Day 10 - Monday November 3, 2025 - Ortigia and Noto

By Ellen Outten


From our boat ride this morning around Ortigia.  Is it a bear or an elephant?


Spices for sale at the market in Ortigia 


We left the hotel at 9:15 and headed back to Ortigia to see the town from the water.  It was a beautiful morning with perfect weather.  The boat ride around the island lasted about an hour complete with a glass of Prosecco and a little American music.  

The water was blue and calm as we circled the island in the Ionian Sea.




A museum dedicated to the world war 1 patriots.




It’s either a heart or the head of a cobra 


The pilots of the boats refer
To this as Elephant rock.  I see a bear

We entered this cave and saw the rocks looking like a turtle 




The castle at the tip of the island 



Our tour guide for the last two weeks serving us Prosecco 


To the right of the church in the background off to the right is Mt Etna .  A volcano bigger than Vesuvius. It’s over 100 km from here.



After our boat ride, we walked through the marketplace.  Vegetables, fruit, fish.  It all looks and smells wonderful.  


Vendors selling olives

This is tomato paste!

Nuts, cashews, pistachios, walnuts

Spices of all descriptions 

Today’s dinner will be fish!



Prickly pear fruit. The sign says big bastards


More fish for sale 

Wayne and I had lunch in the market.  He had raw oysters and I had frito misto, solo calimari.
Raw oysters shucked for you individually 

Lunch. Wayne with his oysters and my calimari and beer that wasn’t too bad.  Italians are not known for beer


We had free time for about two hours so I left Wayne for a small amount of shopping.  Then off to the baroque town of Noto about 45 minutes away.

What a beautiful little town.  So many churches, most in the baroque style.  The town has a pedestrian walkway so we could walk most anywhere.  

Entrance to the pedestrian walkway.  Porta Reale o Ferdinandea


I just love the old balconies 

I’m just going ti number the churches.  There were so many; one after the next.  So this is church #1.

Church #2

Church #3

Church #3 continued

A monument to the memory of World War 1 local military 

A change of pace, this is City Hall 

Church #4

If you’ve heard of Stanley Tucci, he’s been here.  I laughed when our tour guide said he was like parsley, he was spread around a little all over.  Meaning he’s bee everywhere.

Our tour guide,
Alessandro wanted us a to walk up this street, he believed to have the most beautiful architecture. 

I swear that Sicily is uphill both ways.

Look at the balconies and the corbels underneath them.



Church #6

Not a church!  It’s the local theater in town

Our guide wanted to give us a treat at the best gelateria in Noto. It was also a pastry shop.  I had some gelato after lunch and passed on it but I took some amazing pictures of their pastries.





I walked back to the bus and caught this on the way down the street.

Dinner tonight!!!  7 pm.  And then packing as we move north to Taormina, Mt. Etna and our last two days in Sicily.

10,911 steps today.  This is one tired lady!











Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM

    I’m sure you are going to be sooo thin when you arrive home!

    ReplyDelete

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