Modica to Siracusa 1-12-16

Today was what we hoped our visit to Sicily would really be like.  We started the day in Modica, our room at the Modica Old Town Rooms was really nice.  It was quiet, very clean, and spacious.  We had an appointment with a the man from whom we commissioned a belt yesterday evening.  A few weeks ago I bought a silver Navajo belt buckle from a brocante in Paris, very cheaply.  Deb had read that leather products were very well priced in Sicily so we thought we would try to get a belt made for me.  We passed a shop yesterday and the man said yes
he could make a belt, and the prices was really reasonable.  So we gave him the buckle and he said come back in an hour. But we suggested that we could return in the morning at 9:00 and he was very happy with that idea.  So we came back and I tried the belt so that he could figure out where to make the holes.  The belt was really long so he cut it to length and made holes while we went out for a cup of tea and an espresso.  When we got back the belt was ready, so I put it on, we paid and thanked them for the friendly service.  Then we loaded the car and headed out of Modica for Siracusa (Syracuse).
It was about an hour's drive of which half was on back roads through the countryside.  We passed many small towns and farms and marvelled at how green the countryside is in January.  But it's really tropical in the southeast, warm but not hot and when the breeze comes up it is a little cool.  
We found our hotel which sits directly across the street from the Mediterranean and almost at the southern tip of the small island at the bottom of Siracusa.  It's the old town historic center and reminds us so very much of Venice without canals.  Beautiful old buildings, both renaissance, and baroque, the streets kind of run down in appearance, but with beautiful courtyards on the inside.
We found a nice little restaurant for lunch that had an extensive seafood menu and settled in for a relaxed little lunch.  I think the strain associated with the car and having to spend another day racing across the island must have taken its toll, because we had a bit of a contretemps earlier and the lunch served as a way to ramp things down.
After lunch we walked through our quarter looking at buildings and visiting two historic areas.  The first is the duomo which was built over the site of a Greek temple to Minerva from the 5th century BC.  It was our first encounter with ancient Greek architecture, even if it had been goobered over by the Catholic church, the columns are beautiful.  After that visit we walked up to the northern tip of the island and looked at the ruins of another Greek temple, this one to Apollo.  There was a foundation, one standing wall and a line of columns still standing.
It was getting towards sunset by then so we walked back to the hotel along the eastern seawall surrounding the island and got there around dark.