I had a feeling as we were flying to Lisbon that I would love this place!
Coming into land across the bright blue water, big sky and the bright white buildings with red rooves I was certainly getting a positive impression.
Through the modern and busy airport and then onto our hotel, just behind Lisbon’s ritzy shopping street. I really was thinking “How good is Lisbon?” Continue reading
It’s always the same the dog gets it. She sees the packed cases and gives us that look – you are leaving aren’t you?
Really she has nothing to be upset about, our daughter will look after her just as we do.
So with that and my favourite person’s one last adjustment to her luggage we are ready to put the tamper proof seal on our one case and we are ready to call for the cab. We use tamper proof seals rather than locks because it means we don’t have a key to lose or to remember a combination.
We are travelling light. Leaving winter behind and heading to the warmth of the northern hemisphere. We don’t normally travel at this time of the year but my favourite person has a health issue that makes it best to be out of the cold. What better excuse could you have to travel to Israel and Europe!
Our check-in is easy and our Lounge Pass is to the Qantas Club where I already have access care of years of work flying. It’s very pleasant and being a late morning the lounge is empty. Continue reading
Slow travel is quite simply not being in a hurry. Slow Travel happens when you don’t have a deadline or timeline hanging over you.
It’s about taking your time to get somewhere and when you do, taking the time to appreciate it. It is as a fellow blogger put it “being where you are, not about what you do”. It’s about soaking in the experience because Slow Travel is a state of mind.
Why would someone become a Slow Traveller? In part the perfect response is because they can. The time for Slow Travel is when you don’t have to be somewhere anytime soon. What “soon” means is upto you! Continue reading
Cathederal (Duomo)
While sitting having breakfast at the delightful Movimento Centrale Coffee shop on the island of Ortigia, Syracusa, we discovered Jeremy Dummett’s paperback version of “Syracuse City of Legends – A glory of Sicily”. It seemed an ideal companion to our extended stay in Siracusa. Just as Dummett notes when referring to the comments of late 19th Century Englishmen, Douglas Sladen, “it is a place where you can spend any space of time”.
The book is written in two parts. The first, takes the reader through the rich history of Syracuse right upto today. The second, describes the principal monuments of Siracusa. As a result it is both a history of this quite amazing place and a form of guidebook, although to call the second section a guidebook does quite an injustice.
I read the book in sequence, first the history and then the monuments, however each section is discrete which means if you are visiting, looking at the second section first would also work well. In fact, that’s what I will be doing with Jeremy Dummett’s recently published book on Palermo where will be in a week or so.
While Sicily fascinates me I am not a student of the classics and as a result have only a passing knowledge of Sicily’s rich history. Jeremy Dummett’s book provides a rich and easy to read account of the incredible history of Siracusa and with it so much of the history of Sicily itself. He provides insights into Siracusa’s wealth built and plundered on a number of occasions, as well as stories of tyrants and rulers, it’s eventual decline to a secondary city on the island of Sicily and concludes with Siracusa’s place in 21st Century Sicily.
As someone who finds social histories much more interesting than a dry account of events, regular quotes from visitors and writers from the past bring Siracusa’s history to life. References extend far back in history, including the suggestion that Homer’s reference to the small harbour and fresh water spring in The Odeyssy is to the island of Ortigia.
The city’s list of important residents and visitors seems endless. It was fascinating to read about Archimedes, his inventions and senseless death while he was apparently engrossed in resolving a mathematical problem. Siracusa was also visited on more than one occasion by Plato, I particularly enjoyed reading the rather humorous account of Palto’s final exchange with Dionysis. Continue reading
It’s interesting to know about the history of a place like Siracusa in a chronological sense but reading the personal accounts that are provided through books such as Jeremy Drummett’s Book Syracuse City of Legends – A Glory of Sicjily bring the place truly to life. Visiting Sirucusa means walking the streets and places that Plato, Archimedes and Cicreo also visited. Its a way to see these ruins not just as large stones but to imagine what it would have been like when these icons of times past were in the very same spot.
The Altar of Heiron – dedicated to Zeus Eleutherios , built during the time of Heiron II
Our visit to the Parco Archelogico Della Neoplolis with our two adult daughters (who joined us for a few days) brought this home quite starkly in a most disturbing manner. As we looked at the excavations of the quarries (Latomie) my eldest daughter and I discussed how they were built and the numbers of slaves that would have been needed. Her comment that she would not have made much of a slave and the subsequent obvious realization that her role as slave would not have been in the quarries was a reality check – how lucky we are to be visiting some 2 plus thousand years later.
Upper terrace – Greek Theatre with my daughters
A walk through the quarries( Latomina del Paradiso) includes the Ear of Dionysis and a Grotto dedicated to the rope makers (seems so odd to honour rope makers in today’s world). The quarries provided the stone for the ancient city and extraction would have been back breaking work for the slaves, many of whom were vanquished soldiers from the seemingly endless battles over Siracusa. The perils of losing the war in these items didn’t bare thinking about!
Latomie – The Quarries
Ear of Dionysius
These quarries became prisons for the defeated soldiers. Continue reading