BEST OF JOURNEY: Travel to Italy. EAR OF DIONYSIUS

It's hard to think of a more fitting name for this cave.

First, the entrance is indeed reminiscent of the shape of the human ear. And secondly, in the grotto has excellent acoustics, so that the word spoken in a whisper in one part of the cave, then loud echo is heard in the other.

For this reason, it's rarely quiet with many tourists keep check on the unique sound capabilities of the Ear of Dionysius.

It is believed that the name of the cave gave Caravaggio, the famous painter, who worked in the Baroque style. He circulated the legend that the Syracuse tyrant Dionysius, who lived in the IV century BC, kept in the grotto of his political opponents, listening to them talk about the heavy fraction and then brutally punished.

The amazing acoustic properties of the cave is often explained by its unusual shape in the form of the letter S. the Height of the Ear of Dionysius at about 23 m, length — 65 m, and the ceiling of the narrow upward, forming a lumen in the form of drops. It is widely believed that the cave was formed in ancient times under the action of water erosion that formed the cavity in the soft limestone.

The plane from Rome to Palermo — from 40 € one way;

then the bus to Syracuse is about 15 €, 4 h.