Sicily part 2


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Europe
October 22nd 2009
Published: October 22nd 2009
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SATURDAY 17 OCTOBER, SYRACUSE, SICILY

The guy from New Zealand had told me that his train from Catania had taken five hours the day before. To get to Syracuse, I figured I would have to go to Catania and then change. So I got up early and was at the central train station by about 8am, hoping that there would be an early train to Catania. There wasn’t - the first train was at 12:45 that afternoon. The Rome train went to Syracuse as well but it didn’t leave until 3pm.

So I sat for a while and waited and ate my breakfast (rice crackers with vegemite) until eventually getting the 12:45pm train. Once at Catania I had to change to a train to Syracuse, meaning I didn’t get into my hostel (a very short walk from the train station - and a very nice hostel, particularly coming from where I had just been staying!!) until about 6pm.

Didn’t do much else for the rest of the evening except buy some food at the supermarket, make myself dinner and sit in the common room watching some TV.

SUNDAY 18 OCTOBER - SYRACUSE, SICILY

Because of the large number of people in the dorm room I was up relatively early to shower and eat breakfast before heading out at about 9am to see Syracuse.

The main thing that people come to Syracuse for is the Archaeological Park, which was my first stop, and a bit of a walk from where I was staying. Syracuse is known as one of the major Greek (yes, you read that right) cities in the Western world. In ancient times Syracuse was considered one of the most important and famous cities - now it is just a tourist hotspot!!

The place was named after the Greek colonists when they arrived in Sicily in 734BC - but was later conquered by the Romans - hence the reason it has a Roman Amphitheatre as well as a Greek one. Anyway, the Archaeological Park of the Neapolis is the most important area of the ancient city and spreads over 240,000 square meters. It is made up of the Greek Theatre, the Roman Amphitheatre, the Paradise Latomis (Quarry) where there is the Ear of Dionysius and the Cave of Cordari (Cordmakers) and Hieron II’s Altar.

I wandered around the area for a good couple of hours. The Greek Theatre uses the natural slope of the land and the seats are carved out of stone. It was quite impressive and still relatively intact given its age. The Roman Amphitheatre was more overgrown and not quite as impressive, but seemed to be a lot larger than the Greek one.

By then it was about lunch time so I headed back to the hostel, taking a few detours on the way to wander down some back streets. Had left over pasta from the night before for lunch before heading out in the early afternoon to have a look at the city.

Headed initially into Duomo Square which has the main cathedral and several palaces, going via a few of the other significant squares on the way. Can’t tell you what they are called as I can’t remember. From there I wandered down some side streets heading towards the castle, which was closed for renovations (I think - it was definitely closed though). The old town of Syracuse is essentially on an island, so I spent a bit of time wandering down by the water, finally got around to having some gelati as well!! Basically then continued to wander the squares and small winding backstreets until heading back to the hostel for dinner and a bag re-pack in time for an early departure.

MONDAY 19 OCTOBER - CATANIA, SYRACUSE

Up again very early - this time to get the 8:35am train up to Catania. Got into Catania at about 10am. I knew it was going to be at least a 15 minute walk into the city centre to find the hostel, but somehow I managed to turn down the wrong street, but still going the right way, and end up kind of where I wanted to. At any rate, I was checked into the hostel before 11am.

I went for a brief walk through the city, which is the second largest in Sicily, behind only Palermo. A lot of people base themselves here to explore the east coast. The downtown area is a world heritage site and is known for its baroque architecture. Since my hostel was quite close to the markets that was the place I started my walk. Not that I like wandering and seeing animal carcases, but the activity at local markets (there was plenty of fruit and veg as well as meat and fish) is always amazing to wander through and observe.

After wandering through the markets I found myself in the cities main square - which was again called Piazza Duomo. The square is also the home of the 17th century Elephant Statue, the elephant being the symbol of the city. On one side of the square is a Norman Cathedral which from the outside was quite impressive.

By this stage it was starting to rain so since I was still close to the hostel I headed back there to chill for an hour and eat my lunch, before heading out again in the afternoon once the rain passed.

The first thing I did after lunch was buy a ticket (which was quite cheap) for a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the city, although I just stayed on it for the duration and did the circle. Anyway, the tour took in some of the outer lying squares - Europa, Verga and Steiscoro, as well as going past Theatro Bellini, Villa Bellini (large park) and some other key sites.

After I got off the bus I retraced quite a few of the buses stops, so I went back up to Piazzo Stesicoro where I wandered around some more ruins which are surrounded by new buildings in the middle of town. I assume that they were uncovered during one of the earthquakes that have destroyed the city at various times. Also wandered through Villa Bellini which was quite a large park. Since the sun decided to come out it was quite a nice stroll through that area. Managed to find myself in the middle of Chinatown, which I didn’t even know the town had. It might not officially be Chinatown I guess - but there were a number of Chinese restaurants as well as a grocery store and some other shops that all put together looked like an informal Chinatown.

Sometime late in the afternoon after wandering back towards Piazzo Duomo I went back to the hostel. Only two room mates tonight and one wasn’t around - the other was a Danish lady so we got into a discussion about Princess Mary (what else??) and royalty before I headed to bed.

TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER - MT ETNA, SYRACUSE

Another early start this morning, with a quick breakfast at 7am before heading down towards the train station to try to find where to get the local ‘once a day’ bus to Mt Etna. When I was asking at one of the ticket office (he was answering me in Italian which of course I couldn’t understand) an Irish guy who spoke Italian came along who happened to be looking for the same thing, except he could speak a little Italian. Quite useful and he managed to find where we needed to be.

The bus trip out there took almost two hours, despite it only being about 30km or so. The traffic getting out of the city was pretty bad, and then the remainder was uphill on winding and narrow roads, so that also took some time. We also had a random 10 minute coffee stop close to the mountain itself; although I am not sure exactly why.

Anyway we got dropped at the bottom of the mountain and I decided to get the funicular/ cable car up the mountain. I ended up in a carriage with three Spaniards who had been on the same bus - and who were all also scared of heights. Made for an interesting ride up - although it wasn’t actually too bad again to be honest. The cable car took us to a height of about 3000 meters or so.

Actually - I better explain a little about Mt Etna. It’s a volcano - the largest one in Europe,. It reaches a height of 3350 meters and can be considered the most active volcano in the world - because of its repeated eruptions over the last few years. Mt Etna dominates the eastern side of Sicily.

Anyway, luckily I had dressed for the day knowing that it was going to be cold up the mountain. I had even packed my gloves I was that organised. And boy did I need them!! It was freezing at the top. There was heaps of snow still around and since it was my plan to walk from the cable car as far as I could, I needed my many layers. From where the cable car drops you off, you can go up to the top in a landrover but I decided to wander up. I already knew that because the volcano is so active, that even on a landrover trip you can’t see lava, so figured I would just walk up. It was quite a long trek uphill and after more than an hour or so going uphill in the freezing cold (although I was stopping to take some piccies on the way), I decided to wander back down. I could have gone further, but I think the altitude was getting to me and making it harder to breathe. Got back down and grabbed some lunch to warm up, before heading back outside and wandering around some more at that level, looking at the rock formations and so on. At about 2:30pm or so I headed down the mountain on the cable car to have a wander around down the bottom of the mountain - and do some souvenir shopping.

I didn’t want to miss the 4:30pm bus back (the only one) so I was there from about 4pm waiting for the bus - as were many other people. It was a one and a half hour drive back to the city and then a brief walk back to the hostel. Turned out the Irish guy (Harry) was even staying at the same hostel as I was.

My roommates in the dorm had changed - shortly after I walked in a Polish girl came in. When I said I was from Australia she was soooo excited, I don’t think she could believe it. The other roommate was a very weird Italian who spoke no English, and a Russian girl.

Anyway we had a cup of wine in the room chatting and then went to the bar downstairs to grab some dinner (vege cous cous for me) and have a drink at the wine bar before calling it a night.


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