Malta/Sicily Day 9: Syracuse, Sicily

Monday, June 22, 2026

Today we explore the last Sicilian city of our tour: Siracusa (Syracuse). After breakfast, we boarded buses to go to the Archaeological Park, which includes some large ancient caves where prisoners toiled and were imprisoned. The park also includes both a Greek theatre and a Roman amphitheatre. We learned two significant differences between theatres and amphithitheatres: (1) theatres are generally not fully circular, but typically half-circles facing a central stage, while amphitheatres are generally circular. (2) theatres generally present plays and similar artistic events, while amphitheatres were often used for violent spectacles. We noted that Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View hasn’t been the site of anyone being thrown to the lions that we are aware of.

After our tour, we returned to the Sea Cloud II and had a few options. There was a walk to the market with Paolo, the cultural specialist on our cruise, but we were very warm from the previous tour and decided instead to go to a cooking demonstration of Pasta alla Puttanesca on the ship. It looked simple, but a good chef always make it look that way.

After lunch (the puttanesca was delicious), we took a walk with a local guide to Ortygia Duomo. This was yet another notable cathedral, in this case incorporating ancient Greek columns into parts of the building interior. Kenna and I then broke off and did our own exploration of Ortygia, an island connected by a couple of short bridges to Syracuse.

Syracuse is justifiably proud of its famous native son, Archimedes. A prominent statue of Archimedes stands near the bridge to Ortygia, and streets are named after him as well.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Malta and Sicily. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.