Never underestimate the power of six people who are able to motivate and coordinate each other in such a way that all of them are ready to hit the road at 7:30. Just this feat suggests extraordinary accomplishments are possible.

Thus, we were feeling full of potenial as we headed out this morning for the city of Siracusa, about three hours away. Along with the pleasant sunshine and windshield-filling views of Mount Etna, one other thing buoyed our spirits. It was a tiny cup of goodness called Crema Freda — so good it could only be served in thimble-sized contaners at the highway rest area close to Catania. Ours got passeed around, and even people who only got a few sips were smiling for hours afterwards.

We got to Siracusa and parked our car well before the pleasant feelings wore off. Our mood was barely scratched by the ranks of school groups at our first tour stop of the day, the Necropolis Archeological Park. If getting up and out by 7:30 were not enough, now we would hop a few millennia back in time to when the Ancient Greeks had a colony in this area of Sicily. They built a grand amphitheater on a hillside, using stone quarried from higher up the hill. The resulting structure still stands largely intact, and the holes made by the quarrying are visible and explorable after serving a variety of functions, including as tombs, over the past 2,000 or so years. Much of the original rock of the amphitheater is currently covered by wooden planks because the place now serves as a venue for a summer concert series. This dampened the effect a little, but the location is still stunning — from the top you can look out over trees and city streets to the sea.

Also, we weren’t done time traveling yet. After a stroll through another quarry that left sizeable grottos that we could walk through (and whose accoustics the school groups could test out by screaming and whistling persistently) we found another amphitheater built by the Romans slightly fewer millenia ago than the first ruins we saw. This one seems to have less concert venue potential these days, but it did serve nicely as a wildflower breeding ground. The school groups were unimpressed and didn’t make it past the first viewing point.

Of course, by this time it was pretty much lunch time, and we had a general destination in mind: the island of Origia which is connected to the city by two short bridges and which shares the brunt of Siracusa’s tourist traffic with the Archeological park. People who like narrow cobblestone foot-traffic passages though sun showered two-story residential canyons would be very happy to get lost wandering around here. We were those people, even a little bit past the pont where were started to hope that the passage we were on would lead us to lunch, which one of them eventually did.

This was our first real pasta meal of the whole trip, and it did not disappoint, though only one of us decided to pursue Ortigia’s reputation for seafood. The penne with swordfish and eggplant was quite good, as were, reportedly, the carbonara, lasagna, pasta norma, and ragu.

From lunch we followed a general touring plan that was designed to hit major points in Otigia, which featrured multiple views of the Mediterranian. Perhaps the best view was back toward the city of Siracusa on the mainland with the white top of Mount Etna loomng above.
We also saw the island’s Duomo, which was built in the fifteenth century AD, incorporating pillars and other elements from a temple to Athena dating to the fifth century BC. This was not our first Duomo, but was quite memorable.
From here, we continued wandering until we reached the very tip of Ortigia, where the Maniace Castle projects a rather fort-like military presence with stark, thick walls all around and stairways leading off in improbable directons.

We didn’t actually go inside because our parking was about to run out.
Still, the walk back to the parking lot was as scenic a jorney as anyone in our mild state of hurry could hope for. We followed the shoreline on the opposide side of the island, which included some beaches where several people seemed to be considering the idea of wading into the still-chilly Mediterranean.

We had a relaxed start to our day today, enjoying the amazing views from the Brookses terrace and playing with the kittens. Eventually we meandered down to Chris and Wendy’s favorite cafe for breakfast pastries. I had some kind of amazing pistachio creation — apparently they are famous for pistachios here — and we enjoyed the fresh-squeezed orange juice. (Since we frequently see oranges hanging from the trees here, my guess is that it’s VERY fresh.)

After breakfast we took a short drive over the hills to take in some more amazing views. This region is extremely mountainous, with artistic pillars of rock jutting out dramatically. Sometimes buildings are constructed right into the rock, with it not being clear exactly where the rock ends and the building begins. In between are fields of crops and flowers covering the steep hillsides. We stopped to take some pictures of a large flock of sheep and enjoy the chiming of the hundreds of little bells that they wear around their necks.

Our main event of the day was a tour and tasting Wendy had arranged for us at a nearby winery. Our guide, Aldo, was friendly and knowledgeable, and the setting was amazing. The family that owns the winery bought and restored a hilltop villa — on the highest point for miles around — to use as a tasting room. There were breathtaking vistas in every direction. We tasted five of the wines, all made from grapes exclusive to this region of Sicily. Aldo also had a feast of local delicacies for us, with the winery’s own olive oil and locally made breads, meats, and cheeses.

On our way back, Chris and Wendy wanted to make a stop to introduce us to their friend Gianni. He is an artist with a country house near the winery. It’s the perfect setting for an artist, with lovely views and an amazing garden that we wandered around in. Gianni showed us many of his paintings — he’s working on a series of noteworthy women from around the world — and bonded with Tom over art. He even gave Karen and I each a painting to bring home.

We were all a little too tired to venture out for dinner, so we ended the day with delicious pizza from a nearby pizzaria. We’re preparing for an early start and a full day tomorrow.

One of the main things in our lives that we do not write about in this blog is Potluck, which tends to happen once a week. It happens at home, or at least close to home, which is why you never find it in our travel blog.

Except now we are combing our home life with our travel life in rural Sicily. We have packed up Potluck staples Karen and Tom Palmer and traveled here to visit original Potluck co-founding family Chris and Wendy Brooks in their lovely European headquarters.

In fact, we haven’t seen Chris and Wendy for quite some time because they have been preparing this place for us. It should also be noted that if not for schduling conflicts we may well have the remaining club members, Michael and Carla, along with us.

But they went to London last week instead, and now they are missing out.

What are they missing out on? Well…

We had a totally comfortable and not-at-all stressful succession of flights from Boston to Munich to Catania, one of the larger cities on Sicily. It was marred only when Karen’s suitcase failed to come out onto the baggage carousel. Lufthansa’s miscue ate up a little of our first day, and caused Karen a wee bit of stress, but managed to pick it up later in the day because…

As we were riding back down the mountain back into Catania, we decided to check in at the airport to relay a suitable address for the airline to deliver Karen’s suitcase, should it ever be located. Chris and Wendy’s address was deemed not suitable for reasons we’ll see a little later. It turns out that they had managed to locate Karen’s suitcase and it was waiting for her at the airport when she checked in. What good news!

The only bad news was that all this driving up and down hills was making me carsick. This did not improve as we neared the Brooks’ home in a lovely city called Mussomeli in the Sicilian hill country. There was really nothing to be done. In order for us to get to our destination, we had to get through a tapestry of curves and switchbacks. Mussomeli was visible on its hillside for quite a while, but for much of the drive it did not seem to be getting any closer.

We did finally make it into town and got into our new accommodations. I recovered significanly once I got out of the car and saw the place. I even helped Chris walk the two local celebrities, the Brooks’ Newfoundlands Pippa and Arlo, though the narrow, winding cobblestone alleys of their neighborhood in the heart of Mussomeli’s historic s old district. Then I fell asleep pretty much as soon as I lay down in bed because it had been such a long day. Any lingering feeling of carsickness melted away overnight and was completel obliterated when I got up the next morning to see…

The lovely expanse of Sicilian countryside visible from Chris and Wendy’s sunroom. It beckoned us to explore, which we did for most of our first full day in town. Everywhere we walked in Mussomeli, people would call out to Wendy and ask where the dogs were. We got to meet many of Brooks’ new friends and neighbors and wander even more of the cobblestone streets.

We even got to take in the city’s the first ever auto race! The race cars had been parked along the main road the day before so Chris and Wendy looked into it and found some times when the cars would likely be zooming by. We were among a small crowd at the finish line and got to see several of the cars — all hatchbacks — navigate a traffic cone s-curve and then sprint up the hill to the end of the race. It was not something we had imagined we would get to see.

After seeing seven or eight cars finish the race, we contined our wanderings through town, taking in urban wildflowers and periodic vews of the farmland on the facing hillside. We made it to the dramatic Castle Manfredonico, which wraps itself around a giant pillar of craggy rock just outside of town. It was closed today, but we took the initiative to try to hike around the base of the stony island it sits on. At this point, it is not actually clear to us if there is a trail that goes all the way around it. We found a trail, but among the few thing we became certain about were that it puts you in close proximity to a lot of thorny thistle, and there is a random mud patch that took us all by surprise and muddied us up considerably. We abandoned our circumnavigation not long after the mud.

Still, there was more excitement to come. We saw two motorcyclists escape hot pursuit by the Carabinieri. We had a nice aperitivo on the sun porch. We played extensively with the two tiny kittens Chris and Wendy adopted just in time for our visit.

And we finished the evening in the most appropriate way possible: a potluck dinner thrown by some of Wendy’s friends in the old town’s main square.