Siracusa (Part 2)

The weather just got better and better and, after our time indoors in the museum, we were able to walk around the beautiful city in shorts and T-shirts whilst the UK headlines promised an icy snap and snow in parts. We enjoyed exploring the enchanting back streets and corners with their tucked away restaurants as much as the grander areas and piazzas.

It was difficult not to lose sight of the fact that Ortiga had been a fortified city. Many of the battlements were demolished in the last century to provide building materials to expand the city onto the mainland but enough remains for its defensive history to be clear. Nowhere more so than Castello Maniace on the very end of the peninsula.

We hadn’t had time to visit the castle during our last visit because we had concentrated on the archaeological sites a little further inland. Therefore, visiting Castello Maniace was one of our few touristy priorities this time around.

The earliest castle on the site is attributed to Maniace, a famous general who in 1038 captured the city from the Arabs. What we looked at was initially built during the 13th century but, like many others, the castle was extensively enhanced over the years. The whole city became a walled fortress in the 16^th century when Charles V made Sicily the spearhead of the defences against the Ottoman expansion. In the 18^th century extra batteries of guns were added and zigzag curtain walls included to compensate for advances in artillery and firearms. Unfotunately in 1704 a lightning strike destroyed the powder store and, along with it, the northeast corner of the castle and tower and so the orginal castle lost much of its elegance. This central part of the castle was being refurbished and so it was closed during our visit.

However we could still walk around most of the perimiter walls and they were high enough to get excellent views over the bay and back towards the city.

We visited Syracusa over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend and, as the weekend progressed, the streets and promenades became busier and busier. The weather was glorious and it seemed as if the whole population of the modern city had decided to visit Ortiga to enjoy the days off work in the sunshine.

30 April was also UNESCO International Jazz Day and the old marketplace in Ortiga celebrated with a 3-day jazz festival. Entry was free(!) with bars around the outside of the seating area serving drinks and food. The jazz ensemble that we heard on the last night was excellent but, even whilst walking around the city, there were also several other very good jazz groups busking or playing in bars and restaurants. It all made for a very lively weekend.

Anchored back out in the bay   

On the Monday, having returned from a bimble around the town [Ed: enjoying yet another ice-cream and some more street jazz], we had planned a lazy afternoon on board followed by a final jazz and wine fix that evening. However, the wind had other plans and picked up quickly from the southeast, until it was blowing 15-20 knots from our port bow with some sizeable wave slop to go with it.  Try as we might, and despite hauling in on the windlass and laying out extra lines to windward, we could not get BV to sit a comfortable distance off the quay, with her bow straight(ish). In the end we elected to leave the quay and join a small crowd of other yachts at anchor in the northwest of the Grand Harbour. As we motored away from the quay and towards the anchor, we discovered what had most likely been the problem: BV ‘self-centred’ herself directly above something on the seabed, with the chain (we had about 30m out at that point) running vertically from BV’s bow and into the murky water. It was clearly caught around something and, given the rate at which BV had centred herself over that something, it was pretty heavy and unlikely to move! Very, very fortunately, almost as quickly as we realised that we had caught on something, our direction of movement was right for clearing the chain and we were able to get the anchor up and move off to anchor. Twenty minutes after we put the anchor down, and just as we got the riding sail up and settled down for a breezy stay, the wind dropped - just as quickly as it had risen! Still, at least we were in a secure location and anyway we would have had to have moved off the quay the next day as our 5 days would have been up. Better yet, our anchorage was closer to the supermarket, though quite a long way further from the fruit and veg market for a last stock up before we headed south down the Sicilian coastline.

Siracusa, Sicily, Italy