After breakfast we walked back to the car park through the old Jewish quarter (even narrower streets and alleys) and then drove off in increasing rain to see more ruins.  Back across the bridge, the Neapolis area is the site of the ancient city’s social and religious functions, people did not live there.  After a short search for parking (we wish our Italian were better so we could figure this out better), we enter the Parco Archeologico where the first stop is a Roman amphitheater.  Actually, this might usually be the last stop, but with a busload of students entering the front of the site just ahead of us, we figured taking a detour to allow them to clear out (more likely, to wimp out in the rain) was in order.  In fact, it was raining hard enough that we actually put our rain pants on for the first time on this trip.

The strategy worked, the Roman amphitheater was fascinating and again, all ours except for a single soggy fellow we passed as we were leaving it (Craig kindly volunteered to take a photo of him with the ruins in the background and he offered to return the favor, but we declined, hoping to keep the camera dry).  Dating from the 3d century A.D., it was the largest in Sicily.  You can still see the passages where the gladiators and animals entered the arena.  Just past this ruin was a huge sacrificial altar, dating from the 3d century B.C. where up to 450 bulls were slaughtered at a time (no word here as to whether a barbecue ensued).  Like the Roman amphitheater, most of the giant stone blocks of this structure were removed in the 16^th century A.D. to construct fortifications on Ortygia.

The highlight ruin at this site is the Greek amphitheater, and we headed there next.  Again, our plan worked and there was hardly anyone there.  Also, the rain lessened, although we still needed our umbrellas.  Built in the 5^th century B.C., the amphitheater was situated so that its occupants could look out over Ortygia to the sea.  It seated up to 16,000 people (presumably some had to settle for Uecker seats).  Back in the day, Siracusa was a hot center of Greek culture and several of the famous Greek playwrights had plays performed here, including Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles.  Classical plays are still performed here in the summer, and Phyllis wishes she could have attended one.  Along the terrace around the top of the amphitheater are a number of artificial caves and niches, which served to shelter us a bit from the rain.  One, the Cave of the Nymph, has a stream still channeled through it and was the official headquarters of the actors’ guild.

Next to the Greek amphitheater is a quarry that was used in ancient times to obtain limestone for all the temples and monuments, and also as a prison for those defeated in battle who were forced to work in the quarry.  First Carthaginians were imprisoned here after their rout by the combined Sicilian Greek forces in 480 B.C., and then 7,000 Athenians after their invading force was defeated by Siracusa in 413 B.C.  Today there is lush vegetation inside the quarry, including orange and olive trees, apparently planted for stabilization purposes, and it is a pleasant place to walk.  There are several caves of interest in the bottom, such as the Ropemakers’ Cave where rope makers spent their entire lives in the humid environment that helped in hemp rope production, and the Ear of Dionysus, so-called due to its ear-like shape but apparently the shape is just a coincidence of excavation.  Its acoustics are amazing though.

As we left the site, the rain had mostly stopped and busloads of people were arriving.  Our timing was perfect!  We were next headed to the Museo Archeologico, and as it was six or so blocks away and again pouring rain we decided to take the car and park in the parking lot that the museum would surely have.  Wrong again.  We drove around for about 20 minutes, never saw a spot, and ended up back in our original space.  Anyway, once inside the museum we could hear the rain pounding the museum roof as we spent almost two hours, hoping it would abate.  It didn’t.  But the museum was a welcome shelter, and it has Sicily’s largest collection of artifacts, over 18,000.  One can only look at so many Greek urns at a time, but this museum had quite a bit of sculpture too, both Greek and Roman.  However, we wanted to get on to our next destination well before dark, so had to brave the rain again to get back to the car.  Our lunch on the road consisted of a Coke and potato sticks, as it was, yes, between one and four and nothing was open for food.  We don’t know which is more aggravating, the fact that they close like this or that we cannot seem to adjust our timing to it.

Noto, this evening’s destination, is famous for gelato and granite (fruit-flavored finely crushed ice, somewhat like a Sno-Cone or Hawaiian shave ice in a glass), and we intended to sample both from dueling shops, with lofty reputations, on the main corso.  Unfortunately, both seemed to be still closed for the season, so we had to settle for a real meal.  Noto also has a beautifully baroque series of churches and palaces on the corso, which were especially appealing at night with, once again, no one else about.  All the buildings date from the 17^th century, because Noto, like most other cities in this part of southeast Sicily, was leveled by a monster earthquake in 1693.  The folks who rebuilt Noto went about it seriously and created a beautiful new city center.