Photo Galleries
Sicily – Syracuse
April 2016
The first stop on the Chris, Melissa, AJ, and baby Francesca trip to Sicily was the city of Siracusa on the island’s southeastern coast. We stayed in the oldest part of the city, the small peninsula of Ortigia, which juts into the sea on high walls. It’s a place of narrow alleys and wide piazzas, of little neighborhood churches and a magnificent cathedral, all made from the warm, cream-colored stone that was quarried for centuries just a few kilometers away.
The cathedral (or duomo) of Syracuse
Francesca gets ready for a day of sightseeing in Syracuse
Francesca and AJ in our apartment in Syracuse
Francesca heads down the narrow lane where we stayed, in the oldest part of Syracuse, Ortigia
Our neighborhood church
Our neighborhood coffee bar, where we often got breakfast
The remains of a church in our neighborhood
Who carved the steps on this rock, and how long ago? Was it once a building?
We swam off these platforms in Ortigia
Ortigia is full of big old houses with ornate facades
See how the foliage turns into birds
Another church in our neighborhood
We loved Ortigia's little alleys and courtyards
The cathedral (duomo) is built over an ancient Greek temple to Athena
The columns of the old temple are still visible in the cathedral's walls
The Baroque front of the cathedral
The inside of the duomo, being decorated for a wedding
The church of Santa Lucia, near the Duomo, was founded by Queen Isabella of Castile during the long period when Sicily was ruled by Spain
The piazza outside the duomo
Under our feet are the remains of dwellings dating back more than 3,000 years
A living statue in front of the duomo
And another nearby (at least he gets to sit down)
The Fonte Aretusa, the amazing freshwater spring (right by the sea!) that made Ortigia such an attractive place for people to settle
Papyrus growing in the Fonte Aretusa
Ortigia is a peninsula sticking out into the sea; it has been fortified for 2,500 years
"Shark" "This is art?"
A cat family near the ruins
Ortigia at dusk
Local residents out for an evening stroll in the little piazza by our neighborhood church
Neighborhood cats out for the evening as well
Fountain in the Piazza Archimede (named for one of Syracuse's most famous sons, Archimedes)
Everywhere we went in Sicily, we saw older men sitting on benches
And lounging outside coffee shops
Along Via Roma, the main pedestrian shopping street of Ortigia
