To prepare myself for Sicily I started to read The Leopard just before coming.
Those of you who have read it will remember the family's summer sojourn in Donnafugata. We were looking for an alternative return journey from Ragusa and I happened to notice it on the map. We got there and it bore no resemblance to what I had in mind.....
but it was a castle.....sort of! Almost more a folly!
Looking again at the map I saw there was a Donnalucata... not too far away! I probably had gotten the name wrong, I thought!
Off we went....... but it didn't seem too interesting and ..... no castle....
We returned to our rented villa and lo and behold it WAS Donnafugato in the book.......obviously poetic license came into play.....or we missed the whole town, which could have happened!
But we are not going back to find it!
(Now that I am doing a little fact checking on Google..... it was a fictional name for Santa Margherita de Belice, which is north of Menfi, a long way away! And the castle was essentially destroyed in an earthquake!)
Today we revisited Noto....and picked up a parking fine. Not sure we understand the system.... we got there around 10.30am. Duly noted that on the arrival time on the front blue parking disk....
returned to find we got a fine.... at 10.23 am! Obviously the 'vigilante' is still on summer time!! Now we have to find where we pay......and the amount to be paid is not evident! I should say that this particular parking area was only 25% full!
Noto is a very nice city...... lots and lots of Baroque!
Then on to the Villa Romana del Tellaro, just down the road from where we are staying.......a Roman villa discovered in the 70s under a farm property ..........
Had we not been to Villa Romana del Casale at Piazza Armerino..... we would have been awed. However it was very interesting... particularly noting that one of the scenes showed a picnic in progress!
Lunch was.....well....minimal! Still recovering from Ragusa!
we definitely needed some exercise!
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