Day 31 02-10-2013 Wed Cosenza

We enjoyed our stay in Siracusa and were a little sorry to leave. It was another perfect sunny day in Sicily. As we drove north we got quite good views of Mt Etna (3300m) and were surprised that it didn’t seem to get any nearer as we progressed. 

We also got some good views of Taormina.

We now retraced much of the route from 16 days earlier, all the way to Cosenza. There is really beautiful coastal scene north of Pizzo as the road follows the curve of a wide shallow bay. It was an easy drive – 340 Km, taking about 5 hours.

We found our hotel easily enough, or so we thought. On entering, it was all closed and empty, with a sign saying to go to the new hotel 20m behind. We could not find any new hotel behind the old hotel. Finally, a helpful mechanic from across the road pointed us in the right direction – behind on the opposite side of the street. It’s a nice new place, and best of all it is quite near the pedestrian Corso of the new town.

We did a foot tour along the Corso to the old town and managed to locate the Duomo (closed) but mistook several other churches for it first, but had a quick look in several others. The old town has some very good buildings, but unfortunately not the money to maintain them. The old town is set into the slope of a hill, with rough cobblestoned streets, and places where garbage was deposited as is – no big bins like elsewhere.

Chiesa di San Domenico

The Duomo

Please let dogs poop somewhere else. Possibly in front of your house!

You mean we have to travel in this thing?

Chiesa di San Domenico chapel painted wooden ceiling

Chiesa di San Domenico

The Corso Mazzani

We had dinner at a nearby traditional décor restaurant. Right from the start the friendly waiter wanted to please, by speaking English. We wanted a change from pizza/pasta/fish so were keen on what carne was on offer. We had also seen a large platter displaying porcini mushrooms. Veal and pork were on offer so we ordered pork with porcini and some side dishes of salad and vegies. The side dishes came, awaiting the main, but only a small plate of porcini showed up. After waiting a short while we decided we had to eat them as they would have gone cold. They were delicious. After a further wait for the main, we began to suspect a problem. We called the waiter over and asked if he had correctly understood our wishes. He was most apologetic admitting he had only understood porcini. No matter as the deficiency was soon corrected. The pork was excellent too.