned into a Christian cathedral. You can see on the outside walls where the ancient part is, and where they added on the front.

My great, great grandparents lived a few streets over from this temple. My nephew actually found them in records and the street they lived on.

Always so much good food and pastries in Italy! They are not overly sweet like so many pastries in USA, but of course I'm eating a bit too much!

Monica ordered hot chocolate and it was so rich and more like chocolate syrup!

Too much to list here, we took several trips to Ortigia, went to a castle, went in to Augusta where we to church during a service. It was a Catholic Church and it was a beautiful service. Of course it was in Italian, but we could tell our minister was preaching from the heart and the songs were some of the same ones we sing in American churches. And who knows, maybe my grandpa attended this church!

I had the best sandwich I have ever eaten! molto molto bene! I bought Spiedino rustico. I’m not exactly sure what kind of meat but it was not horse meat! It was some kind of shaved meat and the toppings were not like American more like olives, peppers, etc. The bread was soft and fresh! Best ever!

This van came around the houses selling, meat, cheese, veggies, hot bread, pastries! It had a loud speaker saying something in Italian.

Cannoli's are something that was created by nuns. I love them! Stuffed with Ricotta!

The pointed thing was super good, it's filled with rice, peppers and sauce!

We could have stayed the whole 2 weeks in Sicily. We enjoyed every minute.

But now we are on to Malta! Seeing a new place!