Siracusa, Tuesday, May 7, 2024
We were all a bit sad to leave Zash…it has a genuinely unique atmosphere. But Siracusa, once the most powerful city in the world, beckoned. So it was off south down the autostrada. Our hotel (which had confusingly changed its name from the Hotel Roma to the Palazzo Artemide) was on the island of Ortigia, the original part of Siracusa separated from the mainland only by a narrow channel. Getting onto Ortigia was fairly easy, but our first attempt to reach the hotel was a bust: it turned out that the final, necessary maneuver entailed driving down a street marked “Pedestrians only.”
The hotel has the best location on Ortigia: it is literally attached to the back of the cathedral (it’s the pink palazzo in the photo below. The hotel is recently renovated, extremely comfortable, and has a exceptionally friendly and helpful staff.
We started our stay with an orienting walk around the end of the island. Piazza Duomo remains one of the most beautiful squares in Italy.
Next stop was the harbor. It was the size of this protected harbor–the largest on the Mediterranean–that led to Siracusa’s ascendency. It really is astonishingly large. And best viewed from the enormous belvedere near the artesian spring. As you can see, we were having our first day with anything less than brilliant weather–overcast and hazy.
To the left of the belvedere is the Fonte Arethusa, one of the most famous springs of the Greek world. The spring of the nymph Arethusa was celebrated by Pindar and Ovid: when Arethusa was bathing in the River Alpheios near Olympia, the river god fell in love with her. In order to escape from him, Arethusa plunged into the Ionian sea and reappeared here. Transformed by the goddess Artemis into a spring, she was pursued here by Alpheus, who mingled his river water with that of the spring: it was believed that the river in the Peloponnese was connected, via the sea, to the fountain of Arethusa.
Continuing along the harbor, we soon came to a new use of the suffix “-eria.” We had seen “drinkerias”, but this was a new one.
At the end of the island, near the mouth of the harbor, sits the 13th century Castello Miniace.
We then dove into the maze of streets that criss-cross the island. Ortigia preserves countless palazzi, most of them in a lovey honey colored stone, all of them sporting numerous balconies.
Near the channel to the mainland sits the ruins of the great Temple of Apollo. It is the earliest peripteral Doric (rows of Doric columns along the front, back, and sides) temple in Sicily, built of local limestone in the late 7th century bc and attributed to the architects Kleomenes and Epikleos. Transformed through the centuries, first into a church, then a mosque, then a Spanish prison and lastly a barracks. Most of these subsequent structures were removed in 1938. Two monolithic columns and part of the cella walls, showing the portal of the Norman church, remain intact.
The stumps of the columns visible in the picture below give some sense of the temple’s scale.
We headed for the fish market, but it was too late in the day… we had missed our chance. Vladimir and Connie headed hotelwards while Sue and I wandered down pretty much every street in the northeast quadrant of the island. Among other discoveries was the Jewish quarter, the Giudecca; the Jewish population has long since departed, but many of the structures they built have been excavated and restored. An early Christian basilica lies below what is now the church of San Giovanni Battista; the basilica was used for centuries as a synagogue and ritual bath. The present roofless structure was built in 1380; it has long since lost its roof, although it is still used for religious services.
Dinner was at one of our favorite restaurants, Osteria da Carlo “Apollonion.” This very simple seafood restaurant offers a sensational prix fixe (40 Euros): a plate of raw shrimp, langoustines, and anchovies; marinated tuna; a huge plate of mussels; pasta with sardines; and a filet of sea bream. And, oh yes, delicious desserts. We drank a wonderful Etna Bianco from Terre Nere.
The walk home was a treat: the Piazza Duomo at night is glorious.
