Siracusa, Sicily

For its size, there are more ancient items of interest in Siracusa, than we can remember in other cities. Echoes of its grandeur are everywhere. Colonized by the Greeks in 734 BC, the largest city of antiquity, Siracusa boasted half a million inhabitants, surrounded by a fourteen mile city wall, at a time when Rome was little more than a village.

In 287 BC, while taking a bath, Archimedes, the greatest mathematician of ancient times, discovered that “… any body immersed in water loses weight equivalent to that of the water it displaces.” He then ran naked through the streets crying, “Eureka,” or “I have found it.” Whoops, they didn’t remember to keep the bath tub or the bath water as a tourist attraction.

The Cittá Vecchia (Old Town) is on an island called Ortygia, connected to the newer areas of Siracusa by a causeway. The streets of Ortygia are lined with mediaeval palaces, oratories (places for prayer), and many of the buildings have wrought iron balconies bright with flowers. We found our stroll on this island to be mesmerizing. It reminded us so much of Ville Close (Walled Town), a small pork chop shaped island a few steps from Concarneau in Brittany, France.

In the Zona Archeologica in the northwest part of the city of Siracusa, the Greek theater is one of the largest (440 feet across) and best preserved theaters from ancient times. A short walk from the theater, the Roman Amphitheater was hewn out of rock in the 100s AD. Now overgrown with grass and umbrella pines, it was once the scene of combat between gladiators and wild animals.

Nearby, a cave with an entrance (118 feet high, 75 feet wide) shaped like an earlobe, is famous for its echo. It is called the Orecchio di Dionisio (Ear of Denys), named for the Tyrant Denys. Even now the acoustical effects are extraordinary — a sheet of paper torn in two, produces an echo like a gunshot. It has been reported that Denys (a Greek dictator) used it as a prison. Every word spoken by the prisoners could be overheard, because of the unique acoustics of this small cave.

Rattling around in the remote recesses of my brain is an impression of something else of great fascination in Zona Archeologica. But for the life of me, I can’t recall what that might have been, and that page in Emmy’s diary is “blank.”