Siracusa and Noto

On the plane ride down to Sicily, Lucie and Michele considered some deep philosophical questions.
Once we got there, however, there was no time for such physically idle nonsense, what with all of the pretty sights and great amounts of pizza awaiting to be eaten.
Siracusa is a beautiful city, at least the old city is, where there are still a number of unimproved or dilapidated building. It's been declared a UNESCO world heritage site, and so massive renovations are underway. Fortunately, they are not going to restore everything to Disney-like cuteness, and we hope they'll leave this former church as a open-air reception area.
One of the most glorious flowering trees of the Mediterranean is the bougainvillea. In this photo, you see one that has grown in the middle of a cypress-like tree.
We spent a significant amount of time walking through the narrow, and somewhat cool, streets of the Ortygia (old city).

And Lucie thought it was a blast.
Once in a while, we'd arrive on a piazza, such as the piazza del Duomo.
We took pictures in front of important churches, such as the Church of St Lucie (patron saint of Siracusa).
Inside the Duomo, we found the recycled columns of a temple to Apollo (on the left), included inside a romanesque/barroque church. It was a marvelous example of architectural syncretism.
Lucie wanted to see if the dirt in a church tastes the same as elsewhere, so we let her crawl a bit.
On our last day in Siracusa, we delved into its more distant past, visiting the Greek quarries known as the Ear of Dyonisus. They are located in the same sector as some other Greek and Roman antiquities.

All the while, Lucie had my back.
Then we hit to road towards Sciacca Terme, our next destination. Confident in the map's affirmation of the existence of a divided highway, we lingered in Noto for lunch. It was very pretty, but ended up backfiring badly.

There was no highway. It's about 3 years behind schedule, but we nonetheless spent about 1 hour looking for it, and then had to drive about 250km on small twisty roads mostly traveled by psychotic suicidal self-centered maniacs (those would be Sicilians behind the wheel, quite a different breed than in person). All in all it took about 7 hours. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from Noto.

Sort of Crawling

Lucie started crawling a couple weeks ago. She can get around pretty well now. Here's a video from when she first started.

This posting is brought to you by the letter A

Lucie's grandmother (Michele's mom) came for a one week visit. Judy barely got out of the house, and certainly didn't make it out of the neighborhood, so taken was she with our little bundle of joy. She came bearing gifts a-plenty, and they had a great time together.
Lucie likes to take apart her play mat, and eat the various letters. The rubber is chewy and we think it soothes her gums. D is particularly yummy, it seems.
Lucie now 'crawls', or, I should say, rolls on the floor and sometimes propels herself forward by dragging herself by sticking her sweaty palms on the floor and pulling up. Seems impractical to me, and she appears to agree, because as soon as you walk by, she begs to be picked up.
As many of you know, we had to change both nanny and sharing family last month, and here is a picture of Lucie and Julie.
Judy got a great cuddle from her granddaughter. It's not hard to tell who's the happiest camper here...
While Judy was in town, Greg's friend Paul came by for one night. He was on his way from Uganda (home), to the Dominican Republic via Dubai and Paris (don't ask). At first he and Lucie had a good look at each other.
And they decided that they liked each other ok.

Away in Fez

Michele and I decided to abandon our daughter to her grandparents (my parents), and head off to Morocco for a longish weekend. We had a blast, though we missed Lucie a great deal. Here are some pictures of our epic 48 hours in Fez (or Fes).

Fez is famous for its medina (old town), which was founded in 808 and is celebrating its 1200th anniversary this year. It houses the world's oldest university, and thousands of craftsmen (and a few craftswomen) who produce all sorts of lovely stuff, such as ceramics, leather goods, metal goods, etc...

Fez also used to have a significant Jewish community (as did most of Morocco), until many of them left in 1968, lured by Israeli citizenship. Today, the King's private secretary and chief adviser and one of the ministers are Jewish (not bad for a Muslim country...). Today there are about 22000 Jews in Morocco.

Because we didn't have so much time, we hired a private guide to take us around the Medina (9000+ streets). He was really great and we had a good time with him. Please note that none of the pictures are posed, except if it's obvious (as in this one).

Kamal took us to see many artisans, and we were able to see how they work. In some cases, were were able to see several steps in the same product's life, which was particularly interesting.

Fez is famous for its tanneries, where lamb pelts are died by hand. It's harrowing work, and not particularly good for your health. This guy is dipping skins into a lie solution to take off the remaining wool and fat.

The skins are then dipped in natural color solutions to be dyed.


Yellow skins are treated seperatly because saffron is so expensive.

Once the skins have been treated, they are carried on donkey back (or human back) to the auction.
The auction (yellow and natural skins)

Michele standing next to giant bags of recovered wool.

Another Fassie specialty is cactus silk, which is hand dyed, as below.
And then carried by donkey to be spun
Once they are spun, they get sold in bobbins in shops like this (that's the whole shop) to be woven into clothing somewhere down the street.
This is how they make those ceramic table tops...
Women weave carpets. These two sisters were making one to order in a coop that we visited. We ended up buying one (it's a bit of a cliche, but it looks nice), which you'll see in pictures of our living room...
Fez also has some beautiful monuments and sights, as you can admire below. The stucco work on this wall is really something.
A nice perspective through the center of a medersa, a Coranic school's dormitory.
The royal palace, just outside the medina.
Somewhere in the medina
A two-paneled door in the medina.
A fountain in the medina, which along with the communal bread oven, the mosque, the medresa, and the hammam, is a key element that defines one of the 300 neighborhoods in the medina.
A green-tiled minaret
Donkeys working hard. There is significant renovation work going on, and since trucks and cars can't make it through the small streets, donkeys carry lots of stuff.
The Blue Gate, which, as you'll notice, is green from this side (but blue on the other, which you see as you enter).
In the synagogue, the minder insisted on taking this picture of us.
The Jewish cemetery, a haven of quiet in this crazy city.

Fez also has a significant modern town, with some beautiful avenues.