Siracusa

On the seventh day our maste rplan was to visit Siracusa, the city on the eastern coast of Sicily. Siracusa is one of the UNESCO world heritage sites in Sicily and we wanted to see it because UNESCO sites usually are worth visiting.

It took about three hours to drive to the edge of the city and again we had problems finding the way to the center. We made plans on the fly and started searching for a set of ancient ruins just outside the center. In Sicily everything's hidden and we found the ruins only on the way back. The fortress of Euryalus and the Great walls of Epipolae are ancient indeed and there's not a lot left of them. We got in for free so it wasn't a bad deal :).

The fortress of Euryalus and the great walls of Epipolae are located just outside the center of Siracusa.

We had hopes to see something more interesting and finally found the way to the center and to Neapolis, the ancient city. For once it was easy to find a place for parking and we walked into the area. We wondered for a while as no one asked us for tickets. We saw that the booths selling tickets were closed but the gates were open. We walked inside and visited the impressive Roman Amphitheatre. It felt great to be there without anyone else and it was somewhat possible to imagine how everything had looked and felt centuries ago.

A few sarcophaguses in Neapolis

The Roman Amphitheatre in Neapolis

We were more than ready to give an outstanding performance but the crowd was missing!

One of the gates to the theatre

On the way down we saw a field of smaller ruins on the left and the entrance to the Greek Theatre on the right. When we tried to enter the Greek Theatre a woman told us that we can't enter the theatre without tickets and that it's too late to buy them. We didn't get inside and it was a huge disappointment for us. The Italians really close their sights early as it was only 3 pm.

This place was well protected.

We ate a bit in our car and tried to search for an alternative route to the Greek Theater to at least have a peek at it. The whole area was surrounded by a fence and we couldn't find a way around it. After a while we gave up and tried to search for something else to see. There wasn't much else to see, only a couple of extraordinary catholic churches. After the disappointment we quickly wanted to get back to our hotel. Before that we ate the strangest pizza we've seen so far. It was covered from both sides with dough and the fillings were inside. On the way back we saw a burning truck on the highway but there weren't any other cars nearby so it wasn't a crash. At least the car didn't explode when we saw it :).

Lacrime church - one of the famous sights of Siracusa

Another big, modern church

The day was a disappointment but they happen from time to time. Not everything works as planned while you're travelling :). Perhaps one day we'll go back to Siracusa to see all it has to offer.