Siracusa

When we rounded the headland with its fortification (Castello Maniace) at the entrance to Siracusa’s bay, the sun was just about to set and the old town (Ortiga) was bathed in a lovely golden light.

We headed for the anchorage in north of the bay, just off the town, passing a couple of large superyachts on our way, one of which had a helicopter on her aft deck; yachts with helicopters are almost becoming quite common!

For the next 2 days the wind blew really rather hard from the south, up to 30kts at one point. Getting ashore would have been difficult with the waves kicked up by the wind so we stayed on board and carried out various admin tasks, including giving the new generator its first oil change. On one occasion, when a particularly strong squall came through 4 yachts started dragging their anchors. Happily their crews were all on board and, in the main, able to recover the situation rapidly. However, one crew didn’t realise that their anchor had dragged until their yacht had moved a good 150m, just missing hitting a quay by a few boatlengths, and had managed, by sheer good fortune to re-anchor herself in a sufficient depth of water only a short distance before she would have otherwise run aground on the beach.

Thankfully, the wind dropped a little after that and, as if to provide some light relief, the local Italian Air Force seaplane squadron sent out one of its aircraft to do circuits in the bay.

We were torn between being glad that we were anchored relatively close to the town and wishing that we had one of the fabulous ringside seats of those a little further out in the anchorage.

When we eventually made it ashore we found Ortiga, the old town, to be a picturesque rabbit warren of narrow alleyways and cobbled streets. We found our way to the Plaza del Duomo where we could view, at relatively close quarters the tower and statue which had been one of our crucial anchor transits for the previous couple of days. We zigzagged through the tiny streets, eating excellent Italian icecream and gradually came across all the places noted in our guidebook including the Fonte Aretusa, which was once a freshwater spring where, allegedly, Nelson took on water supplies before the Battle of the Nile.

We found a building labelled ‘Mercado’ in our wanderings but it is no longer in use and it wasn’t until the next day that we came across the street market which is set up daily around the Mercado buildings. The market was the best that we had come across in Italy and one of the best we have seen on our travels so far. The fruit and veg looked beautiful and there was plenty of fish too, including swordfish and some absolutely enormous tuna. Since we were on our way out for a day of sightseeing we didn’t buy much but we treated ourselves to some cherries (to go with our picnic lunch), some blanched almonds (for making biscotti) and some excellent mozzarella cheese which was vacuum packed for us.

The object of our day’s sightseeing was the Archaeological Park and (separately) the  Archaeological Museum. The Archaeological Park encloses a Greek theatre, a Roman amphitheatre, an ancient quarry, a huge Greek alter for tributary sacrifices and a small church, which is built on the remains of a large Roman cistern.

The Greek theatre (commissioned in 474BC by Hieron I) is now mostly covered with modern boarding so that plays and concerts can still be performed there. There are some areas of the original seating still exposed but, if you squint slightly, the grey painted wooden boards that have been used to square-off the tiers of stone seats make it look as if the place has only recently been carved from the hillside. Apparently, 15,000 people could be seated here, though I’m not sure if Health and Safety would approve of that these days. At least in it’s original format fire in the auditorium was unlikely to be an issue!

Above the theatre is the Cave of Nymphaeum where water still flows our from a branch of the ancient Greek aquaduct. It’s a lovely cool place to stop and look at the view across the city to the anchorage (BV hadn’t dragged her anchor!), though the fountain is surrounded by ‘agua non potable’ signs.

From the theatre we went down into the ancient quarry in which lovely cool, leafy gardens have been laid out.

In one corner is a large S-shaped cave, 23m high and 65m long, which has excellent acoustics and in which, reputedly, Dionysus held his prisoners and eavesdropped on them. Accordingly, it’s called the Orecchio di Dionigi, the Ear of Dionysus. We stopped and ate our picnic lunch in the cool and shady garden too – far better than out in the beating sun on the open ground around the other sites in the park.

The Roman Amphitheatre (1^st century AD) is fabulous. It’s oval (140m x110m) and the tunnels for the gladiators and animals are still clearly visible as well as a vaulted corridor under the seating areas and a pit in the centre of the arena, also for use in Games. Looking at the relic we were hugely reminded of the Games scenes in the Russell Crowe film 'Gladiator' and could easily imagine the roaring crowds and the gladiators ready to run out through the tunnels to fight for their lives in the arena. Apparently the cistern (on top of which a small chapel was later built and of which we don’t have any pictures) was used to provide water to the amphitheatre to add a touch of realism to naval battle re-enactments!

Our ticket for the Archaeological Park also got us entry to the Archaeological Museum, so we walked across to that site to see what was on offer. It was another hugely comprehensive museum giving the detailed history of Sicily from Neolithic times onwards. Nicky’s now admitted to being ‘all pottery sharded-out’ for a couple of weeks and I think that she has a point. Still, there were some fabulous mini-statues (grave goods), some Greek and Roman pottery that could have been painted (albeit broken and glued together again) yesterday and a fabulously carved sarcophagus amongst the many other exhibits.

There was also an excellent model of the Temple of Apollo, which helped us to put the remains that we had seen in the town in perspective. The original was built in about 570BC and was the first grand Doric temple to be built in Sicily.

On our final day in Siracusa we visited the Duomo, fittingly on a Sunday. The Duomo says everything that needs to be said about Ortiga’s continuous settlement as 12 of the fluted columns of the Tempio di Atena (5^th century BC) and their architrave have been embedded into the Norman walls of the 7^th century AD church, so saving them, and much of the rest of the temple, from the ravages of masonry scavengers. Inside, the nave of the church was formed by hacking Norman arches in the cella walls. There are some lovely paintings on either side of the Baroque alterpiece but our attention was caught more by the ceiling decoration in one of the side chapels.

But Siracusa had its social moments for us as well. We finally got to meet up with Graham and Sheena on Annie, the Rustler 36 we had seen briefly in Porte Ponente, Vulcano. David and Sheeona, in their Dufour 41, Capela, and who we met at Lipari arrived on our final day off Siracusa; and Le Loup, the French yacht whose fouled anchor we had helped to clear in Menorca and which we have seen in a number of other places, spent the same week at anchor off Siracuse as us. We now hope to meet up with Bruce and Pam from Osprey, who we met in Olbia, in Nisos Zakynthos when we get there in a few days’ time. We will be leaving at similar times, us from Siracusa and they from Riposto. Race on to see who buys the beers!