We were so lucky to find a marvellous apartment right on the water - Casa Bedda. It was a small upstairs apartment with deck, kitchen and eating area facing the water but protected from the wind.
Being a home someone had once lived in, it was extremely well equipped. There was not one thing we needed that was not available for our use. There was even beer in the fridge (replace what you use). It is unusual to find such generosity.
Beachside destinations in the off-season are very quiet - an ideal time to visit. We had coffee on the deck of a beachside restaurant and had it to ourselves except for a couple of brave sunbathers, a life guard and a small boy.
Four kilometres down the road at Punta Seca is Inspector Montalbano's house - so we went to visit. The streets were blocked off as they were filming.
There were tourists and sticky-beaks everywhere - including us.
They drove Salvo's car into place while we were watching. The wardrobe department was set up in the street at front. The whole area was blocked off for 6 days.
We weren't prepared to wait endlessly for who-knows-what to happen so decided to go to other sites from the series where they were not filming, and return the next day when all the fuss had died down.
So we went to lovely Scicli - a World Heritage Baroque city.
It is the Scicli Municipal Offices in the town square that are used as Montalbano's police headquarters.
There were plenty of tourists here too. It is a gorgeous town.
Haven't seen these traditional death notices around for a while but there were many in Scicli. Rather than insert a death notice in the newspaper, the bereaved family has notices printed and posted to bereavement boards - some large enough to take 20 notices.
It was our 19th wedding anniversary so we picked what we hoped was the best restaurant in Marina di Ragusa.
Pleasant but not worth what we paid. Paul's Risotto all Pescatore was better than my Spaghetti all Vongle.
Before leaving for Syracuse we popped back for one last look - to have a coffee at the Torre Montalbano and see what it all looked like without red tape, film crews, tourists and a cool wind.
Much better!
So we took lots of happy snaps ...
I was cheeky and got up really close.
The building is now a B&B. We had tried to book but it was not available. Today it was being cleaned, aired and spruced up (like everything else in the area) for the summer season, You won't be able to move in Punta Seca or Marina di Ragusa in July and August.
The best time for a paddle - sunshine, 21 degrees, no wind.
looks great mate
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