A day of frustrations. We had an early breakfast & walked to the bus station to catch an 8am bus to Syracuse (Siracusa) & waited until a bus turned up at 8.45. d*** had misinterpreted instructions re bus times a couple of days before. It was an interesting ride and at one stage we passed a huge petrochemical complex which ran for several kms with a long set of breakwaters for the tankers etc.

We arrived in Syracuse in a very scruffy street but found our way down to the old part which is set on a peninsula & is truly spectacular. The city was an ancient Greek city taken over by the Carthaginians & then the Romans & it reminded us of Korcula in Croatia. Its cathedral in the main square has a typically Barque front but inside is relatively austere with the roof supported on giant recycled Greek pillars. At the other end of the square is a church with Caravaggio's last painting although unfortunately for us there was an ornate silver memorial casket of St Agatha in front of it which is paraded in the city. The streets & alleys are all full of amazing churches & palazzos of the families & Jane wore out the camera on it.

At the far end of the peninsula is a large fortress which ranges from the Norman until the 19th century but with a couple of beautiful medieval halls & 2 copies of Greek sculptures of rams made from 3D laser mapping of the originals.

After a coffee we left the peninsula & waited for a bus to the major Graeco Roman area but after about 45mins set out to walk there. This we did in about 50mins only to find it quite disappointing as the area is in a poor state of preservation. The theatre was being set up for some performances of Greek plays & the stage had a set on it but there were no descriptions in any language & we have seen much better examples in other places. Also in the complex was a large underground quarry which had caved in in the earthquake of 1694 & a Roman amphitheatre from the 200+ AD which was also in a very sad state.

After visiting a giant new conical church nearby, which was spectacular but rather sad as there was massive evidence of concrete cancer in parts of the roof, we decided to see some catacombs. This was by guided tour at 5pm, so although we saw the first part we missed out on the main event as we had to catch the last bus at 6pm down town. We rushed down to the bus stop in time only to find that it stopped at various places on the street we had been down to pick up people.

We had a great dinner at a local cafe back in Catania & went to bed exhausted after searching our luggage, unsuccessfully, for the 10 day rail passes. We will just have to pay our way across the rest of Italy!!!