Siracusa and Ortigia

This weekend we took a day trip to Siracusa and Ortigia, about 40 minutes south of here.  It was a beautiful and very hot Saturday.  There are some great ruins in Siracusa, including a Roman Amphitheater, a Greek Theater, a rock quarry known as Dionysus Ear, and a bit further away are catacombs.  The park is very well maintained.  My only complaint was that it was far too hot out, but Patrick and I held fast and made it through the day. 

We started in the early afternoon in the Neapolis Archaeological Zone.  The Greek Theater is a beautiful ruin, it's one of the most treasured examples of theater architecture.  It was designed in the 5th century BC, with additional construction enlarging it in the 3rd and 2nd centuries.  Unfortunately in the 1500's Emperor Charles V used much of the stone in the theater to construct a wall around the local island of Ortigia.  The theater sits on a hill facing the ocean, with alcoves along the back.  The view is magnificent.  In the summer on even years the theater is still used as a setting for plays. 

In this same park is a large stone quarry, the stones were used to construct many of the ancient buildings around Siracusa.  The largest quarry is known as the Ear of Dionysus.  Likely because, well, it looks like a big ear.  The acoustics in the cave were impressive.  The chasm went far back into the hill, and naturally it got darker.  So when a pigeon that was living in the cave started flying around I got scared and was convinced that it was a big bat, grabbed Patrick's arm and screamed.  We got a great demonstration of the acoustics.

After we strolled through the park we moved on to the catacombs down the street.  The catacombs were converted from an ancient Roman aqua duct in the 4th century BC, later to be used by Christians during Roman times.  There are hundreds of rooms, covering 10,000 square meters.  The catacombs seemed to go on and on.  There are ancient frescoes still adorning some of the more important graves. 

Next we moved on to Ortigia, it's a small island that is attached to Siracusa by bridges.  It was a stronghold until the late 1800's.  At the entrance to the city there are the ruins of a Temple of Apollo that was found in 1860 inside an old Spanish barracks.  Built in the 6th century BC, it is the oldest example of a Doric temple in Western Europe. 

Walking along the winding, narrow streets of Ortigia was enchanting.  We headed towards the Piazza Duomo where there is one of the most beautiful Baroque churches I've ever seen.  The cathedral has a great history.  The church was built over an ancient Temple of Minerva, which was built over a 6th century monument.  First a temple, then a Christina church, a Muslim mosque, and in 1728 it was turned into the magnificent cathedral it is today.  One of my favorite parts of the day was going inside the cathedral to witness a wedding that was taking place.  I told Patrick that since we crashed the wedding maybe we should get into the group photo, but we decided that would be a bad idea.