Syracuse or Siracusa in Sicily. Port Guide and into Ortygia.

welcome to sicily land of the godfather we've docked in syracuse and the tuk-tuks are here waiting to take you on a tour if you turn right out of the pool just along is the hop-on hop-off bus if you fancy a ride on a bicycle made for two there are plenty available and they're electrically assisted it's just a short stroll across the bridge it's very pretty the most ancient historic temple in western greece dates back to the 6th century bc and was built for apollo and just behind it is a market [Music] the market closes at 2 so get your shopping done early [Music] the market currently surrounds the building that it used to be in that building is currently being renovated in the middle of the square is this beautiful fountain for artemis or diana in english in the corner of the square you'll see the sign for the cathedral there are churches everywhere and some you might never find if you haven't walked down the alleyway this one is the church of santa maria [Music] very clever idea in sicily they know the grandparents are coming and they can embroider your name on anything so you can take it home personalized gift wow 50 years old that's amazing that's older than my machine and i can't do anything like that on it yeah that's not a computer [Music] the cathedral was built on top of the temple of athena using the original doric columns this is the cathedral of santa lucia st lucia is the only woman who has ever had a country named after her and this was originally a temple to athena the cathedral is the core of syracusa this structure was built on the greek doric temple of athena hello two tickets please which was itself built on older pre-hellenic remains it has been a religious site for a long time which is the reason it was included as a unesco world heritage site in 2005. their reasons for including siricosa included the monuments and archaeological sites situated in syracusa are the finest example of outstanding architectural creation spanning greek roman and baroque there are many artifacts in the siricosa archaeological museum jean will show you where that is at the end of the film plato and athenaeus mentioned the temple and the temple was converted into a mosque in 878 then converted back when norman roger the first of sicily retook the city in 1085. after the 1693 earthquake when part of the cathedral had to be rebuilt some of it including the facade was changed since 2015 the cathedral has held a number of relics of saint lucy the patroness of the city although her actual church the baroque style roman catholic church santa lucia alabadia and the female benedictine monastery built at the corner of the square at the site where lucy was forced into prostitution has now been deconsecrated gene will show us that before we move away from the square there are six columns on the short sides and 14 on the long sides the silver casket there has the humerus of the left arm of st lucia inside this municipal building there are excavations and a carriage it's right next to the cathedral [Music] the duomo square is a must see here and behind me is the church of st lucia the place is buzzing we just had a couple of beers in the square and we walked down to the harbour and now we can see the castle and peter iii lived there it dates back to the 13th century the costello mariachi was surrounded on three sides by the sea and the other side would have been a moat and it looks like they have concerts here now even though it's closed on a monday you can still get right up close you can come into the grounds and inside it probably looks like well a castle there's a lovely little sunbathing spot there and a jetty that you can jump off and do some snorkeling we're heading back towards the ship now but actually we're going to go straight past it into the mainland and pick up a couple of things that we missed syracuse is a delight you can either turn right cross the bridge into autosia or you can turn left walk through this shady park and find the pantheon [Music] just behind the cathedral is the archaeological park it's literally a stone's throw [Music] sadly on a monday the archaeological museum is closed so we can only show you the outside we've arrived at papa's it's a tender port where the castle is right near where the tender stops you can really imagine the layout how it was these pillars they've uncovered just really give the atmosphere the greek atmosphere you can either turn left and go to the beach down by the archaeological site or you can turn right and it's quite a long walk but there are nice beaches at the other end of the bay so the drawbridge we have the original castle was destroyed in the earthquake and it was rebuilt in the 13th century in the port so two chairs and a parasol will cost you 50 eastern caribbean dollars which is about 15 pounds this bar is called castaway we're going to have an indian meal they've got sport tv and wi-fi so the taxi here cost other cruisers 30 us dollars it cost us four so the food was free are the legendary walls from troy six and if helen did exist she would have existed within these walls at that time in the early excavations they basically cut a trench through the hill and they were looking for gold and stones and what they did was destroyed what was here remember the old gag how many people can you fit in the mini well how many people do you think you can fit in there this was in the film starring brad pitt and eric banner called troy we're in stockholm and we're going to take you back to the 70s the abba museum is over there behind the tivoli fun fair in 1628 basta set sail on her maiden voyage and here it is in all its glory and then it sank in stockholm harbor [Music] doris visits we've got films of trips and excursions it will make the trip so much easier and much more enjoyable [Music] you