Syracuse

We arrived in Syracuse on the island of Sicily (Italy) after a very rough ride from Otrano Italy on August 29th. We anchored in the big protected bay (N37°03.573' E015°16.910') not far off the city and with the Old Town in plain sight.

Going ashore, our first walkabout was of course the Old Town which is actually an island called Ortigia and is connected to the mainland of Sicily by 2 short 1-way bridges. We thought it to be typical of previous old towns of which we have now seen scores of, but still they all have their unique charm.

There was the impressive fountain in the center of the roundabout with the ubiquitous cafes around the square. A great place for pastry and an Americano, Jordan's usual or, my favourite, an ice coffee, while people watching.

Fountain of Diana

Continuing the stroll through the narrow alleys, we came to the elaborate grand open Piazza Duoma surrounded with decorative architecture and the Cathedral of Syracuse with its elaborate baroque facade and ancient columns, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005.

Cathedral of Syracuse

And of course the historic Venetian buildings in Old Town Ortigia.

Balconied buildings

We visited the Museum of Leonardo Da Vinci and Archimede. Interesting to discover that Da Vinci, besides being the famous painter, made detailed sketches and designs in a multitude of subjects well ahead of eventual modern applications of which included such things as the workings of gears, airplane wings, the drill, human anatomy, etc. Apparently he was inspired by Archimedes who lived centuries before in Syracuse. The interactive Museum displayed these sketches and working examples.

Samples and sketches (copied from internet)

We decided it was necessary to order a new dinghy as our old one kept leaking air even after several repair jobs. The chandlery gave us a deal on a new RIB they were able to locate only 3 delivery days away. We took the time to do a few boat jobs and make our daily visit to sidewalk cafes and even an excursion to the beautiful town of Noto (more about it below).

Boat jobs included repairing the broken running backstay, plumbing in a shower on the aft deck making our portable solar shower redundant, sewing a flag for Spain - our next country stop, and sewing new pillowcases and storage cases to match our new bedspread.

Wandering around Syracuse, many of the Venetian-style buildings were a bit run down, needing paint and/or repairs. Compared to other towns, the streets seemed to be littered with rubbish even though there are numerous trash bins about! Sadly, this displays an overall untidy appearance of a touristy town.

Old-style architecture

An odd modern structure that garnered a lot of controversy is the massive and conical concrete basilica that towers above all other buildings. This juxtaposed tower in an otherwise Venetian-style city pays homage to a bas-relief of a so-called "weeping Madonna" and is supposedly built in the shape of a tear.

New-style architecture

It was interesting to find that very few here spoke English and most menus were only in Italian. This of course made eating and purchasing items more adventurous. We thought it unusual that English was more prevalent in Croatian than Italy.

When our new dinghy arrived, we had to transport it to the water. So we got our trusty collapsible dolly, which no cruising sailor should be without, and walked it from the chandlery to a back alley boat lot for assembly and launch. We decided to forego the champagne as too hard to break on pvc!

From retailer to water

Pumping it up

Then, what to do with the old? It wasn't all that bad other than having to do a quick top-up pump each or every other day. It was 6 years old and we didn't want the worry of more seam leaks but it still had a use for someone. Jordan met Tom, a retired Brit living on his large power boat in a marina who was dinghy-less and so he said he would gladly accept our donation (which included a pump).

Tom, a friendly spirited and talkative man, with his favourite straw hat, invited us to go with him in his car to the hillside town of Noto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 40 km away. It is distinguished for its fine example of baroque architecture of golden sandstone. On the way back we got a tour of Tom's art studio at Cassibile where he had a number of projects on the go.

Entry arch to Noto

Samples of Noto's baroque architecture

When we got a favourable forecast, we decided it was time to make a run to Mallorca Spain with a day or 2 stop-over at the south end of Sardinia, the latter being about a 3-day passage. After a quick basic provisioning and fuel top-up, we made our escape leaving at 16:00 on September 8th.