Seeing double in siracusa

Today's luncheon came with a generous pour for both of us, of the house white a Sicilian sauvignon blanc, so maybe we are not surprised that tony tossa, the restaurateur of il tempio di Atena , the temple of Athena, seemed so much like a twin of one of our favorite californians, kawika tachera. Kindly joking and persuading with suggestions. Same grin and laughter. Same goatee and close shaved hair. Very handsome. As far as we know, there is no one with Hawaiian blood or even portagee blood in Sicily, but the whole place is such a genetic mishmash of phoenician Greek roman Arabic Spanish French and whatever, who knows. And I have seen a lot of faces in south italy who look just like folks in my office in novato. So are we seeing double, or seeing doubles? Anyway it's a pleasure to be reminded of folks we care for.
So tony/kawika suggested we start with fresh seafood mixed with warm garlicky potatoes cooked in wine and then more mixed seafood cooked in linguine. Since we had seen all the seafood the shellfish anyway quite alive squirting very lively in the market down in our neighborhood hours before, with the merchants calling out songs about them , we knew they were very fresh and he was right on in the preparation. Best meal we've had yet. How many times are we going to say that to ourselves here?
Anyways Syracuse definitely has roots that are quite deep, and mixed... this morning we walked around in a theater the Greeks built that holds thousands and inside caves the pre-Greeks carved out thousands of years before the Greeks arrived, then the Christians used them for burial chambers. And we saw beautiful Greek statues and a lovely cathedral built right inside the temple of Athena, lined with thick grooved Greek Doric and Corinthian columns. Later as we walked along the outer edge of the island of ortygia, siracusa's core, we looked down on the rocks jumbled in the ocean and realized they were sculpted or cut.... They were probably the Greek Barbour defenses against the romans. Or the Arabs against the Spanish. Or whatever.