Sicily suffers from poor maintenance, anywhere that is more than a few years old is scruffy and falling to bits. We think our roads are bad, here they are full of pot holes and weeds, the fast lane of the motorway has bushes from the central reservation encroaching on it! At times it feels like a third world country, not part of Europe.
This was even more evident today when we visited what is one of the top archiological sites in Italy, the ancient remains in Syracuse.
We got the feeling that the first section we visited (the Catacombs of San Giovanni Evangelista) was run by a private company, the guide who was not only beautiful was interesting and seemed keen, the lighting was good (it is underground), it was a good start to the day.
We then moved to the Archaeological Park, a separate ticket which covers all the other sites (hence our suspicion that this is the state run bit whilst the catacombs are private). The Roman amphitheatre and the Altar of Hieron were overgrown with weeds and half of the paths were closed off, there were very few display boards and one key area, the Grotto del Cordia, you could not get to at all.
All this in a site which attracts 300,000 tourists a year, if I were a Sicilian taking friends round I would be embarrassed.