Meet Fabrizio of Siracusa!
Siracusa is the oldest settlement / city in Sicily - founded in the 8th century BC. Situated on the southeastern coast, it is beautiful! We never did make down to the port, but we had a phenomenal day exploring the Teatro Greco & the Roman Amphitheater.
We drove down from our agritourism perch on the side of Mt. Etna to Catania and then on to Siracusa for the day. The autostrada was actually pretty modern & WIDE, but we still had to contend with toll booths and speeding Italian drivers. We finally mastered the toll booths by hoarding change at every opportunity, but still wondered why the Italians were speeding when there were TONS of speed limit signs that indicated a decrease in speed was required. It seemed that they were looking at these signs as "suggestions" - we however, obeyed, as we're trying really hard not to come home with a ton of speeding tickets!
We found the "Paradise Parking" lot pretty easily and another really nice 70-something Italian man who asked for a mere 3 Euro to park for the whole day. In Italian, I asked where the biglietteria (ticket booth) was and he answered in Italian - AND - I understood him!! WE buy our tickets and are told to start with the Teatro Greco and then go to the Amphitheater. Of course, we get a little off track and end up at Dionysus' Ear. Acoustics in this place are amazing . . and the whole thing was carved out of the mountain. The gardens around here are amazing and full of citrus trees heavy with fruit. The pics below are a sampling - but again, they don't do the beauty justice.
**Pictures are here - click on the button at bottom of post to view!
Next . . the Teatro Greco - AMAZING is an understatement. This entire place was CARVED out of stone! No blocks of stone moved to it, no bricks, no mortar, no wood . . . NOTHING but solid marble mountain carved by amazing craftsman into a huge theater - and I mean HUGE (again, pictures don't even begin to demonstrate the size of this place). Sadly, there are construction crews all over it reinforcing some of the stands (seats) and building a stage. Apparently, they will use it for concerts this summer. Modern always seems to find a way to exploit the antiquities!!
We exit & go to the next gate and find the prettiest setting with the Roman Amphitheater. I wish I could have seen this place in its prime . . there was so much beauty & lovely architecture "left". I can only imagine what it would have been like to stroll through the park on the way to this venue on a Spring night. Strangely, there were a lot of sarcophagus-looking blocks of marble lining the pathways into this place - so we're not sure if they held the bodies of gladiators that died there OR noble men who wanted to be remembered when people attended events here. Did I mention, we forgot to rent the audio guides on this day - so we just sort of improvised!
We decide to walk about 1/2 mile to the Archaeological Museum and find something to eat. We cross a busy street and see a few restaurants that might be options. And then, we meet Fabrizio! What a nice guy!! He comes out of the restaurant and greets us with a big, old smile and pretty good English and says he has delicious fresh food for lunch. We ask if we can sit outside and he says "of course" - but some inside and select your food first. What we find is really nice looking food. Fresh grilled fish, pasta with vegetables, lots of grain dishes (couscous & lentils are big down here), and tons of fresh veggies prepared in all different ways. It's all SO colorful & fresh looking,. He says we can mix & match to get whatever we want - so I select swordfish, sauteed spinach, caramelized onions and a really nice spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce. All delicious!
All through lunch, Fabrizio keeps checking on us to make sure we are happy. We start to tell him why we're here visiting Sicily and get into the whole great grandparents from Sciacca thing. He's so excited that I am Sicilian he decides we must be cousins. We talk about the Graffeo name and I try to explain to him that it was changed when Antonino immigrated - but I think we're losing him in the translation. No matter - we're still cousins - we both have beautiful blue eyes (he says)!! Now, about this point, I decide he really must be a cousin because he is reminding me of my cousin Nick Rafello - and Fabrizio is his clone!! Seriously Nick, you'd love this guy - it was like hanging with you. Laughing, joking and I got a BIG, old bear hug when we left. I love this guy!!!
Next up - the museum. Suffice to say, we spent 2 hours looking at artifacts from all over Sicily - from as early as 30000 BC to about 1000 AD . . yes, that's apparently how long humans (of some kind or another) have inhabited this island (and some pretty interesting animals too - can you believe, there were once hippopotamus in Sicily?!?!?).
