Syracuse & Ortigia: Strikes, Bus Chaos, and Hidden Sicilian Gems

Today we flew with Ryanair, a well-known EU budget airline. We hadn't flown with them before, so after reading all their mixed reviews, we were interested to see what the actual experience would be like.

Check-in was a breeze; we were both through in about five minutes. Security was about the same, though Leanne’s boarding pass wasn't recognized at either checkpoint, so she had to be manually let through by an officer both times. Once through, we found a nice little café where we settled in to make a few phone calls to the kids and family.

The two-hour flight wasn’t too bad. The seats are kept in a fairly upright position, but there was just enough room to stretch our legs. It’s the kind of flight I wouldn’t want to spend more than two hours on, as the seats start to feel a bit hard after that, but for a budget airline, it lived up to expectations.

Landing in Catania Sicily, we looked out the window and saw a small train of luggage carts sitting right next to our parked plane. Was this a good sign or a bad one? We weren't sure. We shuffled off the plane and hurried into the airport toward baggage claim—we only had 45 minutes to spare before the airport strike was scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.

The carousel was at a standstill, so I said I was off to the toilets. When I was returning I went past the Rome carousel, which was also stationary with a number of irate travelers all talking and shouting in Italian with their arms flapping in the air at this poor attendant. Again, I don't speak Italian, but what I could gather, they too must have been waiting for a while with no luggage. I looked over at another carousel, and two attendants were taking luggage off and had around a hundred or more suitcases lined up in two rows, and no one was collecting them. As I passed the "Lost Luggage" area, there were 15 cases all sitting there unattended as well. Things weren't looking good.

Anyway, we waited for about 15 minutes, and it was 11:35 a.m. when the carousel fired up. A few minutes later, the first of the many bags appeared.

We headed out into the heat, with hundreds of people scanning bus windscreens for their destinations. Every bus was at least 30 minutes late due to yesterday’s train strike and today's airline strike wasn't helping matters either. All tickets were assigned to specific times but chaos erupted every time a Syracuse bus arrived. People shoved their way to the front, cramming suitcases into the luggage bay, only for the driver to hop out, announce it was the wrong bus, and then casually light a cigarette and closed the door, and the fools who loaded their bags fought to unpack them again.

The bus arrives, the sheep are at it again with a new mob trying to squeeze in, luggage again being thrown into the luggage hold. I get mine in there, then the bus lady calls out, "Bus 11:55 to Syracuse!" Half the sheep pulled back and removed their luggage again, as their tickets were on the next Syracuse bus. This was my bus and as Leanne's ticket was scanned she went in to find us a seat. Other tickets were refused as they were all the wrong time, and again flapping their arms and shouting in Italian. I smiled as my ticket scanned, and I was let on.

Lovely swimming area in Ortigia

Along the way, the landscape was so dry with black patches showing areas that must have been part of bushfires. Coming into town, there's discarded rubbish lining parts of the roads, dilapidated old buildings, half-carved-out quarries, laundry strung from balconies, loud car horns, and traffic jams. WELCOME TO SICILY!

I started thinking. I didn't sign up for this. Where are the pristine lakes and ever green mountains with snow-capped peaks, smiling and polite people, balconies adorned with summer flowers and the quietness gone?

From Transit Chaos to Ortigia’s Old World Charm

So, the bus driver has cracked it, as he couldn't get up a street because a car had parked 45 degrees in a one-way street blocking all traffic. He was blasting his horn and flapping his arms for about 5 minutes until another bus in front moved so he could get through. A little further up, he pulls over and tells everyone to get out. the bus was supposed to stop at the local train station, however, Who knows where he kicked us all off. Anyway, there are a few taxis hovering about here, casual Italians all dressed up like ready to disco, so we grabbed one. I asked how much, and he said 25 euros (I call bullshit, for a 5km ride). Anyway, we were hot and had no idea where we were, so we accepted it. 

The scenery changed as we entered Ortigia: lovely old stone apartments and buildings, narrow streets, hanging baskets of greenery along with blue water and restaurants. This is what I was expecting. A typical Italian driver all nice and polite befriending you along the drive, and on arrival, I gave him 30 euros and wanted my change. He opens his wallet and shows me it's empty, meaning no change! Bullshit again. He has long pants and Italians keep money deep in their pockets not in wallets. I wasn't arguing. I think the bus driver and taxis are all in together. Anyway, this is Italy and you have to go with the flow, I just didn't think they'd start this early on me.

Finally, we arrived at our apartment which has 20 steps up to the front door, However, it made up for all the misadventures along the way. The views from the balcony are amazing, overlooking the old fort and the sparkling blue waters, and best of all it has air-conditioning being so hot for this time of year. The apartment is situated in Ortigia, the older part of Syracuse and within walking distance of everything, it's the idea location.

After unpacking, we walked only a few meters and found a lovely little place where we had some delicious pasta and a couple of cold drinks for lunch which we would definitely come back to again.

We needed some groceries so we headed back out which led us into a rabbit warren of narrow, winding streets. It was a beautiful side of Ortigia that we probably wouldn’t have discovered if we hadn’t been hunting for food. When we got back, I Googled the area and found out we had been wandering through the old Jewish Quarter.

The little restaurant directly below us opened their umbrellas and was busily setting up the seating for their customers tonight. The three scrawny cats below where they hang around for scraps that may fall from our balcony or I throw to them. The local scruffy looking dog who wanders across the busy road every 20 minutes just so he can have a "leak" then disappears back down some small alley. Over to my right, there is a lady in her apartment head down busily away on her sewing machine, she sees me and closes her shutters. Tuk-tuks every 15 minutes pulling up so tourists can take photos. Scooters with an extra two pillion passengers or a small baby squeezed between fly by. The big, fat Italian man throwing his freshly opened cigarette papers on the ground. Locals coming back from swimming from the beach below, to the fading sun casting a yellow glow over Italy's oldest settlement, Ortigia. This is Sicily.

Outside dining at La Foglia 1984