Tuesday, 17 October 2017
Here we are at the Ear of Dionysius, named as such by Caravaggio when he was on the run in Sicily towards the end of his life around 1608. But I think it looks more like Spock’s ear. It is a limestone cave carved out of the hills, originally dug as a water storage for Syracuse.
”Friends, Romans, Syracusians, lend me your ear!”
The ancient Greek theatre of Syracuse lies on the south slopes of the Temenite hill, overlooking the modern city of Syracuse, built in the 5th century BCE.
The Grotta del Ninfeo in the same complex.
No time for Noto (unfortunately). We spent about an hour in this really lovely town. Will definitely spend more time there in future visits.
Our reflection in the gallery of mirrors.
Even though we knew Noto was one of the famous baroque towns in Sicily, it exceeded our expectations as to how grand it was because on the map it looks like just a small town. It seems to have had major trading connections during the baroque period that made it a really wealthy, thus able to adorn their city with such beautiful buildings.
After a quick look around Noto, we were onto our next appointment at the winery Zisola, which we had organised before leaving Melbourne. Located just outside the town of Noto, main grape variety grown here is Nero D’Avola. Our host Andrea was fantastic, showed us around the gorgeous property and then a fantastic wine tasting.
