Another noisy night, but I guess that was to be expected – it was Friday night after all.

Despite this, we were all up early to make sure we made our 8am bus.

Our first surprise was that there were no taxis in the rank outside our accommodation. So, we headed towards Via Roma and decided to catch a bus. I bought us tickets at the tabacchi and as we were walking to the stop, I could see this handsome young man who looked familiar and who was smiling at me. As I got closer, I realised it was Edward, our youngest son, who was planning on surprising us at the main bus station. I think he too was surprised to find us wandering along the street and a bit disappointed he didn’t get to surprise us on the bus to Siracusa.

He’d flown across from Cambridge last night with a plan to join us in Siracusa for the duration of our stay.

Needless to say, we all had a lot to catch up on while we travelled in the bus across Sicily.

We were impressed with the engineering – we drove along mostly double lane one way highways suspended above valleys and then through long tunnels cut through the mountains.

As soon as we could we found our accommodation and checked in, and then we headed off in search of Edward’s.

He is staying much closer to the sea, while we are once again staying right in the Main Street – Via Roma, in an old Palace.

That got me in for sure. We have separate rooms next door to each other and access to a lounge room with a kitchen and patios further upstairs.

We are staying in old Siracusa called Ortigia. It’s a small island connected to the mainland with two one way bridges.

We wandered the pretty streets looking for a place for lunch. We didn’t need to look far.

The waiter made a mistake on Edward’s order so he had two courses. It was very nice. Mick had the misto plate of seafood.

To walk off our lunch, we went in search of a tourist office to find a map. It was trickier than I thought, but once armed with a map and information about a supermarket I bought us some nibbles for dinner.

This place looks perfect. Lots of interesting streets and buildings.

We are only 100m from the Fountain of Diana.

Tonight we will discuss some ideas to keep us busy for the next few days.

A day full of wonderful surprises all round.