K and I spent a long weekend in Sicily, because even in winter it’s blue and golden gold, and the stone benches are warm to sit on, at least in the afternoon, and you can still drink coffee outside, and even a cup of tea, and in the evening you can go to Mario’s takeaway and get the best pizza you’ve ever tasted.
K showed me the best bits of Syracuse (she’d visited before, I hadn’t), and we went to the Archaeological Park and saw the ancient ruins and the Ear of Dionysius, in which I sang a few notes to hear the echoes, and then there was more coffee for K and tea for me, and a sit down because we were tired.
K and I explored Noto, a town destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt as something extraordinary, and we scampered up narrow alleyways to find the views, and ate amazing pasta at Al Buco, and everything was golden gold even in winter, and there was no-one else around just us, and that’s how you go to Italy, when no-one else is going there because they’re doing Christmas shopping instead.
(20 December 2019)