We went out for dinner last night, place recommended to the younger daughter, who’s here too. Firstly because she has to fly somewhere every three weeks; it’s a rule, and secondly because the bride is one of her best mates. Since they were about 3.

And on the menu was sardines. I love sardines. But this was sardines cooked in ‘typical Sicilian, east Ortigia style’. I begged them to be done Greek style. Portuguese style. Belarusian style. Anything but ITALIAN!!!! Put ‘em in a bun with ‘special sauce’ and bright orange cheese, barbecue them with aardvark’s brain, in fajitas with guacamole, anything but Italian.

They were ok. Not fantastic but ok. Both the ‘gels’ had taglialini with ragu made from beef and Sicilian tomatoes… Spag Bol. It was lovely. Quite tasty. But really, as an aspirantional food? The sort of thing every student learns to cook before going to Loughborough to study Politics and Mediaeval Pottery.

The pics I’ve posed are the ‘money shots’ of Ortigia. Where everything is big, coastal and wide and airy. But the best of Ortigia is really what’s in the middle. A massive network of roads so narrow and windy, alleyways really, that in any other country they’d be totally pedestrianised. Over here cars try to overtake driving down them. And the buildings are old and the shops are beautiful and there are cafes and restaurants everywhere. And, of course, gellaterias. And it’s pretty. Piazzas, duomos, statues, fountains, few’a them knockin’ around the place and bish-bosh, another gorgeous bit of Italy. Although the ‘bish-boshing’ took a couple of thousand years.

During which, the Jews moved in. And, they made good, settled down, loaned money, were loved and cherished… then murdered/forced to convert/evicted (see previous posts on the Jews of: Lisbon, Rome, Paris, Majorca, Madrid, Budapest, Prague, Milan…). So yesterday we went to see Ortigia’s ‘mikveh’, which is a ceremonial bath religious Jewish people use to ‘cleanse’. Not to wash, that’s too easy, this is to ‘cleanse’ and you have to be spotlessly clean before you enter. Ortigia’s was build in AD500 and lasted until the Spanish Inquisition. When they filled it with hundreds of tons of mud, blocked off the entrance (it’s quite a way underground, where there’s an artesian well) and left it so it wouldn’t be found. Which it wasn’t until 1986. Amazingly, then cleared out and its open for looking at, no longer for cleansing in. Quite wonderful. Quite moving.

Now for the nuptials.

A xxxx