Syracuse. What a famous name.
Once the equal of Athens in population, prestige and power.
There must be some lesson here in how the great fall. Syracuse today is a medium sized/small city on the coast of Sicily.
An island juts into the sea with a fine natural harbor. The island, Ortygia. was surely settled when the Greeks came here 2700 years ago. But many also settled against these limestone cliffs just inland.
Building in the valleys and boring into the cliffs themselves.
Later the settlement spread across the adjacent high limestone plateau.
They carved the altar for the temple directly out of the stone.
And best of all the grand theater.
Interestingly there is a lot of water running through fissures in the limestone. Here, at the very top of the theater one of the springs still flows robustly.
There was also a Roman city here for centuries, but there are few remains. In the 1200’s the stones were mined to build fortifications for the city. And so ancient Syracuse is gone. Except for the rock.
The island of Ortygia is interesting, but very small. It has a few ancient places, like the temple of Apollo.
It has some historic sites and plenty of Baroque buildings dating from the rebuilding after the great Mount Etna eruption in the 1600’s.
And some medieval areas that look like Siena might have before it became beautiful.
I stayed in a grand old hotel dating from 1862, which some of my friends found interesting, and so I include a few pictures here.
Honoring Genius
Sometimes I think about how we humans throughout history have on rare occasions produced super intelligent children, only to have them die quickly from war or disease or starvation. Or to live in some remote place only to do superior craft work and think a lot about things.
But every once in a great while one is in the right place and time to give us a giant boost in our knowledge and subsequently our prosperity.
Newton
Leonardo
Einstein
Tesla
Mendeleev
And perhaps the greatest of them all: Archimedes.
I leave it to you to read about all of his work. But I will say: He worked with exponents, derived square roots. Told us the formula for simple geometric figures: circles, the surface and volume of a sphere, a cylinder. Sections of parabolas. Used a system anticipating the invention of calculus to quantify key numbers with great accuracy. Improved simple tools such as the compound pulley. And on and on. Some even say he built a model of the sun, earth and moon that rotated correctly using differential gearing.
I spent a lot of time trying to find his tomb to pay my homage. Cicero came here for the same reason. He reported that he did find the tomb and that it was adorned with the sphere and the cylinder just as Archimedes had requested. But that was a long time ago.
Here I am within 50 meters of it, but the area is no longer open for visiting. Maybe here. Or here. A disappointment.
Anyway, a BIG FISH STORY.
I am only eating one meal today and it was lunch. Here is my little story.
For two days at lunch I sat at the plastic table-clothed tables down in the fish market.
This was not really a hardship. They grill vegetables, sausages and whole fish on charcoal.
And since they have been doing it for thousands of years I thought I could learn some things. Such as, they salt the peppers heavily and repeatedly and burn them black but when they come to the table they are not salty, but sweet and delicious.
On the third day, just for the absolute hell of it I took the head waiter across the square and we bought a giant fish. It had to be marched back across the square for the chef to decide if it would fit on the grill. This is not a grand procession. This is a fish market and the characters are dressed in sweatshirts.
After the chef blesses the fish we go back for it to be cleaned. They ask a ridiculous price which I immediately agree to. I can see from their eyes that they think that I am a silly tourist who does not know how to bargain. But they do not know that I will never be in this time and place again and that my time is now.
Usually they cut three cuts across the thickest part of the fish. On each side. To the bone. For this guy they also cut a long cut down the backbone.
On the grill they salt heavily and then as the fish cooks they nurse the cuts with olive oil. Near the end of the cooking they have a pan of oil, lemon, vinegar and they apply this to the fish with a brush made of oregano sprigs.
The fish reaches the plate totally charcoal black, but absolutely delicious.
Various passerbyers commented as the fish was on the grill and later the plate. They seemed to enjoy the spectacle. The fish was great.