Community Highlights Europe Exploring Ortigia

Exploring Ortigia

Breakfast at Le Saline was served in the garden, surrounded by the sweet cats. We had a wonderful spread of ham and feta bruschetti, homemade cakes and yoghurt, with good coffee and orange juice.

The plan for today was to visit Ortigia, the historic part of Syracuse. Jim drove us to the parking lot recommended by Stefano, a few minutes walk from the bridge that crosses to the island on which Ortigia lies.

Once there we stopped for refreshing granitas as the day was already hot. We then walked through the street market which was selling mostly tourist ‘tat', though I was briefly tempted by a decorative tile to be used as a trivet – until I realised how much it would weigh down my suitcase!

After spending a bit of time here we went to see the ruins of the Temple of Apollo. The temple dates from the 6th century BC and according to Wikipedia is one of the most ancient Doric temples in Sicily. It has had several ‘lives’, from Greek temple to Byzantine church to mosque to Catholic church. The latter was subsequently incorporated into 16th century Spanish barracks and into private houses. Relatively little remans today and to the average viewer (including me!) it is hard to appreciate how it must once have looked, nor distinguish Greek elements from the later additions.

We then meandered through some of the narrow streets at the island's heart.

We stopped to visit the small Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo. This is the oldest church in Syracuse, dating back to 326 AD, and I found it full of atmosphere. I was puzzled by some markings scratched on a column but haven't been able to find any reference to these.

Our steps led us eventually to the Fontana di Diana which was created by Giulio Moschetti in 1907 using reinforced concrete. It portrays the story of the nereid (water nymph) Aretusa and her protector, the goddess Artemis/Diana:

One day while hunting in the forest Aretusa went for a swim in a stream. While in the water, she felt something move beneath her. It was the river god Alfeo, who immediately fell in love with Aretusa. But she wanted nothing of him and fled. Alfeo made chase, and being a river, his endurance was too much for her. Exhausted, she called to the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, for help. Artemis responded by transforming Aretusa into a fresh-water spring. It is said that this spring that flowed via an underground channel from Greece under the Ionian Sea to Sicily to emerge in Ortigia.

But Alfeo, being water also, merged with the spring and this the two are eternally intertwined. Legend says that if you throw flowers into the Alfeios River in Greece they will eventually emerge at the Fonte Aretusa, a spring on the other side of Ortigia.

We managed to get a mostly shady table at a café in this piazza, the Piazza Archimede, where we had a light lunch. My caponata with parmesan wafer was delicious!

We then continued to the cathedral with its impressive setting in a wide-open piazza. This was originally built in the 7th century AD over the remains of the 5th century BC Temple of Athena. The roof of the nave is from Norman times, as are the mosaics in the apses. The façade was rebuilt in the mid 18th century. It is considered a powerful example of the Sicilian-Baroque style.

We paid a reasonable €2 to visit inside. It felt very ancient and imposing, rather than beautiful, but there were those lovely old frescoes in a side chapel and other interesting details.

Among these were some of relics of Santa Lucia, the patron saint of the city, including a number of bone fragments. As a young girl, Lucia was martyred for her Christian faith during the persecutions of the Roman emperor Diocletian in 304. In medieval accounts of her martyrdom, Saint Lucy's eyes were gouged out prior to her execution, so she is also considered the patron saint of the blind

Back outside we walked along the side to see how the remains of the Greek Temple of Athena had been incorporated into the cathedral structure.

We walked down to the waterfront to get some views of the bay, looking across to where we knew our B&B lay.

But it was very hot here in the full sun so we returned to the centre to follow the main drag back towards the bridges, stopping on the way for gelati, as well as taking a few more photos as we went.

Eventually we were back at the car which was baking in the bright sunlight. But it didn’t take too long to get back to Le Saline and the relative cool of my room, to relax before dinner.

We had the latter in Il Faraone again. There was a party in the grounds so we were told they weren’t serving pizza, but that was OK because we’d already all said we wanted something different. Most of us chose a black tortellini dish with salmon filling and a butter and herb sauce, while one chose the sea bream fillets. Both dishes were really delicious. I was keen to have the pistachio gelato again and a couple of my friends followed my recommendation (and were as impressed as I was) while another had the lemon sorbetto which also went down well. And again the prices were reasonable, as I paid €33 for my two courses, generous glass of house white, share of two bottles of water and ‘coperto'.

Back at the B&B we all went to admire the view from Heather and Jim’s top floor balcony before retiring for an early night, as we needed to be away very promptly in the morning.

This featured blog entry was written by ToonSarah from the blog Travel with me ....
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