Sunday in Siracusa

Sunday March 3

Woke up to a beautiful morning today, lots of sunshine, and a great nights sleep last night.

Today I want to explore Syracusa more.  On most of our visits to Europe we spend our weekends touring other parts of the country and spend little time in our “home” city, so today we will spend time here.  We had read a bit about a Greek Theatre and Roman Amphitheatre that are about 2km from our apartment, so we knew where we would venture off to first.

First off we have breakfast.  Like most AIRBNB’s over here the owners had left us juice, coffee, tea, and the really disgusting packaged bread that expires in about 2 months from now.  How is it even possible to have bread stay good that long.  We decided to toast the bread to make it a little better, but when Andre cut into it there is a little bit of the jam stuff inside, even worse.  Managed to stuff some down with some juice and we are on our way, no time to stop for breakfast as we have a lot to get accomplished today.

We walked along the water to the bridge that connects the island to the mainland

This is pretty much around the corner from our apartment, but unfortunately no view from our apartment of the water

View crossing the bridge to mainland Syracusa

Andre will take tons of pictures the next few weeks of fisherman I am sure

Crossing the bride to the mainland, there are still lots of small fishing boats here

We managed to not get too lost, or fight too much over directions to get to the archeological site.  It is one thing getting lost in a car, getting lost on these tiny side streets walking can add lots of extra miles quickly.  We find the ticket booth and were pleasantly surprised that it is free today.  The first Sunday of every month is free for lots of things in Italy, we had totally forgotten about that.  Some places they tell you not to go the first Sunday of the month because it will be too busy, definitely not the case here in March at least.  We started off by touring the Greek Theatre.  We splurged and got the audio guide for 5 Euros, so much better for us than just walking around.  This theatre was carved out of the natural limestone, and still well preserved.  At the top you have some very nice views of the Ortigia where we are staying and the sea.  

Greek theatre

Andre loved this sign, we have no idea what it says, but I think we figured out what it means

After visiting the Greek Theatre on the same grounds we visited a quarry and the gardens that have now grown up inside it.  Most impressive was the Ear of Dionysus cave, I am not sure that Andre will be able to capture the height in pictures.

Ear of Dionysus cave

amazing inside.  You can whisper at one end and hear it at the other

You can see the remains of a house on top of this, many earthquakes in this region over the years 

Next on the same grounds we finished our tour with a visit of the Roman Theatre.  Not the colosseum in Rome, but still amazing to look around and try to imagine what went on here all those years ago.

Finished at the Archeological site we walked about another km to the museum which would also be free today.  We only had about 1.5 hours before it would close, but for us that was enough.  I enjoy museums in small doses, but much prefer visiting the archeological sites and villages.  Lots of artifacts from all over Sicily.  

Next stop is at a church that we had seen driving into town on the bus yesterday, it was right across the street from the museum.  It is very impressive on the outside, but people come to see the inside.  There is an statue of the Virgin Mary that was said to have shed tears here. This spot was once a house, but this church was built to accommodate the large crowds that come to pray to the image.  Definitely no crowds here this Sunday, we saw about 5 other people.

Very different church, it is so tall that you see it pretty much from anywhere, even in old town where we are staying

statue of the Virgin Mary that was said to have shed tears

By now it is 2PM and we are very hungry for lunch.  We had seen a very busy café/restaurant on the way to the museum so decided to give that a try.  Andre had risotto, and I had homemade spaghetti.  I wasn’t overly impressed with either.  Somehow I always think risotto is going to be delicious, but I am still on the search for one that I love.  The meals were beautifully presented, but not the most tasty.  I saw on a cooking show recently that it is time to get away from making everything look so beautiful and perfect, and make it tasty, this was a perfect example.

After lunch we are ready to come home for a rest.  We have already reached 20,000 steps, and still have an evening of exploring to do.  Back at home we both read, and nap.  Getting on the right time zone here has not been too difficult so far, we’ll see how we sleep tonight.

Yes we are back in Europe where everyone hangs laundry outside, no dryers here

We have also seen these before, death notices on the street where people lived to notify everyone

Off to figure out what to do about supper.  Not much needed as we had such a big lunch.  We walk a bit to the Duomo square which we hadn’t been to yet. See some people that were on the bus with us yesterday from Catania, small world.  We also come across a new small grocery store so decide to just pick up some pasta sauce and pasta and make a quick supper.  I love pasta so could eat that every day, here in Italy I just want to buy ones we have never had before, they have about 5 different kinds of penne pasta, who knew.  We decide on these little circle rings that we hadn’t had before, but figure our bought sauce will stick to nicely.

This ship reminded us of the Bluenose

I am sure in the summer heat everyone walks under these trees.  A popular promenade along the water

The Duomo, thinking of Dad, he never would have let us hang out here 

Fountain in the other main square in the daylight

Our apartment is at the very bottom of this street, I will never grow tired of walking these narrow streets

Back home and Andre starts supper only to spill a bunch of these little circle pasta on the floor, you know how you find needles for months after the Christmas tree is taken down, I think we may find circle pasta here until we leave.  One good thing comes from this, I hadn’t been able to find the dust pan, it has now been found.

After supper we decide to go for one more walk.  I love walking the streets in these old cities at night, there are always lots of people out and about.  Final step count for today 25,000