If you are ever at a loss of what to do in southern Sicily then consider mass graves, the area is peppered with them — Buy your tickets here. 😄
We visited the Trabacche Cave in our first week which isn’t the most interesting but free and a nice walk in the countryside. It’s about 1500 years old and an old Christian burial site. At the entrance you will find a pile of rubbish was is typical of lots of the countryside and some of the beaches.
I don’t know why this is the case. I thought maybe it was due to the immigrant crisis but then I realised I have no evidence for that, so that’s just being a tad racist; I’m back to just blaming the Italians — Is blaming the Italians less racist than immigrants? 🤔
Another fun fact is the number of “stray dogs”: I don’t know if they are stray but there are tons roaming the streets with no owners. Most don’t look in bad conditions, so I would like to think they go home each night to a roaring fire and doggy treats, but that is probably Disney thinking since we once found a bin full of kitten’s in Palermo — Horror Aristocats.
The next week we found the same theme traveling to Siracusa: Dogs and Rubbish. To be fair, we were planning on going to see 2000 year old rubbish made out of marble so maybe the plastic stuff will be a tourist attraction in a few years.
We looked at going to the ancient Greek Amphitheatre and the Ear of Dionysius but it cost 25 euro each. We did plan to go in but the reviews were rubbish and we saw it in Indiana Jones so that was good enough.
We walked towards the old town taking in one of the strangest churches I have ever seen in “Our Lady of the Tears.”
There isn’t much to the surrounding area and parts do look a bit deprived. We found quite a few people who looked like they lived on the street which you could easily miss if you just keep to the the old town near the harbour.
Traveling over the river to the old town, towards the Syracuse Cathedral, the tourist factor is turned to 11. You can almost smell the fresh paint as more and more spoken English creeps in.
We stopped for a spot of lunch and did some people people watching before going in.
I don’t know why but the ticket office was not collecting money so we got in for free — Do you see a recurring theme for this trip yet?
There was the standard art on the walls and some less standard.
I loved the ancient columns in the church, which were older than the birth of christ.
After that we walked round the waterfront to see the waves crashing against the rocks. I had noticed it before but the Italians love to put their flag everywhere; we do this as well but not to the same extent.
After so much culture I was on driving duty so Anna indulged on the way back to the car.
