Syracuse 2

Around 485 BC, Syracuse was bursting at the seams so the Greeks started building the "new" city on a hill above the old city. We headed there after our delicious lunch. After a scaring experience in a restaurant in Portugal, where we didn't understand that dishes are brought to the table, whether you'd ordered them or not, and if you take a bite, you are charged for the dish, we were very suspicious when the same thing started to happen in Syracuse. However, at no extra charge, we enjoyed a bruchetta starter, dessert and sweet wine to close!

Good job we had to hussle our way up hill after lunch. We were following the instructions in our guide book and couldn't find the ticket office so just started wandering the sights. We never did find the ticket office. Syracuse is going to be remembered as the beautiful city where we got alot of stuff free.

The Greek Theatre is one of the highlights of the "new" city. A young couple stood and read from a play by Aeschylus and it was hard to wrap our minds around the fact that he had been here all those centuries ago staging the same play. Beside the theatre is the quarry where pisoners of war where put to work digging the stones for city monuments. One of the caves they quarried, called the Ear of Dionysuis, has such excellent acoustics, the actors would stand in there and run their lines.

The other highlight is the Roman Amphitheatre, 2ndC BC. It was the third largest in Italy. Interesting that sporting stadiums haven't changed in design since Roman times.





Train home after a full day.