Ruins of Siracusa's famed Greek theatre. (Photo by Barbara Bagnell)

SIRACUSA, Sicily -- Siracusa, an ancient city on the southern, sunny shore of Sicily, is small, but its past is so profound that the very streets and stones whisper of epic battles and cultural events that formed the world's history. It even includes the ruin of the largest Greek theatre of its kind in the entire world.

The Greeks founded Siracusa in the 8th century. For a time, it became known as the world's most powerful city -- on a par with today's London or New York.

During its history, numerous cultures came and went, Roman, Arabic, Norman, so that in the "old city" -- an island district called Ortygia -- you stroll streets whose walls, could they speak, recall a past as turbulent and varied as any city in Europe.

As I stood on the third floor terrace of the apartment my wife Barbara and I rented, looking out over a peaceful and shining Ionian Sea, I realized that in the 5th century, it was the scene of perhaps the most grandiose and vicious naval battle in all history. During that battle, Romans defeated marauding Athenians, took many prisoners and allowed them to die from starvation

Our apartment, just above the ocean, was in a single three-storey building with a large, full kitchen on the first level, a living room on the second, and a spacious bedroom and wide terrace on the third. It had been built in the early 1800s, and fully restored along modern lines in 2001.

The man who now owns it, Patrice Boux, (www.casedelsole.it) has a variety of apartments all over Siracusa, renting them quite reasonably -- ours cost less than 400 Euros (about $600) for the week. I spent part of each morning at a table on the comfortable second floor, working on a book, but the rest of the time we explored all that Siracusa is and has been.

The historic centre, Ortygia, which is less than a kilometre wide is made for walking. Many of its streets are simply too narrow for cars.

Our own street, Lungomare Elio Vittorini, ran beside the sea, and along it, there's a wide stone walkway on which we strolled, taking in endless and marvellous sea views to one side and the tiled roofs of the timeless town to the other.

Other days we made our way from one border of the old city to the other, pausing for a gelato or a slice of foccaccia in one of several shady piazzas, or dropping in to see one of the many sparkling bed and breakfasts owned by local families who welcome a slowly growing number of visitors.

"Most of our visitors have been German," Loredana Albani, a vivacious woman who has lived all her life in Ortygia told me, "But we hope to have more North Americans."

Local cruise

The market, with small stores and open stalls, was just a five-minute walk away. It sold all we needed -- meat, fish, vegetables -- to prepare dinner, which we enjoyed either in the ground floor kitchen or often on the third floor terrace as the sun fell over the horizon and the lights of fishing boats flickered on distant waters.

We made time to take a local cruise on which you can see the scope and fine line of the ancient city from its harbour, and with helpful explanation by Captain Giuseppe Castagnino, a local man who was once an oil tanker captain sailing out of Canada.

The most famous place in Siracusa is just a short bus ride across the small bridge, Ponto Nuovo, and through modern Siracusa to a sunwashed hill, where one of Europe's most legendary sites, The Greek Theatre, still stands. It was built in the 5th century, the era of Siracusa's glory. The stone stage, still used for classical plays, is the one where the incomparable works of Sophocles and Euripides were watched by people who crammed its 15,000 seats. It's renowned as the finest example in existence of such ancient architecture.

But the most beautiful corner of Siracusa, is Piazza Duomo, where the fine cathedral sits, which, fittingly enough, includes pillars of a former Greek temple. Our visit became a vivid memory. A concert was to be given in the cathedral by a visiting choir, England's award-winning Hertfordshire Chorus. It was a pleasure, but the memorable moment actually preceded the concert, when a wedding couple emerged. They stood on the steps, and the choir turned and sang to them -- the well-known Ave Verum, Mozart's last composition.

Everyone fell silent -- the couple on the steps, the children on the bikes, the rest of us at the cafe tables, all touched by a graceful moment, one suited to an evening in Sicily.

If you go:

GETTING THERE: We flew British Airways to Malta and after a week's stay there took a 45-minute flight on Air Malta to Catania about an hour by bus from Siracusa.

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ACCOMMODATIONS: For information on apartments rented by Patrice Boux, visit his Web site at www.casedelsole.it. For information on other accommodations, including the city's 28 B & Bs, contact Siracusa Tourism at aatsr@flashcomit.

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MISCELLANY: For information on the touring Hertfordshire Chorus check their Web at www.hertfordshirechorus.org.uk.