Saturday 25th April 2026 Syracusa and Brucoli
Today we were off to Syracusa. Not only does it have an old town but also an archaeological park containing Greek and Roman ruins.
This was one of the towns on our list from 2024 but we didn’t manage to get there.
We were a bit concerned that this being a public holiday there wouldn’t be anywhere to park. I had pinned a parking area right in the heart by the marina 
. Well, we thought, we’ll try it and if not we’ll just have to take what we can find.
It was very, very busy as we entered the town and car parks were already filling up as we passed them. Arriving at our chosen spot, filing in with the rest of the hopeful traffic, we spotted a couple of motorhomes in a corner. Yahoo, eureka! There were just a couple of spots left where we could park overhanging the kerb.
While we were securing the van the place reached capacity. What luck! And wow, we were ready to go exploring and it was only 10.30am!
There were no signs indicating free ‘holiday’ parking so we paid on the app – 3 hours for €5 – a bargain for where we were.
Within minutes we were in amongst the throng. A Saturday market was in progress selling food, fresh and cooked, household wares, clothes and trinkets. The sound was lovely mixed with music coming from the bars and cafes. There was certainly a holiday feeling 
.
Right in the middle of all this is the ancient ruin of the Temple of Apollo, a big site cordoned off with low fencing for all to see.
In this area there are a lot of small stands selling you tourist information, guides and tuk tuk rides, but we had the GPSmyCity guide to follow, so declined their offers.
Everything is close together in Syracusa, and it’s fairly flat. The next stop was the fountain of Diana, not ancient but very pleasing on the eye.
This is another one of those ‘look up’ places. Everywhere we looked emitted a wow from us. Wandering down the little lanes – most of which are pedestrianised – we suddenly arrived in the main square, the Piazza del Duomo. And yes, it was wow, wow, wow!
To soak it all in we stopped for a coffee. How lucky, this cafe made iced cappuccino 
, 2 were ordered. Earlier we had passed a cake shop advertising Cannoli – a speciality of Sicily – we could resist no longer and one to share was ordered with the coffee.
A Cannoli consists of fried pastry dough shaped into a tube and filled with different flavours of cream and ricotta cheese.
Gareth has a soft spot for pistachio so ours was coated in pistachio crumb filled with plain, slightly sweetened ricotta. Yum yum, the coffee wasn’t bad either 
.
This square houses the most beautiful buildings of Syracusa, including the Cathedral. For visitor entertainment a busker was playing his accordion, adding to the calm atmosphere.
I took a little video to hopefully capture it.
Walking on, through the lanes we came out to the sea and a plaza, busy with visitors. This led us along the seafront past trendy wine bars and restaurants to the Castle at the tip of Ortigia – the local name for the old town. We didn’t go in though you could for €8 each.
We took Via Roma on our way back, a part pedestrianised lane with some chintzy fronted eateries, shops and decorated balconies.
Syracusa is a delight to visit and we were pleased we finally made it.
Back to the van where cars were circling for free spaces. It’s funny here. A car stopped us as we were walking through, we said yes, we are going, so a passenger got out of the car, followed us and told all other car drivers this space was hers 
, definitely would not be acceptable in the UK!
As we had a lot of time before the FA cup game we thought we’d go to the Archaeological Park and spend a few hours there instead of waiting until tomorrow as planned.
It was only 5 minutes drive. Parking is in a private field where you can pay €10 for the day or €25 overnight. We opted for just the day.
Keeping in mind we had already trundled around the old town, we were a bit unhappy that when we got to the gates of the park, we realised that we had to walk all the way through to the other side for a ticket. All 3 of us were a little knackered by then but, on the plus side, when we finally got there, it was free entry due to the public holiday. Winner winner, a saving of €14 each!
The park is in 2 parts, Roman one side, Greek on the other. The main site we were interested in was the Greek Amphitheatre so decided to head there first.
Well, sadly, it wasn’t as magnificent as the photos and model displayed at the entrance proported. This was mainly due to the tiered seating being covered in planking. The centre was set up for a show, past or to come and accompanying spotlights were dotted around.
There was one small part of the seating still visible. What a disappointment, though of course we couldn’t complain because we hadn’t actually paid to enter.
I’m afraid to say this made us a little negative. Up above this are some caves that were used as burial sites, part of which was blocked off. One of them has a spring running into a waterfall which was a welcome sound in the warmth of the day.
We weren’t in the mood to go and find the entrance to the Roman side of the Park so just returned to the van. I think we have seen so many great ancient ruins that we have set the bar quite high!
Anyway, we needed to find somewhere to stop so that we could watch the game, and settled on another fishing village just outside Augusta – a heavily industrialised area rammed with oil refineries.
Brucoli is in a bay, with the ugliness of Augusta hidden from view. There is a huge grass car park on the edge of the village where they allow you to park. There were other campers there when we arrived, so felt quite secure that it was ok to stop.
After setting up, making sure we could get the football on the telly, we relaxed for a bit. All of a sudden Gareth realised that Mount Etna – which we had been spying in the foreground enroute – was right in front of us! What an amazing view we had. You can clearly see the snow on the sides of this graceful sleepy volcano along with the smokey trail coming from her mouth.
Gareth took a great pic at sunset .
Well, the football was great even if my team didn’t win, they did themselves proud, we had a salmon salad during halftime and then a quiet night watching as the car park filled and emptied with visitors to the village for Liberation celebrations. Thankfully there were no fireworks.
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