We are in Sicily this week; in the ancient port of Syracuse down in the south east of the island. Specifically we are in Ortigia, the tiny island home to the rulers of Syracuse since before the Greeks arrived. You can see their influence everywhere: even the great duomo is built partly with the Doric columns from the temple of Athena, fourteen of which can still be seen lining the aisles.
There are Roman remains too, but most of the city today dates from the seventeenth century, when a massive earthquake caused the city to be rebuilt in the unique "Sicilian Baroque" style. Down to the genius of a Catalonian architect brought in to bring about the city's rebirth, it gives the place an extraordinary atmosphere. Tourists abound at this peak time of the year: our hotel feels like an outpost of America in the Old World, but Germans and Frenchies like the place too. It hasn't come up on the Chinese/Japanese radar yet, but look out when they realise it isn't that hard to get here from Rome...
Today we drove into the interior to a limestone gorge where thousands of tombs, dating from 1000 BCE have been carved into the cliffs- an amazing place, full of lush vegetation and babbling streams- both rare elsewhere in this otherwise parched island. I saw three species of large dragonfly, and several different varieties of lizard.
Driving in Sicily is tricky: the roads are narrow and tortuous in the mountains, and drivers are on the impatient side. Our car-hire contract had a 50 euro excess for damage, but we "spent" that in the first few miles when a truck nearly forced us off the road and I had to leap for cover against a stone bank. Funny thing, knowing I've already scratched it and lost my excess has actually made me relax a bit...
Tomorrow we go north to stay on the Aeolian island of Salina for 3 days: watch this space...
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