I didn’t have anything in particular that I wanted to see in Syracuse. I simply wanted to get a feel for what the city might have looked like in ancient times. Syracuse was known for being extremely well defended and difficult to capture. And during the Second Punic War, it had one additional advantage – Archimedes was, among other things, a military advisor to the king of Syracuse. He invented various devices to aid in the defense of the city, including a giant claw to lift up and sink attacking ships, and even a death-ray to set ships sails on fire. Knowing all of this, my goal was simple – just be here and immerse myself in the city, imagining things as they were long ago.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The theme for the day was “simple” so we began with breakfast, then relaxed with a cappuccino in our room. We finally summoned the energy to head out in time for lunch. Jan had scoped out a small street-food restaurant and we had no trouble getting a table. Turns out our timing was once again perfect, because by the time we finished, the place was packed. With lunch out of the way, we started our tour of Syracuse old town, with no set agenda. The old town is on a small island with stone walls and sharp rocks all around the edge. We walked the perimeter, and these pictures give you an idea of what the defenses would have looked like.
We often find that we discover the most interesting things when we aren’t looking for anything in particular. Today, we came across a display that recounted the history of the founding of Syracuse in 734 BC by settlers from Corinth. It had a scale model of the very first temple built on the site. It was relatively modest, having been built long before the much larger temples the Greeks built in places like Agrigento.
Jan is particularly interested in the architecture, especially the combination of old and new styles. Here is an example of what you see everywhere in Syracuse.
Quite a bit of restoration is underway in the old city, no doubt influenced by UNESCO’s designation of the city. I’m pretty sure this cathedral has been recently restored, at least the facade. We didn’t go in for a look.
We were surprised to see people enjoying the beach. A very small beach. It was a lovely warm day, but not that warm. Further along we saw several people going in for a swim. Yikes.
It wasn’t just the temperature that surprised us when we saw people swimming. The rocks around the city were jagged with strong waves. I certainly wasn’t tempted to brave it.
When we finished walking the perimeter, we headed into the center where there is a maze of winding alleys. This is one of the wider streets.
Our wandering took us to the Diana fountain.
It was getting late, so we headed back to the apartment, stopping for gelato along the way.
And later…
In keeping with the theme of simple pleasures, I’ll finish with a picture of the caponata from our wonderful dinner last night. We have been sampling caponata wherever we go – it is everywhere here, with significant variation. This was the absolute best, and it turns out is unique to this restaurant.
Tomorrow … who knows. We might just do it all again.
