Siracusa

Last week, we went on our first day trip of the new year and probably our final for Sicily.  We drove to Siracusa, as the road signs call it, or Syracuse if you are speaking the King James' English.  We made excellent time for the first hour.  It was a straight shot on the mostly empty freeway.  Once we got off, the GPS tried to take us on a very dodgy path.  When the "road" pictured below turned into a goat path, we gave it up and forced the machine to recalculate.

We had watched a travel guy show recently on Sicily and in the Siracusa part we saw art examples painted on Papyrus which grows locally.  Low and behold we saw a bunch of samples for sale outside the architectural park where we needed to buy tickets.

Along the walk to the Roman Amphitheater there were many sarcophagi.  Jess is tentatively walking up to one to see if it's occupied.

 No, it's not.  

We are getting close now.  You can see the circular shape in the distance.  This is one of the ancient entrances.  It is much, much smaller than the Colosseum, but they were able to flood it with water for mock naval battles or have animal or gladiator fights.

The Roman entertainment varied greatly from the Greek  The Romans preferred violence and spectacle.  This is one of the largest amphitheaters of it's kind--being partly carved out of the rock.  It was built around 200 AD.  We are told (but it's closed off, so we couldn't investigate personally) that the names of patrons can still be seen carved into certain seats.  They hauled in huge slabs of limestone to carve the seats.  

"My tickets say portal 'K'.  Is this it?"

The main tunnel and corridor are still standing where the gladiators and animals would enter.  

This is nearer the entrance and we passed it along the way to the Greek ruins  I'm not entirely sure what it is.  It looks like there is a HUGE underground structure.  But it's all fenced off and doesn't look completely stable anymore.  

Cats, cats, cats.  The girls talked me into taking a few pictures.  Side note.  There are 5 cats at Orange Park.  They will happily hang out at our back door all day hoping for pepperoni--the kids' favorite treat to hand out.  Most recently they have been finishing up the Egg Nog that Isaac wanted but could only drink one glass. 

Jess liked going under this tunnel.  She loves her green birthday scarf.  We are walking through the Latomia del Paradiso or Quarry of Paradise.  It's a tropical garden with plenty of citrus and palm trees planted in the midst of massive cliffs--perfect for harvesting stones for all the building projects going on in the region.  This series of quarries served as prisons and once rang with the sound of their hammers and chisels.  

Orecchio di Dionisio or "The Ear of Dionysius".  It is an incredibly tall cave (see the people standing at the entrance) shaped like an ear, with awesome acoustics.  Legend has it that a tyrant of Syracuse would stand at the entrance of the cave to listen in on the prisoners' conversations as they worked inside.  

We did a lot of whistling inside.  The walls are so smooth, it's hard to believe it's natural, but how and why the peak at the top?

Okay, now we are at the much older Greek Amphitheater, hewn into the rock.  It was used as a stage to perform plays, in fact they still put on performances of Greek tragedies right here in the summer.  It was built in the 5th century BC, so a good 700 years older than the Roman one.  The Romans did make a few modifications and used it in their day too, but the one down the street was more popular.  

Too bad we don't read Greek!  There are greek letters cut into the rock.

How did we get stuck with the nose bleed seats?  You can see how many people could fit, 15,000.  The actors would really have to project to be heard.  When they use it in May and June, it gets a major face lift with wooden planks brought it to even up the seats and stage.  I bet there is a sound and light system brought in as well.  

Pretty wildflowers growing along the top.

Looking up at Makenna looking down at the sea. 

What a view!  Above the amphitheater is the Via dei Sepulcri where streams of water run through a series of Greek sepulchers.  

Inside a former sepulcher.  

Sitting by the nymphaeum--a cave with a monumental fountain consecrated to a nymph.  And it's still running 2,700 years later!  

For an extended family? 

This next stop was Matt's favorite thing we have done in Sicily.  It doesn't look like anything very special.  There is a playground in front of what used to be a church.   It turns out that it was a very old church, and holds some amazing history.

"Look mom!  It's taking a nap in the sun!  ahhhh."

Inside the ruins of the church.  It was first destroyed by Saracens, and rebuilt, destroyed again by earthquake and rebuilt.  Then after the earthquake of 1908, they left it.  But it is still consecrated by the Catholic church and they hold open air weddings and Sunday services in the summer.  You can see weather worn angels on the top left. 

You can see a mishmash of architectural ages and styles in this shot.  

When we went below, down to the catacombs, cameras were no longer allowed.  So these next pictures are taken from the brochure we were given.  We had a very good guide who gave detailed information in Italian and then excellent English (for us).  Paul, yes, THAT Paul, sent a man to establish a church in Syracuse.  Later he came and preached there.  During Roman rule the Christians weren't allowed to bury their dead within the city limits.  In Syracuse, they were able to recycle ancient Greek cisterns and aqueducts.  The early Christians also used them as chapels.  You can see a map a little later that shows several circular areas--those were the chapels.  

Before we went into the main maze of catacombs, the guide took us into the ancient underground chapel where Paul preached.  See Acts 28:12. Wow.  The catacombs were the resting place of over 20,000 people.  Treasure hunters wrecked the site and at some point the bodies were relocated.  The caverns have been more recently used as bomb shelters during the wars.  It was quite fascinating.  Jess was rather wary.  We have been told about a church in Palermo that still holds thousands of its occupants.  I don't think any of us would enjoy that one much.  

Driving along on a quest for food.  It's a clean pleasant city.

This famous fountain of Diana was built during the Greek rule of Syracuse.  We drove around this about 10 times trying to figure out parking and letting the GPS sync up.  

This shows the adjoining island.  The fountain is actually on the island part of the city.  We drove along the coast and it's beautiful!  We had to settle for panini and basic cafe food.  It was too late for lunch and FAR too early for dinner.  5:00  For how lax Italians are about so many things, food is not one of them.