May 18, 2023

May 18, 2023

This morning we drove from Noto to the southeastern coast of Sicily to visit the Vendicari Nature Reserve. It encompasses the beach and wetlands of the area. On the walk from the parking lot to the shore, we saw lots of green lizards along the path and flamingos in the lagoons. Clumped up everywhere were thousands of fibrous balls. Apparently these are Neptune Balls that accumulate from a Mediterranean Seagrass called Posidonia Oceanus or Neptune Grass.

Along the shore is also the remains of a Tonnara or tuna processing plant. Tuna was a traditional fish caught in the Mediterranean until the Japanese moved in with their industrial fishing boats.

We then drove down the coast to the fishing village turned beach town of Marzamemi. There we shopped and had lunch. We ate local entrees. The boys ate Linguini with Anchovies. The girls had a Fettuccine with Red Pesto and local sun-dried tomatoes. The girls chose better.

We then returned to Noto for our walking tour. Noto is a new town built after the 1693 earthquake. Since it was built from scratch it is the Disneyland version of Sicilian Baroque. The facades of almost every building are elegant with lots of unnecessary monumental staircases everywhere.

Tomorrow is the start of the Noto Flower Festival, Infiorata di Noto. We watched the city get prepared. There are vendor booths everywhere. In particular one steep palace-lined street gets decorated with flowers. The theme this year is Italian cinema. We watched the artists use templates to design their entries. The flowers will be added tomorrow night after we are gone. We should have stayed one more night.

For dinner we went to the restaurant that Madonna ate at last year. It is underneath the Church of San Carlo where the crypt should be. The food was great. Aimee and I had Pasta with Pistachio Green Pesto and a Cherry Tomato Salad. The locally grown Pachino Tomatoes were extraordinarily sweet. We paired it with a Mt. Etna red wine. For dessert I had a Granita at the gelatoria. Granita is a fancy Italian sno-cone. I prefer the gelato.