And the Sicilian adventures continue!

Today we got up earlier than usual as our group was setting off at 9.30 instead of 10.00. It’s amazing what a difference half an hour makes to your schedule!

So we met at ten and set off for a two hour drive to Siracusa. Our earlier departure was rewarded with a surprise: our lovely, friendly minibus driver, Salvo, had bought homemade biscuits for us. A second breakfast on the bus!



Eventually we arrived at Siracusa, at the archeological park, not the city itself. And we saw the remains of a Roman amphitheatre, somewhat diminished by the stones having been pinched in the middle ages to build other stuff. Then there was a huge great altar where they used to sacrifice lots of animals to curry favour with gods.

We moved on to the Greek theatre, which our guide says did not suffer the depredations of the Roman amphitheatre as it was not possible to pinch the stones. The seats were hacked out of the rock rather than being made from lumps of already shaped stone. The theatre was actually in use and the stage set was being checked as we visited. “The Trojan Women” is being staged and the area with the strange tree trunks is apparently flooded each evening to make an artificial lake.


After that we moved through a semi-tropical bamboo forest to the “ear of Dionysius”, a cave dug out of the rock by slaves, who were then imprisoned there and their conversations listened to by Dionysus to check if they were plotting against him. Oh! The paranoia!

Having had our fill of archeological stuff, we moved down to Siracusa itself surprise number two awaited us: a special sandwich lunch, very nice sandwiches indeed, made by a crazy old guy who had a go at groping one of our party. Considering that we are mostly over 65, perhaps we should feel flattered! No! Not really!

Surprise number three was about ride out into the bay. Delightful!


And finally we got around to visiting the sights of Siracusa, or rather Ortigia. In particular the cathedral, on the site of an ancient temple to Athena. Complete with ancient pillars and a beautiful stone floor.

As it became clear we were not going to get back to Ragusa until late, Phil and I and a friend went on a hunt for take-away food and a bottle of wine. And we finished the evening in our apart-hotel with a makeshift picnic.

Not a bad life on the whole!