Italy with Kids - Syracuse

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02 Oct 2008

We headed back to see the archeological area of Syracuse, and maybe the catacombs, and to check out another beach. Today was again set to be a lucky day - all day we dodged the rain.

First we visited the archeological area. Although most towns have greek or roman ruins of one type or another, this is probably the first real ruins (as opposed to existing structures) outside of Rome that we'd visited. Liam had a great time, chasing all the green lizards that were sunning on the rocks around the greek theatre (Teatro Greco).

















Joseph had another go at artistic photos inside Dionysus' ear, but he'll have to work on them, although he does show some talent for finding interesting

subjects to photo. These are his:











The morning was quite hot, so after dodging tour groups we stopped for a quick snack/ gelati and then headed down to see the Catacombs of Saint Giovanni where 20,000 christians used to be buried. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside . Not sure why as there were few frescoes that could be damaged. After about a 45 minute tour which the kids seemed to enjoy, we stopped for lunch immediately outside at the 'Pizza Box', which served up enormous slices of pizza for €3.60.

Then on to the Fontane Bianche beach, and this time we found it!

The weather was building up pretty fierce when we arrived, and both Ky and I were keeping our eyes on some very nasty looking black clouds right above us that seemed to be circling in a very tornado-ish fashion. But all the drama was saved for Syracuse to the north, which judging by the thickness of the rain received a drenching. We on the other hand had a brief shower and then a mild wind while we again frolicked in the wild waves.


We found the water acceptably warm, even on this windy day, so I'm not sure why the small town of Fontane Bianche had already closed down for the season.







At any rate, we found a cafe' attached to a servo on the way home, and then the boys decided to brave the very cold swimming pool and have a dip.

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