Exploring the Isola di Ortigia

This morning we set off to the island of Ortigia, it's connected to the city of Syracuse. It's fairly contained for self exploration with a pedestrian zone with shops and restaurants. You can also walk around the island and check out the waves crashing in.

Today's activities included an arancini cooking class in the home of a local family. I prefer to refer to it as an arancini making class as we were assembling more than cooking. Our host Fiona had already pre-made the risotto and ragu as they take longer than our allotted time. It's a great activity to have on the 1st day, as it not only became lunch, but was a good opportunity to continue to getting to know people, especially since part of our group weren't able to join us for dinner the prior night.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit of an orientation walk and then free time. We stopped by Apollo's Temple and Diana's Fountain, before walking along the water a bit. On our own later on, we just wandered the streets, checking out picturesque streets that caught our eye.

Rain returned for the evening as we stepped out for dinner and then drinks at a local bar. I've noticed here in the south of Sicily, they are more vigilant about checking green cards and not letting people sit more than 6 per table. A bit of a challenge for a tour group, even a small one, but we managed.Read more