There are several distinct areas to Siracusa: Ortiga, the tiny island joined to the main island by a bridge, the modern and unintersting town and the archological area where we went today.
The main attraction on the site is the huge Greek theatre. Unlike the one we saw in Taormina this one is more complete and probably at leat 50% bigger. All the better for seating more locals for a good tragedy! It was pretty hot today so I am sure I wouldn’t have wanted to spend much time sat there under the blazing sun.
Also on the site was a second, older, amphitheatre much of the stone from which had been plundered for use elsewhere and the Ear of Dionysius. This is a huge limestone cave which has excellent acoutistcs. Apparently, if you are lucky, there will be a busker playing in the cave. Unfortunately for us we only had the company of shouting tourists.
This being Italy there are, of course, plenty of churches but none as architecturally interesting as the Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime which looks very much like a badminton shuttlecock. When you go inside the whole of the structure is exposed giving a wonderful view as you can see from the pictures below.
