Once on the island we found our hotel, in fact a small apartment, slightly larger, I think, than the bijou residence where we spent a good part of the summer in Vigo. What’s more, we don’t have to sweep the floors. There may not be breakfast in the Residence Arco Antico but they do clean the rooms for you.
We were rather hungry on arrival so we dropped off our bags and set off in search of a recommended pizza place. We didn’t want much as we intended to eat out in style in the evening. A pizza place recommended by the Residence Arco Antico told us it was too late to eat; they were about to close.
At lunchtime yesterday we tried again. It was like a ghost pizzeria: tables set, radio playing but not a soul in sight. We waited, looked around, called “C’è qualcuno?”, all to no avail. We are clearly not fated to eat there.
Friday lunchtime we consoled ourselves with an ice cream, a really good substitute for a meal, and went on our way, admiring the Piazza del Duomo in the late afternoon, a truly splendid piazza!
Later in the evening (but still quite early by Italian standards) we ate at a restaurant called Il Porticciolo. I was about to say “the small restaurant” but in fact with its ground floor, first floor and a substantial veranda it had plenty of space. We actually arrived too early and found the staff eating their “cena” so we went for a walk around and returned a little later. It was worth going back as the food was excellent; for just under 20€ each we ate large dishes of pasta with seafood and drank nicely chilled white wine.
To end the evening in style we went walkabout again, intending a short stroll but accidentally walking round practically the whole island. Once we got started we reached a point where it was easier to keep going than to retrace our steps. A good way to walk off your evening meal, I suppose, but rather further than we intended. Still, it gave us a good excuse for another ice cream before getting lost in “Giudecca”, the old Jewish quarter and finally making our way “home” to sleep after the day’s adventures.
Saturday dawned fine and hot, getting hotter and hotter as the day went on. After breakfast, we visited the Saturday morning market: an impressive display of fish and local produce. It makes some of the so-called markets in some English towns look rather sad by comparison. 
Then it was a round of cultural sites:
the Tempio di Apollo or, rather, what’s left of it combined with a bit of an old church built on the site;
the lovely statue/fountain of the goddess Artemis in Piazza Archimede, all wild horses, people riding dolphins and, naturally, lots of water (some say the central figure is Aretusa, handmaid of Artemis – see below – but she seems to be carrying arrows on her back so I’m going with the goddess of the hunt herself); 
the Caravaggio painting of the death of Santa Lucia in the church of Santa Lucia alla Badia – no photos allowed inside the church unfortunately;
the cathedral, built on the ruins of the temple of Minerva/Athena and incorporating some of the columns from the fifth century BC;
oh, yes, finally the Fonte Aretusa. Poor old Aretusa, one of the handmaidens of Artemis, was being pursued by the river god, Alpheus, who wanted to have his wicked way with her and so the goddess turned her into a spring, the sort of thing that was always happening back in mythological times. In this statue next to the basin where the spring comes out, nymph/handmaid and river god look like rather poor synchronised swimmers in my opinion.
In the afternoon we set out to visit the Parco Archeologico. Now, according to guide books it is really easy to find the Parco Archeologico. Buses go there and it well sign-posted, or so they say. Maybe we were wrongly advised but our bus dropped us a shortish walk away from the park. That was fine but there were no signposts on the side road where we got off, only on major roads, for car drivers obviously!!
Anyway, we got there. Our mood of exasperation was not helped by the fact that it was VERY hot but we paid our 10€ apiece, bought some cold water and went into the park. Yes, it was quite impressive. We went into the cave called “l’orrecchio di Dionisio”, apparently so named by the artist Carravaggio who noted its unusual shape.
And we marvelled at the Greek theatre and the Roman amphitheatre.
Somehow though, it didn’t seem worth 10€. We have seen better preserved Greek and Roman remains. And there was very little information; in fact, apart from giving you the name of the monument concerned, no information at all. We compared it with the Roman fort up the road from our house in England where there is a huge amount of information available, probably compensating for the fact that all you get to see are a few mounds.
Mind you, if we hadn’t felt quite so hot and sticky we might have been more appreciative of what was there.
Much later, after a drink and a shower, we put on our glad rags and went out to eat. On Friday evening we had booked a table for Saturday at Sicilia in Tavola. If you don’t book, you don’t get a table and even so we couldn’t get one until 9.30. You arrive at the restaurant and they usher you back out into the street, one of those picturesque narrow streets they have around here. There you wait on seats provided until they call you. No hanging around inside observing the clutter of clearing tables and waiters rushing around. When you finally go in, all is calm and refined, works of art borrowed from the local art gallery on the walls and so on.
We started with smoked swordfish, tastefully arranged in a star shape. 
Then came fettuccine monte i mari for me: all sorts of shellfish in pasta but with mushrooms added as well. 
Phil went for ravioli ripieni di pesce e gamberetti con triglia. These ravioli with fish and shrimp are by way of being their speciality and they serve them with bits of a variety of other fish, in Phil’s case red mullet. We did a certain amount of swopping and decided everything was delicious. And we had a white wine we’d not come across before, Dianthà. One to look out for.
Today, by comparison – even without the comparison – has been very quiet: a little sortie for breakfast, a further outing later for ice cream and granita but otherwise planning and packing ready to go to Palermo.
Tonight we eat out again. It’s such a hard life being a traveller.
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