Two Hours in Zurich, Switzerland

Our return flight by Swiss Air from Florence to Singapore on 26 May 2018 has a transit stopover in Zurich. Soon after our flight landed at Zurich International Airport at about 3.30pm, we decided to spend a couple of hours in Zurich city before resuming our flight back to Singapore. We took the train straight from the airport to the main train station in Zurich.

Zurich knows how to promote the city. Upon arrival at the airport, visitors are greeted by their national tennis icon, Roger Federer in "person".

With limited time, we could only do a walking tour around the old city from the main train station. The city, as least the part we visited is cyclists and pedestrian friendly. We only saw public transport and very minimal private vehicles plying the road.

Fraumunster Church

Left: A typical lane in old City.

Right: Grossmunster 

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Our tour ended with wine and pizza at a roadside restaurant. The pizza is thin and crispy and topped with truffle. While enjoying the passerby and ambiance, we were also entertained by a group of buskers.

Siracusa's Gladiators

A good way to explore Siracusa is to get into one of the many hop-on-hop-off buses plying the designated routes in this city. We did just that on 25 May 2018. We took a long break after stopping at the station, Teatro Greco to visit the Greek Theatre of Siracusa. This is part of the larger Neapolis Archaeological Park. Originally built in the 5th century BC, rebuilt in the 3rd century BC and renovated again during the Roman era, it was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 2005.

Built over 2,600 years ago, this theatre is one of the largest then, with outer diameter of close to 140m (460ft). With simple tools and equipment, it takes a lot of imagination to appreciate the ingenuity and creativity of those yesteryears engineers and builders to set such perfect geometry!

A google view of the Greek Theatre.

The open air theatre has also undergone retrofitting to protect against weathering degradation and for the comfort of spectators. This theatre since 1914 has served as the venue for the annual performance of Classical Play held during the months of May and June. 

Work being carried out on stage during the time of our visit.

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We overheard from a tourist guide telling some visitors that holes left behind in some of these carved out cubicles were anchor holes once used to fasten chains to hold up prisoners or slaves. Were they gladiators?

Archaeologists however upon examining the theatre lowest row of seats concluded that in the absence of any sign of a protective wall to protect spectators from animal attack during gladiatorial fights, this arena was unlikely used for gladiatorial fight. This bloody fight is noted to have been held in the nearby Roman Amphitheatre.

Holes in small cubicles.

Water brought to the top of the theatre by ancient aqueduct is still visible.

A huge cave called Ear of Dionysius in 

Neapolis Archaeological Park.

Additive Fried Seafood in Siracusa

Anyone who has studied physics would be familiar with the Archimedes' Principle. But few realize that Archimedes was born in Syracuse in Sicily. I for one only came to know this fact when I finally set foot on Syracuse or Siracusa on 24 May 2018. Though tucked in an inconspicuous small lane called Via Vincenzo Mirabella, we managed to find our way to the "Museum of Leonardo da Vinci & Archimedes Siracusa" and spent some time browsing through the items on display.

In the end, it was not Archimedes that preeminently captured my attention in Siracusa. It was rather the seafood in a small restaurant that we unintentionally found as we strolled along the myriad of crisscrossing small lanes that mesmerized us. We were fast addicted to the paper wrapped takeaway fried seafood bought from an outlet. We loved it so much that in the evening, we took another walk all the way back from our accommodation to the outlet for a second helping. Unfortunately the outlet, Ortigia Fish Bar was closed by then.

Markets in Italy

One of the best ways to understand the culture and eating habits of the locals is to visit their markets. Food they eat has always been an integral part of their culture. A casual walk in the markets is to experience the lives of the local inhabitants Within the neighborhood, you have  a chance to smell what they smell, see the clutters, listen to the haggling, quarrel and sighs and most of all eat what they eat.

Mercato di Rialto (Rialto Seafood Market), Venice.

This is one of the hugely popular and highly recommended place for a visit. We chose to walk from the Venice Train Station to this destination along the alleyway alongside the canal which is a longer route to avoid getting lost had we chose the shorter route. The shorter route zigzags through the labyrinth of alleyways. We ended spending longer than our scheduled 20 minutes duration because of distractions along the way. 

So by the time we reached this market past noon and closed to 1.00pm, the Neo-Gothic market halls were already closed. We were in fact uncertain whether it was closed because it was a non-business day or it was the end of the trading day. Outside the halls, the fish loading areas were all cleaned up, containers stacked leaving only a couple of vegetables and fruits stores still opened for business.

Neo-Gothic Halls at the right.

Catania Fish Market

This is a market dedicated to seafood - typical of the chaotic, noisy wet market. Besides seafood, there are many canopy-covered stores selling vegetables, fruits, spices, condiments, cheese and butter.

Our dinner for the night was chilli mussels purchased from this store.

We bought and tasted for the first time the
roasted onions and eggplants .

Mercato, Ortigia

This market or simply being referred to as Mercato in Italian overlooks the Ionian Sea. It is just two streets behind the place where we stayed. The stuff sold in this street market is similar to the Fish Market we visited in Catania but at a much smaller scale and in a cleaner environment.