Siracusa, Sicily

Namesake of Syracuse, NY, home of Archimedes, envy of ancient Athens and Rome and all around good time, Siracusa is a fascinating city on the SE coast of Sicily.

This area used to be called Magna Graecia, or Greater Greece since it was a colony of Corinth. Archimedes is a fascinating character. He was probably the smartest guy who ever lived at the time in the 200's BC. He invented the first water pump, block and tackles, the theory of pi, exponential numbers, and many military war machines that helped defeat the invading Romans. He was eventually killed by a Roman soldier while working on a problem.

You may know him as the guy who said "Eureka" while running naked in the street after coming up with his water displacement theory while taking a bath.

Because the city was levelled by an earthquake in the late 1600s, much of it was rebuilt in the baroque style like neighboring Noto. And that means it's a joy to just walk around and soak up the sights.

We're staying in a large remodeled apartment in Ortigia ( or TEE jee a), the small island connected by bridges to the main city. Crowds are low this time of year, but we are seeing large groups of university students around on tours.

It's easy to get a seat at restaurants without reservations and the food is top notch. Swordfish is common on menus, along with lots of other seafood.

There's a large archaeological park on the north side of town and it has one of the best and largest preserved Greek theaters in Europe. The nearby museum was exhausting. I love history and archaeology but there's so much history here (from the stone age forward) that the thousands and thousands of found objects in display cases just overwhelmed us.

What we preferred much better was just strolling around Ortigia day and night and enjoying the architecture, the coast, and amazing food and wine. We have 3 days and nights here and it's plenty enough time. It's also fun to have Louie and Derek join us to explore the city.

There's a 24-hour train strike scheduled for tomorrow. That's so common in Italy. We think we can get a bus easily to our next stop, Catania, which is just over an hour away.

More photos and videos are here.

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