Day 9 -Sunday November 2, 2025 - Siracusa

It’s Sunday morning and after a 7:30 breakfast, we were off at 9 am to see Neopolis.  

Since starting to travel, and staying in very nice hotels I thought I had enjoyed some wonderful breakfast buffets but today at this hotel, was the absolute best.  There was so much variety!  

He made sure they were all little pieces 

Neapolis Archaeological Park contains the most important remains of ancient Greek and Roman monuments from the 5th century BC.  There is a Greek theatre 5th century BC, and a Roman theatre which dates to the 2nd century AD.  This site holds the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

All of this was discovered when a quarry was excavated.  

The top of this rock shows where the ground was before excavation began at the quarry.

The remains of an ancient aqueduct 

The remains of the largest stone altar in the Greek world at that time.  

As we walked through this archaeological park, we learned that there had been a quarry there and all of the remains were found as the digging at the quarry took place.  

There is an ongoing outdoor art exhibition going on by the late Polish artist Igor Mitoraj.

This supposed to be Apollo and her twin, Apollo.

Stare at it and you’ll see it’s a face on its side

On the left hip is a square that looks cut out.  Look below

This is inside the square.

The Greek theatre was built in 5th century BC and held 12,000 - 14,000 spectators.  It was built from the quarry and remains today almost intact.  There the Greeks held productions and plays as well as gladiator games.  There were tunnels for the entrance of the animals.  It was also occasionally flooded for naval battle presentations. 

In the last section of the park, we came to the Roman amphitheater built in 2nd century AD.  This part of Sicily was settled first by the Greeks as they were overcrowded.  The Athenians tried to wage war and take over but never succeeded.  Centuries later, the Romans were successful in conquering this area for themselves.

We left the park and drove to Ortigia, an island connected by two bridges just east of Siracusa.  It will forever be associated with Greek mythology.    It was the place where Latona took refuge to escape the wrath of Hera, wife of Zeus, and where she gave birth to the sun god Apollo and the goddess of the hunt, Artemis.

We stopped, in town, at The Temple of Apollo which sits right in the middle of the city surrounded by restaurants and souvenir shops.

Walking across the bridge into Ortigia .  

The Temple of Apollo 

Back to our time and century.  Our tour ended and we were given about four hours of free time to wander.  We didn’t wander much.  In fact we wandered to a restaurant where we had lunch.   I ordered a pizza, and left half.  Wayne ate all of his.   Pizza crust here is unbelievable.   The flour used in Europe is so much better than the US.   You want to eat all of the crust.  

Wayne had to take a picture of his pizza before he ate it.  

My pizza. No tomato sauce.  Spinach, mozzarella and ricotta and a little sausage 

He finally got his beer!

Back on the bus and back to the hotel.  Dinner at 7 pm.  8,662 steps today.