We’re staying in port for a few days, because of the weather, and what better place to be than Ortiga, which is an island with loads of history, part of the mainland city of Siracusa.
Having to do the laundry was made much nicer by sitting having a coffee in the Piazza Archimede, whose centre piece is a beautiful fountain, while the clothes were washing. The old town of Ortiga is a delightful warren of alleys and staircases between baroque limestone mansions, now mostly apartments. There has been a drain of inhabitants, but, in recent years, people are returning and there are signs of regeneration. The shops are stylish and tasteful.
Back at the boat, mid morning, we had a visit from the
police, checking our passports and boat papers. This doesn’t cause us any
stress, because we know everything is in order. They reminded us that we are
allowed to stay in Schengen for 90 days and we asked them for advice about
where we can check out of Italy, because we are finding it difficult to have
accurate information on this. They advised us to check the websites for Puglia
ports of entry, which has been helpful.
The afternoon was for culture and we walked over the bridge to Siracusa, to go to the Neapolis Archaeological Park to see the Greek Amphitheatre, Roman Amphitheatre, Cave of Dionysius and the tomb of Archimedes, except it isn’t. Ortiga was once the most powerful city in Magna Graecia, rivalling Athens in power. It was founded in 734BC by colonists from Corinth and later connected to mainland by a causeway. It became the largest fortified city of the Greek world. An attack by the Athenians to quell this upstart colony failed and so began Siracusa’s great period of power, under Dionysius the Elder and Dionysius I. Siracusa controlled Sicily and the western Mediterranean and enjoyed some 200 years of prosperity, until its quarrel with Rome. Archimedes was a resident of the city and he devised huge catapults and, it is said a system of mirrors and lenses to concentrate the sun’s rays to set the Roman ships on fire. He was killed by a Roman soldier, despite orders from Rome to capture the genius alive.
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| About 500BC, prisoners were made to carve this quarry (this just shows a small fraction of it) |
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| An artificial cave with amazing acoustics |
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| The Greek theatre, still in use, being prepared for a concert. I doubt the ancient Greeks expected it still to be in use after 2500 years. |
Despite the bombing during the Second World War, there are extensive remains of the old Greek city, and from the Roman period, an Amphitheatre.
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| The Greek and Roman remains are all at the same site. |
Culture satisfied, by chance, we enjoyed seeing a rally of veteran cars travelling up the road, including old Porsches, Ferrari, Jaguars, Alpha Romeos, etc, etc, on the way back, then a stop for some delicious Gelato.
The day for rounded off with dinner of a fish sauce, from the fish shop in Riposto, which we under strict instructions to have with spaghetti, and was fabulous. A brilliant day all round.
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