Zucchero and Siracusa

Compared to my normal days at home studying and doing housework the last two days have been a whirlwind.  Yesterday afternoon we headed toward Siracusa with some friends.  As we were speeding down the road at around 50 mph we noticed something ahead in the road.

He was HUGE! He wasn't going anywhere in a hurry, and he was the only cow as far as the eye could see.

We arrived in Siracusa and checked into our hotel, the Hotel Centrale.  I highly recommend it! It was a diamond in the rough.  The surrounding neighborhood wasn't the nicest, but it is hard to tell ghetto from just run down in Sicily.  Our room had a fantastic ocean view.  I shot a panoramic of it this morning but unfortunately the file is too big to load (blogger doesn't like files made up of 13 merged raw images...even after I "saved for web" in Photoshop) After a brief rest we set out for Fontane Bianche and the Zucchero concert!

After a quick meal at a local pizzeria we made our way to the venue.  It was a massive setup in the middle of a field. There were literally thousands of people there.  Italians LOVE Zucchero. Usually I take in the old and ancient facets of Italy.  I love the history, the architecture, even the lifestyle which seems old and slow paced compared to America, but last night I saw Italy in a whole new light - a very modern light.  Not the modern that we think of when we see European furniture, but as a people (young and old) embracing one of their most famous performers and having a GREAT time!

The performance was great! I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the music even though I didn't know many of his songs. His band was full of amazing artists and they were a thrill to watch and listen to.  Here are a few pictures from the evening.  Most of them are grainy.  I was using our little point and shoot camera and had it on vibration reduction mode which cranks up the ISO (hence the graininess).

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

We drug ourselves back to our hotel room at around 1AM and slept like babies until 9ish. We left the hotel around 11:30am and headed to Ortygia, my favorite area in Siracusa.  We didn't stay too long.  It was stinkin' hot and one of our friends wasn't doing well in the heat.  We had a late lunch and, after cooling down with several bottles of water, decided to head home.  In the little bit of time we had in Ortygia I did (of course) have my camera with me.  Here are the highlights:

 

  

 The two above are of a temporary structure made out of plastic.  I thought it was very cool! 

  

Not exactly the sign you expect for a movie theater, but it has a lot of character.

  

  

As always, I wish we could have stayed longer, but I don't know how long I would have lasted in that heat. Overall it was a spectacular couple of days (I keep wanting to type weekend, but Monday and Tuesday don't really qualify).

I think the rest of the week will be spent catching up on school work that I've neglected the past couple of days.  Here's to hoping we get out and do something fun this weekend...maybe the beach!?!  Who knows  :)