Day 52 - Siracusa & Ortigia

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 1

Turns out the rain was so dirty yesterday in Catania because Etna had erupted.  More of a hiccup than a full on eruption but enough to throw volcanic ash into the air and close down the airport for the day.  It really was due to the fun and games of living near an active volcano.  Note to self, don't organise flights to or from Catania airport.

While I titled yesterday's blog entry as getting to Siracusa I'm not actually staying in there.  Instead, I'm staying on the tiny island of Ortigia just off the coast.  It is connected to the mainland by a couple of bridges.  I had planned to spend today viewing sites in Siracusa itself and spend tomorrow visiting places on Ortigia.

I started today off by walking over to the Archaelogical Park of Neapolis.   It contains ruins from when Siracusa was a Greek city through to Roman times and beyond.  It is mindblowing how long people have been living here.  I spent all morning wandering around the ruins.  I pretty sure there used to be a building up here.  This is now a quarry.

Afterwards my plan was to visit the Archeological Museum.  I'd even bought a combination ticket that provided me entrance to both.  However, when I got to the museum I discovered it isn't open on a Monday.  I then decided to visit some of the museums on Ortigia instead only to discover several of them are also not open on a Monday or else are only open in the morning.  Grr.

I ended up walking back to Ortigia and then walking all the way around it.  I then visited the Museo Archimede e Leonardo as it is one of the few that was open.  Archimedes is a Syrcause local so there are plenty of references to him around including this statue.  He is standing on a model of an evil puzzle called the Stomachion that he developed.  It is made up of 14 pieces that can be put together in a square - if you can figure out how to do it. 

 

This museum was fabulous.  It had lots of scale models of his various inventions with descriptions of how they worked in both English as well as Italian.  Most of the models you could actually play with.  There was also a children's area where you could play with levers and cranes and build a bridge designed by Leonardo.  I had lots of fun.  In fact, I didn't see a single child in the museum.  It was all adults messing about with things.

I then headed back to my hotel to rest my feet before going out for a drink and dinner.  Have I mentioned that it isn't raining here in Siracusa?  Tomorrow it is supposed to be even warmer and sunnier.

I picked a restaurant in a terrible tourist trap as it had views to the west over the bay so I could watch the setting sun.  That stretch along the beach is wall to wall restaurants with touts trying to tempt you in.  I randomly chose Spizzica Al Vecchio Lavatoio which had once been a laundry.  Apparently there are still ruins underneath you can visit.  For dinner I had originally planned to get a pizza, however at the last minute I decided to have a plate of mixed fried fish.  The waiter was very dubious about this as part of the dish was entire small fish (achovies or whitebait perhaps).  He seemed to think I wouldn't want to eat them.  He convinced me to have a plate of fried octopus, calamari and prawns instead (same price).  But when it came out I found that the prawns were small but whole.  They had just been dipped in batter and deep fried.  They were complete with heads, tails, shells and feetses.  I think you were meant to eat them whole like a soft shelled crab.  I took off the heads, tails and feet but ate the rest.  They were crunchy.  The octopus and calamari were ok.  Still, I should have had the pizza.

Tomorrow I will visit the Ortigia sites in the morning and then be a terrible tourist and catch one of those hop on-hop off buses to get the the Archeological Museum.  I have had enough fun crossing Sicilian roads for now.  I need to brace myself for heading to the railway station on Wednesday.