Monday, October 28, 2103
The plan for today is to see the Archimedes museum, then the street market, then the archeological ruins in Syracuse proper. Again, lots of pictures.
 |
| Saw this poster and thought we'd go, turns out the date was wrong and we missed it. |
 |
| Archimedes museum, the pillars of science and math |
 |
| For fun |
 |
| Street market in Ortygia |
 |
| Lots of seafood for sale, lots of octopus and squid |
 |
| These guys are cleaning sea urchins |
 |
| Stopped for an espresso |
 |
| At the archeological site in Syracuse |
 |
| The Greek theater |
 |
| This aquaduct is still working after centuries |
 |
| Pretty good view from here, the Greeks liked to have nice views from their theaters |
 |
| The Ear of Dyonisus |
 |
| Panorama of the theater, click to enlarge |
We thought this plan would fill the day, but the archeological site only took about an hour. We did meet a nice taxi driver, Francesco, who was very helpful. The archeological site isn't laid out well, you go one way to get a ticket, then have no idea where to actually go in. Francesco saw us looking lost, pointed us in the right direction, and waited until we came back to drive us to the hotel. We talked with Francesco about a trip to Tiormina the next day, 150 euros for up to 4 people sounds like a good deal.
He drove us back to the hotel, where we agreed to meet at 9 am the next day.
We spent the rest of the evening walking around Ortygia, had pizza and beer (again!) at a restaurant in front of the duomo. Our guide book was right: "The service isn't always friendly and the food is average, but you can't beat this cafe for the views of the Duomo and it's glorious square."
We met up with the rest of the group, which is down to Gary and Sara, Barb and Cynda, Pete and Joyce, and Lisa and I, for a glass of wine at the hotel. We all talked about plans for the evening, and Gary and Sara thought they'd join us for the blues concert at the castle. As it turns out, the date was wrong and the castle was closed, so we headed out on our separate ways. We did some shopping, then ended up at a sidewalk cafe on Archimedes piazza for a beer, then a slightly creepy walk back to the hotel through some narrow, non-tourist looking side streets.
Day 12
