David Whitley gets a dose of high culture and history in the city that once played home to Plato and Archimedes.
Temple of Apollo
The blasé attitude that people take towards the wonders in their own back yard never ceases to amaze. Just over the bridge on the island of Ortygia is what under normal circumstances would be a pretty ordinary town square.
Somewhere in that gap between pretty and humdrum, it’s ringed with traffic, there’s a variety of shops and a market to the left.
However, in the middle is an incredible sight, irrespective of whether it has seen better days. Ostensibly the remnants of a big wall and a few weathered columns, this was once the Temple of Apollo, a major Greek place of worship dating back to the 6th century BC.
If you watch the locals skirt around it seemingly oblivious, though, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s just an eyesore that the council hasn’t yet got round to clearing up. It’d probably take a bagpiping rhinoceros to scale the ruins for anyone in Syracuse to bat an eyelid.
Gates to the Ancient Greek city
A little further round the corner are the ruins of the gate to the ancient Greek city, and they are fenced off, almost as a nuisance that gets in the way of building a proper street. Bicycles are locked up against the railings whilst the lottery outlet and ‘Tentazioni Sexy Shop’ next to it add that air of ancient dignity.
What is wrong with these people? There’s a strong temptation to haul someone in by the collar and force them to stand staring at the columns while you scream, “That’s 2,500 years of heritage you’re ignoring, imbecile!”
Neapolis Archaeological Park
This would be a little unfair though, as becomes apparent when you head to Syracuse’s main attraction. The Neapolis Archaeological Park is home to some of the best Greek and Roman ruins in the world, let alone Italy. Once inside it’s quite clear that modesty, not ignorance, is the reason behind the strange ambivalence towards the city’s past.
And it has got a glorious past, starting when settlers from Corinth arrived in 734BC.
Plato, Archimedes et al
Whilst officially a colony, the Sicilian city soon became a power in its own right, and for a while was the most powerful Greek city in the world. A major centre for the arts and learning, many of the world’s great thinkers such as Plato and Archimedes headed here during its golden era.
Athens itself struggled to rival Syracuse, as it gave birth to Greek comic theatre and became to ancient culture what Silicon Valley is to the age of technology.
What’s more, it was never one for self-aggrandising posturing. In fact, the city’s reputation was enhanced because it wasn’t shouting how great it was from the rooftops – it would attract the best without ever doing anything quite so vulgar as being seen to try and attract the best.
Underplayed highlights
This is a philosophy that has clearly continued to the present day; just about everything is totally underplayed. The ruins of the Neapolis are described matter-of-factly, all hyping adjectives carefully removed from the promotional material; probably just a little too crass.
This approach, of course, means that the gorgeous setting is almost totally ignored. Once the tickets are bought and entrance fee is handed over, you walk straight into an absolutely beautiful citrus grove.
It’s a marvellously tranquil spot, with the orange, lemon and magnolia trees all competing to be most colourful and the jagged rocks of the former quarry providing a rugged counterbalance to the exquisite prettiness.
It takes a short stroll to a crack in the rock that turns into a cathedral-sized cave once you inside. Legend has it the legendary tyrant Dionysius used the fabulous acoustics of this cavern to listen in on the discussions of his political enemies, who he had locked up on the other side of the rock.
Whether that’s an old wife’s tale or not, the sound is fabulous. A softly-spoken “buongiorno” turns into a tumultuous, resonant boom. The likes of Brian Blessed and Simon Callow could be deafening in here – the flapping wings of the pigeons are fearsome enough.
Greek theatre
No-one really comes to Syracuse to bellow niceties into caves, though, and the star attraction is just round the corner. The Greek theatre is huge, and most of the seating is still there. OK, so it’s not exactly comfortable, but it’s good enough for the Ciclo di Spettacoli Classici to be held their every year.
If your tastes veer towards the highbrow, then you don’t get much more self-consciously arty than this. It is a festival of ancient Greek theatre, featuring the classics from Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides played as they would have been back in the city’s heyday.
It runs from May to July and attracts many of Italy’s finest actors, determined to prove that they can do the top rung stuff as well as making TV and film appearances. Although, looking at the weathered stalls, you’d have to hope they were putting on short performances.
In comparison, the Roman amphitheatre – the third biggest in Italy – comes as a bit of a disappointment. Now largely covered in grass, it looks more like a venue for cows than gladiators. That said, anywhere else it would be the major drawcard.
Walking around Ortygia
As with any city dominated by impressive ruins, there is the temptation to live entirely in the past. Even Ortygia, the city’s heartbeat and prettiest spot, tends to be weighed down by its history, but treat it in the present tense and you’ve got something thoroughly delightful.
The fun starts when you leave the staggeringly pretty shoreline and start jinking through the maze of streets that give Ortygia character to match its beauty. The little laneways are so narrow that a moped buzzing past is a genuinely frightening experience. As for anyone who even thinks about taking a car through this rabbit warren, well… best of luck to them.
It’s the random factor that’s so enticing. Often the streets peter out into nothing, a few dizzying right-angled turns and you end up directly under someone’s washing line, not quite sure whether you’ve somehow managed to walk into their house or not. But for every laneway that seems like you’ve struck the inescapable centre of a labyrinth, there is another that contains two or three delightful trattoria, an art studio or a puppet shop.
Eventually, you emerge from the tangled streets and bizarre shops into the city’s main square. Piazza del Duomo is a wide-open sun trap of a place and home to the city’s cathedral. It’s not bad, as cathedrals go, until you look round the side to see a few columns.
These are from the ancient temple of Athena – the cathedral has been built around the ancient Greek place of worship. As with the brother temple down the road, there is no fanfare, the locals passing without a glance. But, as with the rest of Syracuse, the history is impossible to ignore for anyone else.
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