The ancient city of Siracusa is mentioned in the Bible as one of the stopover points during Paul's journey to Rome. We definitely had a unique day exploring the ancient city ruins and taking an impromptu boat tour around the peninsula.
We started by driving the hour or so south and parking next to the archeological area with all the Roman and Greek ruins. As we were about to buy our tickets, we were approached by a young man selling tickets for a boat tour around the island. After chatting for several minutes, we decided to go for it since it was so cheap (40 euros for the family) and included a ride on a tuk-tuk through town to the berthing.
The Greek theatre was quite unique in that it was entirely chiseled out of the hillside and had dozens of caves and niches with a flowing aqueduct at the top of the theatre.
The kids especially enjoyed exploring the small caves and all the carved out spaces that were used as votive offerings to gods and also as burial chambers.
We then ventured inside the Ear of Dionysus, a large quarry used since Roman times. It's opening is reminiscent of an ear and it was even used as a prison at one point. It is said the emperor threw his enemies inside and could listen to them tell their seditious secrets because of the unique acoustics of the chamber.
With only a little bit of time remaining until we needed to meet our tuk-tuk, we bought some local savories at a café and had a picnic next to the overgrown amphitheatre which was one of the smallest ones we had seen in the Roman world.
We then made a short trek back to our vehicle to change into our wet suits (except for Laura) and met our tuk-tuk driver for a fun open air ride through the city to the docks. We met our very enthusiastic and multilingual guide and boarded the boat with about 10 other Italians and a French woman.
To exit the harbor we passed underneath a very low bridge. Everyone on the boat had to duck and the sunshade was put down.
We emerged on the other side and set out into the open sea and began edging our way back along the cliffs of the old town of Ortigia. The cliffs were about 40-50 feet tall with dozens of nooks and crannies carved out by the waves over the millennia. The boat actually nosed into several of the caves to get a better look. All the caves had names based on the shape of the rocks or the opening.
We then sailed a little further from land and turned around the southern most point of the peninsula where a 12 century fortress stood solemnly guarding the bay. The boat stopped here to allow Tyler and Cal a few minutes to swim.
All the Italians looked at us like we were absolutely mental to be swimming in water of about 16-17C or about 60F. Luckily we had wet suits on. Tyler swam for a while right beneath the castle walls and saw all sorts of rocks and concrete rubble from the castle.
Cal then bravely jumped in with his snorkel mask on and immediately let out blood curdling screams as the water was colder than he anticipated. After several moments he calmed down enough to fake a smile for the camera before scrambling up the side of the boat to dry off. Tyler swam a few minutes longer diving down to get a look at the fish and coral.
We had just a short drive back to the harbor and entered from the opposite side from where we exited so we didn't have to duck down below the bridge. Our Tuk-Tuk driver met us again and we made it back to the car.
We changed in the deserted grassy parking lot while Callum chased a flock of chickens around hilariously. We then tried to find a shop that had gourmet food products that Nikki had recommended, but it was closed. We ended up having messy chocolate gelato and almond biscotto next to the ruins of Apollo's Temple.
It was a sunny, gorgeous day and we drove home happy and tired in a good way. We had one last meal with Nikki and Tyson before leaving early the next morning.
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