Monday, September 18, 2023; Siracusa
We kind of made up for the 25 euro spritz prices at the hotel’s splendid breakfast buffet. Then it was off to explore the island. The fish market was pretty great, with several varieties that we didn’t recognize.
Near the market is the oldest Greek temple in Sicily, The Temple of Apollo. Surrounded by lawns and papyrus plants (one of the few places in Europe where papyrus grows natively), the temple is dates from the late 7th century bc.
Although the fascists tore an ugly core through the heart of the island in order to lay down a monumental boulevard, Ortigia is still characterized by a maze of narrow alleyways.
The claustrophobic nature of much of the island makes the openness of the Piazza Duomo all the more surprising–and welcome. This glorious baroque space serves as the island’s living room. We of course decided to soak up the atmosphere with a bit of refreshment, in this case Sicily’s famous granita, crushed ice with natural flavors. We were in the piazza at midday, when the harsh light doesn’t show it at its best. The pictures below were taken in the evening on our way back from dinner.
The Duomo itself is remarkable. The Norman facade collapsed as the result of an earthquake, and it was rebuilt in powerful Sicilian Baroque style in 1728–54 and designed by Andrea Palma; on the summit is a double-armed Cross, symbolising the presence of the archbishop.
The facade doesn’t prepare the visitor for the magnificent interior. After defeating the Carthaginians at the battle of Himera, the Siracusan dictator Gelon returned with thousands of slaves; they were used to build an extraordinary temple to Athena on the highest point in Ortigia. The temple was known throughout the Mediterranean for its beauty and for the richness–gold, ivory, silver–of its decoration. The Byzantines converted the temple to a Christian church; the Arabs to a mosque; and the Normans, returning it to Christianity, added aisles and clerestory windows.
Stripped of Baroque decoration between 1909 and 1927, the nave arcades were reduced to the plain massive piers formed by the eight arches opened by the Byzantine Christians in the side walls of the cella, which is the original 480 bc construction. Of the temple’s 36 columns, a total of 24 survive.
This was the first church since Palermo that really moved us; not just the great antiquity, but the beauty of the light on stone.
We retreated to the hotel for a siesta to avoid the worst heat of the day. We ventured forth mid-afternoon; as we walked, David saw some unusually attractive bruschetta, and we paused to chow down on tomato, caponata, and sardine snacks. A quick Uber ride brought us to the mainland and the city’s archaeological park. Siracusa had expanded from Ortigia under the Greeks, forming a number of districts on the mainland. That of Neapolis has been the most extensively excavated. The tour of the park starts with a descent into the quarries that were dug to build all of Siracusa…and they are an astonishing site. What you see forming the background are the back walls of the quarry.
But what is really astonishing is this:
As they quarried the limestone, they left the entire quarry covered by a roof. This is the sole surviving column of many that would have supported the roof.
The walls of the quarry are riddled with the entrances to “caves” used by the miners to reach the finest limestone.
The largest of these is the “Ear of Dionysus” (said to have been named by Caravaggio during his sojourn in Sicily), with famous acoustic properties.
On the floor of the former quarry are gorgeous gardens planted with lemon trees, oleanders, and pomegranates.
Climbing out of the quarry you come to the Greek amphitheater. On the remains of an earlier wooden theater, Gelon in c. 478 bc excavated a small stone theatre, engaging the architect Damokopos of Athens. It was inaugurated by Aeschylus in 476 bc with the first production of Women of Aetna; his Persian Women was performed shortly afterwards. The theatre was enlarged in the 4th century bc, under Timoleon, by excavating deeper into the hillside; it was again enlarged under Hieron II (c. 230 bc) by extending the cave upwards, using blocks of stone. It could thus hold an audience of 15,000; some scholars think even more.
Truth to tell, the amphitheater was a bit disappointing. Much of the seating and all of the stage was covered by modern materials; a dance troupe was practicing as we watched.
The path through the park then leads by the ruins of the altar of Heron II, hewn out of the rock. The altar, built between 241 and 217 bc, was used for public sacrifices to Zeus, when as many as 450 bulls could be killed in one day. It was 198m long and 22.8m wide (the largest altar known) and was destroyed by the Spanish in 1526 in order to use the stone for harbour fortifications. The altar was presumably about 15m high and elaborately decorated; the sacred area in front of it contained a rectangular pool for ablutions and was delimited by a colonnade, more or less where the cypress trees stand today.
The Roman Amphitheater is much more impressive than the Greek, probably from the 1st century ad. It was partly hollowed out of the hillside.
Beneath the high parapet encircling the arena runs a corridor with entrances for the gladiators and wild beasts. In the centre is a rectangular depression, probably for the machinery used in the spectacles. The original entrance was at the south end, outside which a large area has been exposed, including an enclosure thought to have been for the animals, and a large fountain.
We had our aperitifs at a nice place by the harbor and then strolled to one of the best meals of the trip at a tiny listeria called Apollonion (it is near the Temple of Apollo). It offers a seafood extravaganza. A huge platter of shrimp, langoustines, anchovies, and oysters accompanied by sardines on mozzarella di buffalo was only the beginning!
This was followed by a huge bowl of mussels, then an equally huge platter of calamari frito, and finally, to our dismay, even more food, a huge platter of pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines). We could barely waddle when we left and made our way through the illuminated island. Here are David and Patti in front of the fountain of Artemis in the center of the island.
