Barocco Blog

Siracusa’s Greek Theatre season opens tomorrow with Prometheus by Aeschylus.  Also one the next month and a half is The Bacchae by Euripedes and The Birds by Aristophanes.

Its the festa of Santa Lucia delle Quaglie, which covers the first two sundays in May.  IN Siracuasa the tabernacle of Santa Lucia in the duomo will be open, and they will be taking the statue for a walkabout.  THe statue will return on Sunday 13 and be locked up again till December.

Catania airport will close for the month of November (approx) while they redo the runway.  At the moment flights will be diverted to Palermo, although some may land at Sigonella.

If it is Palermo you will need to add between 3 and 4 hours to your travel times.

Carnival in Avola - the biggest in the zone - will take place between 16 and 22 February - there are 12 decorated floats in the procession and 4 masked groups.

The president of Sicily has told Ryanair that Comiso airport will be up and running by the summer - Ryanair is interested both for passenger and freight travel.

Alitalia is ‘merging’ with Windjet and Blue Panorama - which means fewer flights and higher prices for Sicily - and less competition.  In fact it is probable that the merger will be referred to the Monopolies Commission - let’s hope so, or that Ryanair make an official complaint.

It seems that there is no longer free parking in the Talete car park in Ortigia - check carefully - there are fines being plastered on cars on weekday daytimes.

The award winning presepe vivente of Monterosso Almo will take place on 26/12 and 1/6/8 january 2012 from 17.30 onwards in the centro storico.

The evocative presepi in Ispica in the parco forza will be on 25/26/30 december and 1-6 January and is well worth a visit

The new Michelin Guide has come out, and Ragusa retains its number one slot as the province with the most stars.  Four Ragusan restaurants:  Il Duomo with 2 stars, and La Fenice, Locanda Don Serafino and La Gazza Ladra at Modica with 1 star.

11 restaurants in Sicily have Michelins stars - the 2 star Madia in Licata, Bye Bye Blues in Palermo, while a new entry is Coria in Caltagirone.  In Taormina the 2 star Principe Cerami and the 1 star Bellevue and Casa Grugno.

From 9 to 13 November in and around the PIazza San Giovanni and the Ponte Vecchio - there will be the 13th editioin of the Sagra of the Fritelle, with events and tasting.  There is a ping pong tournament, if you want to try your hand on 19.30 on 10 November and a fritelle challenge on Sunday 13 at 18.30.    There will be 28 different flavours of fritelle to try - reason enough to go.