Down town Siracusa
11 July 2014

Down town Siracusa or Syracuse
The old town is known as Ortiga and is the usual narrow alleys that all the old towns have. There are some old regal homes but have now been converted into accommodations for holidays or permanent units. At one stage of its history Ortiga was the most powerful city-state of Magna Graecia rivalling Athens for the title. It was founded in 734BC and became the largest fortified city of the Greek world. Siracusa controlled Sicily until they quarrelled with Rome. Archimedes lived here then and was where he invented large catapults and a system of mirrors and lenses which when concentrated on the Roman ships sails set them on fire. Must have had very calm weather to concentrate for long periods of time to cause a fire!!!!! Anyway the Romans wanted him for his brains and despite orders to capture the genius alive he was killed by a Roman soldier. Bet he was demoted in a hurry.
Even tho’ both the Allies and the Germans bombed the place during WWII some of the old Greek city still remains and the Greek theatre is said to be the best preserved outside of Greece. History lesson over!!!!
We have found not only the wonderful fruit and veg plus fish market but 3 supermarkets with almost everything we need and of course the cheap beer for the men. The faithful nana trolleys have come out again and Macca, that repair you did on a wheel in Gibralta last time has had to be revisited. At the markets we watched some fellows processing sea urchins…..very time consuming for little result, and they didn’t get the spikes mixed in. Interest in those has disappeared but Glen had bought an octopus lure.. giant thing with a plastic crab on it that attracts the octopus. He has had a try or two to catch one but he has found that once caught the preparation is to bash it on the rocks or with a baseball bat then boil it forever with a wine cork(?) before it is suitable to grill. So not sure if there is still interest there.