Siracusa is the location for one of the great cities of the ancient Greeks and much remains today. We travelled by bus arriving at Catania three quarters of an hour late, leaving us 3 minutes to find the Siracusa bus, buy the tickets etc. In 3 minutes, the bus pulled out and we were aboard.
On our first day, we walked out to Ortigia, an island linked by several bridges. We saw the remains of the Temple of Apollo and walked down to the cathedral. It had a beautiful Baroque facade but incorporated the 5th century BC Temple of Athena with all the columns intact. We also saw the old defence walls, a castle and a great little harbour, the Porto Piccolo.
The next day , we ventured to the Parco Archaeologico. This was outstanding with a great Roman amphitheatre as well as the famous Greek theatre. We also saw Archimedes tomb. He was killed by the Carthaginians when they destroyed old Siracusa. He did not drown in his bath.
The Archaeological Museum is full of old Greek stuff, much dating from the 5th and 6th century BC along with great pottery and sculpture from the latter period. We saw the beautiful Anidyomone of Venus and lots more.
Siracusa is another wonderful place to visit. Despite its later Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Swabian, Angevin and Spanish rule, its Greek heritage remains in this delightful Sicilian town.
Apologies in delay in posting but couldnt find any old Greek computers.
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4 comments:
Well done on getting that bus!
Greek computers probably only type in greek anyway.
And old Greek computers presumably only type in Ancient Greek?
Eureka! I always wondered what happened to old Archimedes. I loved teaching about him to year 7 maths classes. I once told the story of his bath, ending with "... and Archimedes looked down in the bath and what do you think he saw?" Needless to say they were not thinking I meant the rising water level...
Sorry Taf, you just made me spit diet coke all over my PC.
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