Syracusa

29 March 2024 – Syracusa, Sicily, Italy

The thirty-eight hour journey to Syracusa in Sicily was one of the easiest passages we have ever done; there was almost no wind and therefore barely any swell. On the first day, the wind was very lightly from in front of us so we couldn’t sail, then overnight it came up from the northeast and we picked up speed on a broad reach before it died again the next afternoon. We were rushing a bit to get into port before the wind switched around to blow strongly from in front of us, and we just made it. We put up the new mainsail as we were coming in close-hauled and were able to go seven knots with twenty knots apparent wind.

Sunset at sea – Ionian Sea

Passage to Sicily – Ionian Sea

Arriving in Syracusa was a bit of a culture shock, as we had gone from Fiskardo, a place with more cats than people, to a lively city. After anchoring in the large bay that evening, we walked around the beautiful old town and got some gelato. The architecture is some of the most impressive I have ever seen, a mixture of Baroque and Neoclassical. I was walking through a beautiful piazza made of marble and lined with old buildings when I noticed the Syracusa Duomo beside me. It might be the most awe-inspiring building I have ever seen; it is fronted by a row of columns and has another row decorating the second storey, as well as a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top. It was built in the seventh century CE over the remains of a Doric temple to Athena from the fifth century BCE. We were able to walk around inside, and the massive Doric columns of the original Greek temple still line the walls.

Syracusa Duomo – Syracusa, Sicily, Italy

Syracusa is a beautiful city, with bustling streets, lots of amazing food, and a great street market. My mom and I walked around and got some much-needed fresh produce and the best parmesan I have ever tasted, while vendors kept shouting their wares and a woman danced in the middle of the street. We have all been eating so much delicious Italian food.

There is a massive statue of Ikaria Grande by the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj, which stands in the old fortress overlooking the sea. The bronze sculpture is in the Greco-Roman style with Icarus’s head missing and a disembodied hand wrapped around his ankle.

Ikaria Grande by Igor Mitoraj – Syracusa, Sicily, Italy

The bay we are anchored in is open to the east, so when the wind was forecasted to blow from there we relocated to the slightly more sheltered town quay for the night. We also filled up the tanks with water there, as the harbour has too much silt in it to run the water maker. When we returned to the centre of the bay, we tried to anchor in a more sheltered spot but the holding was bad and after two attempts we went back to our previous position where we knew there was good holding, as we had barely been able to pull the anchor out of the clay. 

Syracusa, Sicily, Italy

About a half an hour’s walk from the harbour is Neapolis Archaeological Park. It was a limestone quarry in ancient times, and now is a beautiful garden of orange trees and bordered by the dramatic cliffs of the quarry. We were able to walk inside part of the quarry and see the pink and green limestone arching above our heads in a sort of tunnel. The chisel marks and impressions of stone blocks that were cut from there are still visible on the rock.

Ancient limestone quarry in the Neapolis Archaeological Park – Syracusa, Sicily, Italy

The main cave is twenty three metres high, called the Ear of Dionysius after the tyrant who kept prisoners in the cave so that he could hear what they were saying about him when he stood over top it due to its special acoustics.

Ear of Dionysius in the Neapolis Archaeological Park – Syracusa, Sicily, Italy

Also in the archaeological park is a Greek amphitheatre from the fifth century BCE, as Sicily used to be a Greek colony and now has many Ancient Greek ruins. There is also a Roman ampitheatre a little ways away.

Greek ampitheatre in the Neapolis Archaeological Park – Syracusa, Sicily, Italy

What really made the park special was the Igor Mitoraj art exhibition that had just opened there the previous day. His sculptures are scattered throughout the park. Many take inspiration from the myth of Icarus and have wings, and most of them are missing limbs or heads. There was a massive torso with a cross carved out of the chest placed in the quarry, and a huge head looming out of the darkness in the depths of Dionysius’s Ear.

Mitoraj sculpture in the Neapolis Archaeological Park – Syracusa, Sicily, Italy

On Wednesday, we rented a car and visited Villa Romana del Casale and the Valley of the Temples. The Roman villa has some of the best preserved mosaics I’ve ever seen. Dating from the fourth century BCE, the beautiful mosaics covered every floor. There is a massive tableau of wild animals being brought to Rome for the gladiatorial games which runs the length of a large hallway, a hunting scene covering the floor of one room, a fishing scene in another, and a lifelike mosaic of giants in a third. The most surprising is the one depicting a group of women in modern-looking bikinis hanging out at the beach.

Mosaics in the Villa Romana del Casale – Sicily, Italy

Mosaics in the Villa Romana del Casale – Sicily, Italy

Mosaics in the Villa Romana del Casale – Sicily, Italy

The Valley of the Temples is actually located on a ridge housing the remains of eight Ancient Greek temples. Two of the temples – the Temple of Heracles and the Temple of Hera – are fairly well preserved, while the Temple of Concordia is the best-preserved Doric temple in the world and the basis of the UNESCO logo. It is basically still intact, with all its columns standing up and walls on all four sides. The temple’s good state of repair is due to the fact that it was converted into a Christian basilica in the sixth century CE, at which point changes were made to the temple such as removing the stucco coating, filling in the spaces between the columns, and cutting arches in the walls, but ultimately preserving it. I was interested to learn that it is unknown to which gods many of the temples, including the temples of Hera and Concordia, were originally dedicated to and their current names are the results of misinterpretations of Latin inscriptions found nearby. There was yet another Mitoraj bronze sculpture of Icarus lying on its side at the foot of the Temple of Concordia, which only added to the epic feel of the site.

Temple of Hera in the Valley of the Temples – Agrigento, Sicily, Italy

Temple of Concordia in the Valley of the Temples – Agrigento, Sicily, Italy

On Thursday, my mom and I signed up for a cooking class on arancini, traditional Sicilian fried rice balls. We met the instructor at the market and bought ingredients such as sun-dried tomatoes and a massive round zucchini, then walked to a restaurant kitchen. That was my favourite part, as I had never been in one before. I enjoyed looking at all their equipment: massive stand mixers, a deep frier, an instant freezer, and more. Making the food was fun as well. First we cooked the rice, then made three different fillings – pesto, tomato sauce, and fried artichoke. The arancini are made by forming the sticky rice into balls, making a hollow in the centre and filling it with sauce and cheese, then closing it and forming it into the correct shape before rolling it in bread crumbs and frying it. They were delicious.