Day 10--Sept 26 Old Town Ragusa and Fiat 500 Ride

 I think I've forgotten to mention that during our Sicily adventure all of the hotels have had full breakfasts.  including lots of pastries, fresh fruit, cheeses, salamis, salads and bread to go with the eggs and bacon.  

We left the hotel right after breakfast for a tour of old town Ragusa.  The local guide was wonderful.  Bill took his walking stick as we walked three hours up and down the stone "streets".

There are caves everywhere and the hotel actually has rooms that are caves.

People actually made houses in them.

Our local guide stopped to chat with this lady.  She translated our questions.  She is 95 years old and that's her son next to her.

This man was shaving when we walked by.  

The wife joined him in his man cave.  Our guide is showing us some of his talents.

We were told that  40% of the homes are family  occupied.  There are many homes that have been converted to rentals for tourists.

We went into an exhibition but it took longer to show our white pass and passport than it did to see the exhibits.  They were all modern art and not worth a photo except for this outfit made of pasta.

Our guide sang and had an excellent voice.

As she sang a final tune and we said good bye, Nunzia said she had a small surprise for us.  Of course we all followed her!

She took us to someone's home, which looked exactly like every other house from the outside.

Room after room was filled with beautiful antiques collected from his family.

He played the baby grand piano for us.  I can't believe we were allowed to sit on the furniture.

I have no idea how many rooms he showed us, but I wouldn't have been able to find my way out!

Lunch was on our own, but no one was hungry so we had a wine flavored gelato.  It hit the spot.

Around 5 pm we were taken to a wide spot in the road. 

There were five Fiat 500's.  The owners of the cars all belong to a club.  We were presented with a year's membership to the club.

After introductions, we were divided up into two people per car.  Bill and I got into the 1972 yellow one.  Well I crawled into the back seat and had to put my knee between the seats by the brake.  Bill made a couple of attempts and finally made it into the front seat.  The space between the front and back was less than the length of my cell phone.

And they were off!!!  We were the third car and you wouldn't believe the streets we were on.  It felt like we were in some action movies.

They took a short break to answer questions.  Here's the motor.....

and the fuel goes in here which is also the trunk.  

Nunzia took this group photo of the cars, drivers and our small group.  It was soooooo much fun!

After we left the cars, we had a short walk to our restaurant for dinner.  Of course, Nunzia wanted to know if we wanted to stop for a chocolate tasting.

It was interesting, but after coming off such a high from the Fiat ride, I'm afraid I didn't retain any explanation of the chocolate and how long the tradition was.  

Here's a typical appetizer dish that you get with every meal followed by your entre and dessert.

It was another wonderful day in Sicily.  I especially like the fact that these are typical towns, not tourist destinations.  You don't see many other Americans.

Turtle Safely.........