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Siracusa began its life around the 8th century BC as a Greek colony called Syracuse. By about 400 BC, it was one of the major cities of the Mediterranean. Among the famous Greeks who walked its streets—the same streets we strolled along—were the tragic playwright Aeschylus, the poet Pindar, and the philosopher Plato. The latter’s time in Syracuse was the subject of one of Chris’s favorite books from childhood, The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault. That novel centers on an actor who often played in Syracuse, so it was a thrill to visit the ruins of the city’s magnificent Greek theater and imagine the luminaries who performed on its stage or sat enthralled in its tiers of stone seats.