Siracusa and the southeast

Siracusa

North of Siracusa

Pantalica

Palazzolo Acreide

Noto

South of Noto

Ispica and the Cava d’Ispica

Sicily’s southeast has always ranked among the island’s most alluring regions, and in Siracusa it boasts a city whose long and glorious history outshines all others on the island. Indeed, Siracusa was once the most important city in the Western world, though with most business activity located elsewhere and all political power centred on Palermo, its status today is as a provincial capital. Yet it remains the most interesting destination in this part of the island, charged with historical resonance, and a useful base for visiting many other regional highlights, few more than 45 minutes’ drive from the city.

Inland, the southeast is characterized by the rough and wild Monti Iblei, riven by spectacular ravines, or cave, which are riddled with rock-cut tombs that prove occupation of the area as far back as the thirteenth century BC. The most famous is Pantalica, northwest of Siracusa, Sicily’s greatest necropolis, while at the Cava Grande del Fiume Cassibile, near Avola, you can peer into the distant depths of Sicily’s own “Grand Canyon”. Greek colonists later appropriated many early Neolithic sites, founding towns at Megara Hyblaea, on the coast north of Siracusa near Augusta, and inland at Akrai, just outside the attractive small town of Palazzolo Acreide. Several other much smaller archeological sites lie strung along the coast, often set beside otherwise unsung sandy beaches.

However dramatic the natural scenery, it’s the built environment that most defines the southeast. Earthquakes have repeatedly afflicted the area, none so destructive as that of January 11, 1693, which devastated the entire region. This catastrophe did, however, have one lasting effect: where there were ruins, a confident new generation of architects raised planned towns, displaying a noble but vivacious Baroque style that endures today. Noto and Ragusa Ibla have some of the most spectacular Baroque cityscapes, though nearby Modica and Scicli hold Baroque centres of varying refinement. Local authorities have slowly awoken to the tourist potential hereabouts: the southeast holds more B&Bs than any other region of Sicily, many housed in restored Baroque mansions, while tours and activities are increasingly available, from mountain-biking to gorge-walking.

The coast is a mixed bag, virtually off-limits north of Siracusa thanks to the petrochemical industry that disfigures the Golfo di Augusta. To the south, sandy beaches have spawned small-scale dormitory towns aimed squarely at a local clientele – none has much architectural charm, but the beaches are good. The only real exception is the coastline south of Noto, from Avola to Sicily’s southern cape, Capo delle Correnti, in between which lie assorted pristine beaches, old tuna-fishing villages and market-garden towns, with the undisputed highlight being the lagoons, paths and bird hides of the Riserva Naturale di Vendicari. West of the Capo, there is no shortage of long sandy beaches, such as Marina di Modica and Marina di Ragusa, but the finest is at Sampieri, a modest little resort which still retains a core of cobbled streets lined with cubic fishermen’s houses.

FLAMINGOS AT RISERVA VENDICARI

Highlights

1 Piazza del Duomo, Siracusa Sicily’s most graceful piazza is surrounded by Baroque palaces and has an Ancient Greek temple embedded in its Duomo.

2 Siracusa’s Teatro Greco Classical dramas are still staged in the theatre where Aeschylus attended performances of his own plays.

3 Noto The apotheosis of Baroque town planning, Noto offers glorious vistas at every turn, from extravagantly balconied palazzi to soaring church facades.

4 Cava Grande del Fiume Cassibile Eagles soar high above the Cassibile River canyon, while a track leads down to secluded swimming spots.

5 Riserva Vendicari Have a swim and see the pink flamingos fly at this idyllic coastal nature reserve.

6 Chocolate-tasting, Modica Sample the goods at Sicily’s oldest chocolate manufacturer.

7 Ragusa Ibla Spend the night in a classy B&B in Ragusa’s chic Baroque old town.

8 Sampieri beach Follow in the footsteps of Inspector Montalbano and the artists of the Gruppo di Scicli with a walk on the southeast’s most beautiful beach.

< Back to Siracusa and the southeast

Siracusa

More than any other Sicilian city, SIRACUSA (ancient Syracuse) has a past that is central not just to the island’s history, but to that of the entire Mediterranean. Its greatest splendour belongs to antiquity. Syracuse established its ascendancy over other Sicilian cities for more than five hundred years, and at its height was the supreme power in Europe, home to at least three times its present population. Its central position on the major trade routes ensured that even after its heyday the port continued to wield influence and preserve its prestige. All this is reflected in a staggering diversity of monuments, spanning the Hellenic, early Christian, medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras – the styles are often shoulder-to-shoulder, sometimes in the same building. It’s one of the most enjoyable cities in Sicily, with a fascinating old town and outlying archeological and leisure areas that can easily occupy three or four days, if not a week, of your time.

As for two and a half thousand years, the city is still divided between its ancient hub, the island of Ortigia, and the four mainland quarters of Achradina, Tyche, Neapolis and Epipolae. Ortigia is the heart and soul of Siracusa, a predominantly medieval and Baroque ensemble of mansions and palaces, and home to most of the city’s best B&Bs, hotels, cafés and restaurants. Across the bridge on the mainland, the modern city is centred on Achradina, now, as in Greek times, the busy commercial centre, traversed by the main street of Corso Gelone. North of Achradina, the old residential quarter of Tyche holds Siracusa’s celebrated Museo Archeologico and the extraordinary Santa Lucia and San Giovanni catacombs – after those in Rome, Siracusa’s catacombs constitute the largest system of subterranean tombs in Italy, and are the oldest in Sicily. Neapolis is the site of the Parco Archeologico, containing remains of the Greek city’s theatres and some extensive quarries, while spread over the ridge to the west of town, Epipolae holds the old defensive walls and the remnants of the Euryalus fort. Other obvious trips out of the city are to the local beaches, particularly that at Fontane Bianche, or a cruise along the Fiume Ciane (Ciane River).

Brief history

The ancient city grew around Ortigia, an easily defensible offshore island with fresh springs, natural harbours on either side and access to extensive trade routes. Though Corinthian colonists arrived here in 733 BC, apparently at the behest of the Delphic oracle, it wasn’t until the start of the fifth century BC that the city’s political position was boosted by an alliance with Greeks at Akragas (Agrigento) and Gela. With the transfer of Gela’s tyrant, Gelon, to Syracuse and the crushing victory of their combined forces over the Carthaginians at Himera in 480 BC, the stage was set for the beginning of the city’s long supremacy. The grandest extant monuments are from this period, and more often than not were built by slaves provided from the many battles won by Syracuse’s bellicose dictators.

The colony rebels

Inevitably, the city’s ambitions provoked the intervention of Athens, which dispatched one of the greatest fleets ever seen in the ancient world. This Great Expedition was scuppered in 413 BC by a mixture of poor leadership and astute defence: “to the victors the most brilliant of successes, to the vanquished the most calamitous of defeats”, commented the historian Thucydides. But Syracuse earned the condemnation of the Hellenic world for its seven-year incarceration of the vanquished Athenians – in appalling conditions – in the city’s notorious quarries.

Tyrants, dramatists and philosophers

Throughout this period Syracuse was in a state of constant tension between a few overweening but extremely capable rulers, and sporadic convulsions of democracy. Occasionally the tyrants displayed a yearning for cultural respectability that sat uncomfortably beside their vaulting ambition. Hieron I (478–466 BC), for instance, described by the historian Diodorus as “an utter stranger to sincerity and nobility of character”, invited many of the luminaries of the age to his court, including Pindar, and Aeschylus – who possibly witnessed the production of his last plays, Prometheus Bound and Prometheus Released, in the city’s theatre. Dionysius the Elder (405–367 BC) – “cruel, vindictive and a profane plunderer of temples” and responsible for the first of the Euryalus forts – comically harboured literary ambitions to the extent of regularly entering his poems in the annual Olympic Games. His works were consistently rejected, until the Athenians judged it politic to give him the prize, whereupon his delirious celebrations were enough to provoke the seizure that killed him. His son Dionysius II (367–343 BC) dallied with the “philosopher-king” theories of his tutor Plato until megalomania turned his head and Plato fled in dismay. Dionysius himself, recorded Plutarch, spent the end of his life in exile “loitering about the fish market, or sitting in a perfumer’s shop drinking the diluted wine of the taverns, or squabbling in the streets with common women”.

Rarely, the rulers themselves initiated democratic reforms – men such as Timoleon (343–337 BC), who arrived from Corinth to inject new life into all the Sicilian cities, and Hieron II, who preserved Syracuse’s independence from the assertions of Rome by a novel policy of conciliation, abandoning expansion in favour of preserving the status quo. His long reign (265–215 BC) saw the construction of such monuments as the Ara di Ierone II, and the enlargement of the Teatro Greco to more or less its existing proportions.

The end of the glory days

Following the death of Hieron II, Syracuse, along with practically every other Sicilian city, sided with Carthage against Rome in the Second Punic War. For two years the city was besieged by the Romans, who had to contend with all the ingenious contrivances devised for its defence by Archimedes, though Syracuse eventually fell in 211 BC, an event that sent shockwaves rippling around the classical world. The city was ransacked, and Archimedes himself – the last of the great Hellenic thinkers – was hacked to death, despite the injunctions of the Roman general Marcellus.

Syracuse languished under Roman rule, though its trading role still made it the most prominent Sicilian city, and it became a notable centre of early Christianity, as attested by its extensive catacombs. The city briefly became the capital of the Byzantine empire when Constans moved his court here in 663 AD, but otherwise Syracuse was eclipsed by events outside its control and played no active part against all the successive waves of Arab, Norman and other medieval conquerors. The 1693 earthquake laid low much of the city, but provided the impetus for some of its Baroque masterpieces, notably the creations of the great Siculo-Spanish architect Giovanni Vermexio, who contributed an imposing facade to the Duomo, itself adapted from the bones of an early Greek temple and later Norman cathedral – and thus a building that encapsulates perfectly the polyglot character of modern Siracusa.

Ortigia

The ancient nucleus of Siracusa, Ortigia best conserves the city’s essential spirit, with the artistic vestiges of over 2500 years of history concentrated in a space barely 500m across and 1km in length – and all within an easy stroll through quiet streets and alleys. Although parts of Ortigia were badly neglected in the past, there’s been a lot of sensitive restoration and development in recent years, which has helped to restore the old town’s lustre.

You can swim and sunbathe from Ortigia off Largo della Gancia, where there are rocks, wooden decks and handy nearby bars, or from a paying beach below the Talete car park, where sunloungers and parasols are available.

Tempio di Apollo

Largo XXV Luglio

Siracusa announces its long history immediately across the narrow ribbon of water that severs the island from the mainland. The Tempio di Apollo is thought to have been the first of the great Doric temples built in Sicily (seventh-century or early sixth-century BC) and, though not much survives apart from a couple of columns and part of the south wall of its cella, it’s a dignified old ruin. A scale model in Siracusa’s archeological museum shows you what it looked like in its heyday – the arched window in the wall dates from a Norman church that incorporated part of the temple into its structure. To help you make sense of what remains here, imagine the entrance with a double row of six columns, topped by a pediment at the eastern (far) end, and seventeen columns along each side. Visiting in the eighteenth century, the French writer Vivant Denon reported finding one of the columns embedded in the wall of a bedroom in a house on the adjacent Via Resalibera, part of it hacked away by the owner to make more room.

Ortigia market

Via de Benedictis • Ortigia market Mon–Sat from 7am until around 2pm • Farmers’ market Sun 8am–1pm

Ortigia’s weekday market spreads along Via de Benedictis, running north of the temple of Apollo toward the sea. One of the best stalls is run by Claudio Romano, who sells the wild herbs he collects near Pantalica, and fresh ricotta. At the far end is a cluster of unofficial stalls where locals sell fish, sea urchins and whatever wild vegetables are in season. On Sunday’s there is a farmers’ market in the Renaissance-style courtyard of the nineteenth-century Antico Mercato, which backs onto Via de Benedictis, but has its entrance on parallel Via Trento.

Piazza Archimede

Lined with Fascist-era palazzi housing clothes and shoe shops, Corso Matteotti leads uphill from Largo XXV Luglio to Piazza Archimede, its centrepiece a twentieth-century fountain depicting the nymph Arethusa (the symbol of Ortigia) at the moment of her transformation into a spring. The square is surrounded by restored medieval palazzi, while down the skinny Via Montalto you can admire the facade of the Palazzo Montalto, graced by immaculate double- and triple-arched windows, and a star of David cut into the stonework. This is one of the few buildings in this style to have survived the 1693 earthquake– an inscription dates its construction to 1397.

Arkimedeion

Piazza Archimede 10 • Daily 10.30am–7pm • €6 • tel_icon 0931 61 121, web_icon arkimedeion.it

Occupying two floors of the recently restored Palazzo Pupillo, the high-tech Arkimedeion museum is devoted to Siracusa’s most famous son, Archimedes. There are replicas – many of them interactive – of his inventions, including a parabola microphone in the courtyard, or you can try your hand at the Tangram-like Stomachion puzzle, with 536 solutions. Replicas of his most famous inventions – including a catapult, a human lever and the hydraulic screw – are due to arrive in 2014.

Piazza del Duomo

Ortigia’s most impressive architecture belongs to its Baroque period, and nowhere does this reach such heights as in the city’s (some would say Sicily’s) loveliest square, the Piazza del Duomo. It’s been gloriously restored, and the traffic kept out, so that the encircling seventeenth- and eighteenth-century buildings are now seen at their best from the pavement cafés, notably the Municipio (corner of Via Minerva) and the Palazzo Beneventano opposite.

The Duomo

Piazza Duomo • Usually daily 8am–7pm; may close earlier, and at lunchtime in winter • €2

The great age of Siracusa’s Duomo is first glimpsed from around the side in Via Minerva, where stout Doric columns (part of an earlier Greek temple) form the very skeleton of the structure. The site was already sacred when the Greeks started work on an Ionic temple to Athena here in about 530 BC, though this was abandoned when a new temple was begun in thanksgiving for the victory over the Carthaginians at Himera. The extravagant decoration that adorned this building spread its fame throughout the ancient world, and tantalizing details of it have come down to us through Cicero, who visited Syracuse in the first century BC and listed the temple’s former contents as part of his prosecution of the Roman praetor and villain Verres, who appeared to have walked off with a good proportion of them – part of the booty he plundered from many Sicilian temples. The doors were of ivory and gold, and its walls painted with military scenes and portraits of various of Syracuse’s tyrants – claimed to be the earliest examples of portraiture in European art. On the temple’s roof stood a tall statue of the warrior-goddess Athena carrying a golden shield which, catching the sun’s rays, served as a beacon for sailors out at sea.

Although all this rich decoration has vanished, the main body of the temple was saved further despoliation thanks to its conversion into a Christian church, which was elevated to cathedral status in 640 AD. A more drastic overhaul was carried out after the 1693 earthquake, when the Norman facade collapsed and was replaced by the present formidable Baroque front, with statues by Marabitti. This is in sharp contrast to the more muted interior, in which it’s the frame of the ancient temple that is still prevalent. The aisles are formed by the massive Doric columns, while the cella walls were hacked through to make the present arched nave. Along the north aisle, the distorted pillars give some inkling of how close the entire structure came to toppling when the seventeenth-century earthquake hit Siracusa. The Duomo’s south aisle shows more characteristic Baroque effusion in the series of richly ornate chapels, though the first one (nearest the main door, on the right) – actually the baptistery – is from an earlier age. Enlivened by some twelfth-century arabesque mosaics, it contains a Norman font that was cut from a block still marked with a Greek inscription, and is supported by seven bronze lions.

DUOMO, SIRACUSA

GOING UNDERGROUND

An entrance on the Piazza Duomo in the Palazzo Arcivescovile, next to the cathedral, leads down into the Ipogeo di Piazza Duomo (Tues–Sat 10am–1pm; €4). This series of underground tunnels and water cisterns, dating back centuries, was used by the siracusani as an air-raid shelter during the heavy Allied bombing of 1943, and a small exhibition tells you something of the inhabitants’ day-to-day experience. You can follow one of the tunnels right the way under the piazza, to emerge by the harbour on the Foro Italico, close to the Fonte Aretusa.

Santa Lucia alla Badia

Piazza Duomo • Tues–Sun 11am–2pm

With its twisted barley-sugar columns, intricate wrought-iron balcony, and stone as delicately worked as silver, the facade of Santa Lucia alla Badia is one of Ortigia’s prettiest. The original church, built by Queen Isabella of Castille on the site where it was thought Santa Lucia had been raped, was completely destroyed in the 1693 earthquake. Dedicated to Siracusa’s much-loved patron saint, it was the focus of celebrations for the miracle of Santa Lucia in May. The mother superior clearly understood the resonance of this site for the people of Siracusa, and immediately after the earthquake requested that a shack was erected among the rubble, as a temporary church.

Her request was denied, so that work could start on the new church straight away. The building was supposed to be completed within two years – another sign of how important this church was felt to be for Siracusa – although in the end, it wasn’t completed until 1703. The nuns – belonging to a closed Cistercian Order – returned, and there are still poignant indications of what life was like for them here, notably the oval parlatorio (to the left as you enter) with grills set in the wall so that nuns could talk to their families without being seen.

THE MIRACLE OF SANTA LUCIA

In the mid-seventeenth century, Sicily was suffering from famine. Under Spanish rule, the island was in a parlous state: rural areas were neglected by the aristocracy and fleeced by farm managers known as gabelloti, and urban centres riven with poverty. In Palermo these conditions gave rise to a riot; in Siracusa, in May 1646, people gathered instead in the cathedral to pray to Santa Lucia. As they were praying, a dove flew into the Duomo, shortly followed by the news that a ship laden with grain had arrived in the harbour. According to tradition, people were so hungry that there was no time to grind the wheat into flour, so they ate the grains boiled in a kind of porridge, known as cuccia. These days cuccia has been vastly improved – the wheat berries are served mixed with sweetened ricotta, candied fruit and chocolate; while Santa Lucia is still celebrated with processions and fireworks on her feast day, December 13, and in May, when quails are released in Piazza Duomo to record the miraculous news-bearing dove.

The Burial of Santa Lucia

For the past few years Santa Lucia alla Badia has been the temporary home of one of Siracusa’s most prized works of art, The Burial of Santa Lucia by Caravaggio. Having escaped from prison in Malta, Caravaggio arrived in the city in October 1608 and received an immediate commission to have a painting of Santa Lucia ready for her festival on December 13. Some scholars think the fact that the upper two-thirds of the canvas are taken up by a bare wall may have more to do with lack of time than aesthetics, for as Caravaggio was painting it, he was in fear of his life, pursued, it’s thought, by the Knights of Malta.

The canvas was designed not for this church, but for the church of Santa Lucia across in the Borgata, scene of the saint’s martyrdom, and home of her tomb (if not her body, which has been in Venice since the time of the Crusades). Bathed in shafts of sunlight, dwarfed by stark, scorched bare plaster walls, two mighty gravediggers brace themselves to lower the corpse of the saint into her tomb, watched by a bishop and mourners. One tradition is that the bearded gravedigger to the left is a portrait of Alof de Wignacourt, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta – and that painting him in this role was Caravaggio’s way of taking revenge on the man who had had him imprisoned. Paranoid and persecuted, Caravaggio slept fully dressed and fully armed whilst painting the work, and fled from Siracusa as soon as it was finished, not even waiting for the painting to be unveiled at the feast of Santa Lucia.

HEAR HEAR

The Orecchio di Dionisio owes its name to the painter Caravaggio, who was taken to visit the cave during a visit to Siracusa in October 1608. Said to have been used as a prison by the ancient Greek tyrant, Dionysus, the cave’s natural acoustics amplified every sound, and from their base above a crack at the apex, sentries could eavesdrop on the prisoners hundreds of metres below. Having just escaped from prison and fled to Siracusa, Caravaggio was deeply disturbed by this ingenious quirk. He noted that the cave amplified sound in the same way as the human ear – which led recent biographer Andrew Graham Dixon to speculate that Caravaggio saw the “speaking cave” as an image of his own contracting world, where every movement was monitored by spies, every remark overheard by eavesdroppers.

Fonte Aretusa

Largo Aretusa

Down from the Duomo toward the seafront, the freshwater spring known as the Fonte Aretusa is probably the next most photographed part of the island. Planted with papyrus, and filled with bream below the water and ducks above, it’s a compulsory stop on the evening passeggiata. It’s ringed by cafés, while the terrace above offers sweeping views across the bay. The spring was mentioned in the original Delphic directions that brought the first Greek settlers here, and the number of myths with which it’s associated underlines the strong sentimental links that continued to bind the colonists to their motherland. This was where the nymph Arethusa rose after swimming across from the Peloponnese, having been metamorphosed into a spring by the goddess Artemis to escape the attentions of the predatory river-god Alpheus; all in vain, though, for the determined Alpheus pursued her here to mingle with her in a watery form. Other legends declared that the spring’s water would stain red at the time of the annual sacrifices at the sanctuary of Olympia, and that a cup thrown into the river there would rise here in Ortigia.

Porto Marina

The promenade runs both ways from the Fonte Aretusa, south towards the castle and north along the tree-lined Foro Italico (also known as Foro Vittorio Emanuele II) to Porta Marina, a fifteenth-century gateway surmounted by a curlicued Spanish heraldic device. The vast, still pool of the Porto Grande spreads out beyond, dotted with fishing-boats, liners and tankers, and the odd millionaire’s yacht.

Galleria Regionale di Palazzo Bellomo

Via Capodieci 14–16 • Tues–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun 9am–1pm • €8 • tel_icon 0931 69 511

Siracusa’s tradition of architectural hybridism is again apparent in the Palazzo Bellomo, with a courtyard that features thirteenth-century arcading and a Spanish-style stairway leading up to the loggia. The palace is the home of the city’s Galleria Regionale di Palazzo Bellomo, whose most treasured exhibit is an Annunciazione by Antonello da Messina, painted for a church in Palazzolo Acreide, with the Hyblaean mountains visible through the windows behind the angel and the Madonna. Early Christian sculpture and a fine collection of altarpieces and icons are also fascinating evidence of the enduring Byzantine and Gothic influence in Sicily. As late as the sixteenth century, while the rest of Italy was swept by the Renaissance, Siracusa’s artists were still painting heavily stylized Byzantine or Gothic works.

San Martino

Via San Martino • Usually open Sunday mornings as the local Scout group meets here

The church of San Martino is among Siracusa’s oldest. Originally a sixth-century basilica, it was rebuilt in the fourteenth century and smartened up with a good-looking rose window and Gothic doorway. It’s not often open, but the dusky interior is a treat – plain stone columns leading to a tiny mosaic half-apse with a fifteenth-century triptych to the right of the choir.

Castello Maniace

Via del Castello Maniace • Tues–Sat 9am–1pm • €4 • tel_icon 0931 464 420

The dangling southern limb of Ortigia is entirely taken up by the parade grounds and buildings of the stout Castello Maniace, a defensive bulwark erected around 1239 by Frederick II, but named after George Maniakes, the Byzantine admiral who briefly reconquered Syracuse from the Arabs in 1038. Now that the military has moved out, the barracks buildings are used by the university’s archeological department, while visitors are allowed to enter through the imposing main gate and wander the echoing halls, chambers and defensive ramparts. Restoration work continues to shore up the neglected castle interior – one of the rooms displays a copy of the famous bronze ram statue, known as L’Ariete, a pair of which once guarded the castle gates. The original is now in Palermo’s archeological museum.

Mainland Siracusa

Modern development in the mainland quarters of Siracusa makes it difficult to picture the ancient city that Plutarch wept over when he heard of its fall to the Romans. Much of the new building dates from after World War II, when Siracusa was bombed twice over – once by the Allies, then, after its capture, by the Luftwaffe in 1943. But even so, some extraordinary relics survive, both in Achradina, the nearest mainland quarter to Ortigia, but far more impressively in the northern district of Neapolis, where the main archeological park is sited. There’s plenty more to see too in Tyche, the location of the city’s unsurpassed archeological museum, while that district in particular is riddled with underground catacombs. Regular city buses run to all these places, departing from Riva della Posta on Ortigia or Via Rubino off Corso Umberto I, or you can walk to the museum, catacombs or archeological park in under half an hour from Ortigia.

On the mainland, you’ll find congenial spots for swimming and sunbathing if you head north along Riviera Dionisio il Grande, or south at Isola, on the far side of Porto Grande, reachable by bus #23 from Piazza Pancali.

Foro Siracusano

Corso Umberto I • No set hours • Free

Over the bridges from Ortigia, the main drag of Corso Umberto I runs up to the small urban park known as the Foro Siracusano, once site of the old town’s agora. There’s not much to see today, though the gardens (and playground) are not a bad place for a shady picnic.

Ginnasio Romano

Via Elorina • Not usually open to the public, though sometimes open without notice

Set in an unprepossessing position on busy Via Elorina, the main road out to the beaches, the diminutive Ginnasio Romano was never actually a gymnasium at all but a small Roman theatre, probably built in the first century AD when the ancient city’s much grander Greek theatre was requisitioned for blood sports. All you can see from the road is the shape of the semicircular cava; if you do happen to find the building open, it’s worth slipping inside for a closer look.

Arsenale and Edificio Termale

Via Arsenale • Closed to the public

Over on the eastern edge of Achradina, close by the crowded huddle of boats in the Porto Piccolo, you’ll find a much less recognizable ruin, the Arsenale provisions centre, where ships were refurbished, hoisted up from the port by devices that clamped into the ground – the slots that engaged them are about the only thing to look at here. Adjacent, visible below the apartment block built above it, is the Edificio Termale, a Byzantine bathhouse claimed to be the very same one in which, in 668 AD, the Emperor Constans was assassinated, knocked on the head by a servant wielding a soap dish. It lies under a modern block of flats, and only a few piles of stones are visible.

Basilica di Santa Lucia

Piazza Santa Lucia • Basilica Mass daily 5pm, and Sun morning • Free • • Catacombs English and Italian guided tours every 30min Mon–Sat 11am–1pm & 2.30–5.30pm • €8 • tel_icon 0931 64 694, web_icon kairos-web.com

At the northern end of the huge Piazza Santa Lucia, the church of Santa Lucia, built in 1629, supposedly marks the spot where St Lucy, Siracusa’s patron saint, was martyred in 304 AD. Within is a fine wooden ceiling, but you don’t need to enter to admire its Norman tower or, from the piazza outside, Giovanni Vermexio’s octagonal chapel of San Sepolcro, where the mortal remains of St Lucy were originally preserved before being carried off to Constantinople by the Byzantine admiral Maniakes in 1038, and later shipped to Venice as part of the spoils plundered by the Venetian “crusaders” in 1204.

If you like catacombs, be sure to take one of the guided tours of the labyrinthine complex below the church, full of the tombs of those who wanted to be buried close to the sight rendered holy by Santa Lucia’s death.

Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime

Viale Teocrito and Via del Santuario • Daily 7am–1pm & 3–8pm

The gargantuan Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime, fronting Viale Teocrito, dominates the skyline on most approaches to Siracusa. It was completed in 1994 to house a statue of the Madonna that allegedly wept for five days in 1953 (delle Lacrime means “of the tears”), and the church was apparently designed to resemble a giant teardrop (it actually resembles one of Tracy Island’s missing Thunderbirds). As you can’t sink a spade into the ground in Siracusa without turning up a relic or two, it came as no surprise during the building work to discover the extensive remains of Greek and Roman houses and streets, which are fenced off but visible just to the south in Piazza della Vittoria.

Museo del Papiro

Viale Teocrito 66 • Tues–Sun 9am–2pm • €2 • tel_icon 0931 22 100, web_icon museodelpapiro.it

Across the main Viale Teocrito from the Madonna delle Lacrime, next to the archeological museum grounds, the small Museo del Papiro is worth a visit to see papyrus art, ancient and modern, including models of boats and even sandals made of the stuff. Ever since papyrus was introduced to Siracusa in the reign of Hieron II, there’s been a thriving papyrus industry here, and gift shops on Ortigia are awash with it.

Museo Archeologico

Via Teocrito 66 • Tues–Sat 9am–6pm, Sun 9am–1pm; • last entry 1hr before closing • €8, combined ticket with Parco Archeologico €13 • tel_icon 0931 489 511

If you have any interest at all in the archeological finds made in this extraordinary city, then all roads lead to Siracusa’s Museo Archeologico. It was purpose-built for Sicily’s most wide-ranging collection of antiquities, and it’s certainly worth seeing, though there are caveats. It’s often extremely confusing to find your way around, with notes in English either nonexistent or mind-numbingly detailed and academic, and to cap it all sections are sometimes closed as continuing renovations attempt to address its organizational shortcomings. The museum is basically split into four sections: prehistoric (section A); items from Syracuse, Megara Hyblaea and the Chalcidinian colonies (B); finds from Gela, Agrigento, Syracuse’s subcolonies and the indigenous Sikel centres (C); and Greek and Roman Siracusa (D).

Section D

It’s section D that’s the easiest to understand, where Siracusa in the Greek and Roman age is laid bare in an extraordinary series of tomb finds and public statues, none more celebrated than the statue of Venus Anadiomene, also known as Landolina after the archeologist who discovered her in 1804. Anadiomene means “rising from the sea”, which describes her coy pose: with her left hand she holds a robe, while studs show where her broken-off right arm came across to hide her breasts. Probably Roman-made in the first century AD, from a Greek model, the headless statue has always evoked extreme responses, alternately exalting the delicacy and naturalism of the carving, and condemning her knowing sensual attitude that symbolized the decline of the vigorous classical age and the birth of a new decadence. By the statue’s feet, the dolphin, Aphrodite’s emblem, is the only sign that this was a goddess. Of the tomb finds, pride of place is given to the superb Sarcofago di Adelfia, a finely worked fourth-century marble tomb found in the catacombs below San Giovanni. It held the wife of a Roman official, the couple prominently depicted and surrounded by reliefs of scenes from the Old and New Testaments.

Section B

Elsewhere, eyes will possibly glaze over at the thousands of pottery shards, burial urns, amphorae, statues, figures and temple fragments. However, section B does at least put many of the finds into context, showing where excavations occurred in the city, and even reconstructing useful models of the fallen temples. Among the earlier Hellenic pieces, the museum has some excellent kouroi – toned, muscular youths, one of which (from Lentini) is one of the most outstanding fragments still extant from the Archaic age of Greek art – around 500 BC. A striking image from the colony of Megara Hyblaea dates from the same period: a mother/goddess suckling twins, its absorbed roundness expressing a tender harmony as close to earth and fertility rites as the Venus Landolina is to the cult of sensuality.

Basilica di San Giovanni catacombs

Piazza San Giovanni • Daily 9.30am–12.30pm & 2.30–5.30pm • Tours depart every 30min • €8 • tel_icon 0931 64 694, web_icon kairos-web.com

Close to the Museo Archeologico, below the ruined Basilica di San Giovanni off Via San Sebastiano, lies the most extensive series of catacombs in the city, their presence explained by the Roman prohibition on Christian burial within the city limits (Siracusa having by then shrunk back to its original core of Ortigia). Fronted by a triple arch, most of the church was toppled in the 1693 earthquake and the nave is now open to the sky, but you can still admire the seventh-century apse and a medieval rose window. San Giovanni was once the city’s cathedral, built over the crypt of St Marcian, first bishop of Siracusa, who was flogged to death in 254.

The tours take you down into the crypt to see Marcian’s tomb, the remnants of some Byzantine frescoes and an altar that marks the spot where St Paul is supposed to have preached, when he stopped in the city as a prisoner on his way to Rome. Then you’re led into the catacombs themselves, labyrinthine warrens hewn out of the rock, though often following the course of underground aqueducts, disused since Greek times. Numerous side-passages lead off from the main gallery (decumanus maximus), often culminating in rotonde, round caverns used for prayer; other passages are forbiddingly dark and closed off to the public. Entire families were interred in the thousands of niches hollowed out of these walls and floors, anxious for burial close to the tomb of St Marcian. Most of the treasures buried with the bodies have been pillaged, though the robbers overlooked one – an ornate Roman-era sarcophagus unearthed from just below the floor in 1872 and now on show in the archeological museum.

Parco Archeologico della Neapolis

Viale Paradiso • Daily 9am–2hr before sunset • €10 • tel_icon 0931 66 206 • Take any bus that goes up Corso Gelone, and get off at the hospital at the top of Corso Gelone, from where it’s a 10min walk along Viale Augusto and Viale Paradiso to the site entrance

Siracusa’s Parco Archeologico encompasses the classical city district that was Neapolis. This contained most of the ancient city’s social and religious amenities – theatres, altars and sanctuaries – and was thus never inhabited, though these days it’s in danger of disappearing under the sheer weight of visitors. The ticket office is hidden beyond a street market of souvenir stalls and ice cream stands, catering to the busloads of tourists that arrive every few minutes in the summer.

Anfiteatro Romano

As you enter the Parco Archeologico, a path to the left leads down to the Anfiteatro Romano, a large elliptical arena built in the third century AD to satisfy the growing lust for circus games. The rectangular tank in the centre of the arena is too small to have been used for aquatic displays, and is more likely to have been for draining the blood and gore spilled in the course of the combats. But not before the spectators had had their fill: at the end of the contests the infirm, ill and disabled would attempt to suck warm blood from the bodies and take the livers from the animals, in the belief that this would speed their recovery.

Ara di Ierone II

No public access

On the main path into the Parco Archeologico, past the turnoff to the Anfiteatro Romano, the ruined base of the Ara di Ierone II is a 200m-long altar erected by Hieron II in the second half of the third century BC. It commemorated the achievements of Timoleon, who liberated the city from tyranny and decline, and was the biggest construction of its kind in all Magna Graecia. It was also the venue for some serious sacrificing: Diodorus records that 450 bulls were led up the ramps at either end of the altar to be slaughtered in the annual feast.

Teatro Greco

You may be asked to show your ticket again at the office at the foot of the steps leading up to the Teatro Greco, Siracusa’s most spectacular monument. One of the largest and best-preserved Greek auditoriums anywhere, its site has been home to a theatre since at least the fifth century BC, though it was frequently added to at different periods. Hieron II expanded it to accommodate 15,000 people, in nine sections of 59 rows (of which 42 remain). The inscriptions around the top of the middle gangway on the west side of the theatre – faint but still visible – date from the third century BC, giving the names of the ruler and his family, with Zeus Olympios in the middle. Most of the alterations carried out by the Romans were made to adapt the arena for gladiatorial combat, and they also installed some marble-faced seats for privileged spectators, while the seventeenth row was removed, possibly to segregate the classes. The high terrace above the theatre contains the Nymphaeum, a large artificial grotto (fed by water from an ancient aqueduct) where a number of statues were found. To the left of here, the overgrown Via dei Sepolcri (Street of the Tombs) is deeply rutted by the carts that plied to and fro, and is flanked by more votive niches.

Latomia del Paradiso

From the ticket office at the foot of the steps to the Teatro Greco, a path descends to the largest of Siracusa’s huge latomie (pits or quarries), from which the rock for the city’s multifarious monuments was excavated. Now planted with citrus, oleander and bay trees, the so-called Latomia del Paradiso is more garden than quarry, and a steady stream of tour parties troops down mainly to see the remarkable ear-shaped cavern known as the Orecchio di Dionisio (Ear of Dionysius), which is over 60m long and 20m high. A second cave, the Grotta dei Cordari, was used by the ancient city’s ropemakers, who found that its damp air prevented rope strands from breaking under stress.

Latomie dei Cappuccini

Largo Latomie 3 • Mon–Fri 9.30am–1.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am–1pm & 4.30–7.30pm • €3 • tel_icon 0931 411 394

Gouged out of the hillside below the Cappuccini monastery and Grand Hotel Villa Politi, the wide, vertically walled quarries of the Latomie dei Cappuccini provided a harsh but effective prison for the 7000 Athenian prisoners of war following the fiasco of the Great Expedition. The quarries were acquired by Capuchin monks in the sixteenth century, who turned them into both market garden and contemplative retreat, which is why the cavern floors are so lush. Sinuous paths wind through the overgrown quarries, past natural rock pillars, huge caverns and early Christian tombs – there’s even a cavern-theatre down here, sometimes used for performances, usually advertised by posters around town.

Epipolae and the Castello Eurialo

Castello Eurialo Daily: April–Oct 9am–7pm; Nov–March 9am–5pm • €4A 20min ride on bus #11 or #25 to the village of Belvedere, from Corso Gelone and outside the Parco Archeologico

The outlying area of Epipolae, 7km west of the city, was the site of ancient Siracusa’s military and defensive works. These heights were first fortified by Dionysius the Elder in about 400 BC, and subsequently modified and extended over a couple of centuries. What remains today consists of a great wall, which marked the city’s western limit, and the Castello Eurialo, just before the village on the right. This is the major extant Greek fortification in the Mediterranean, most of it dating from Hieron II’s time, when Archimedes, as his General of Ordnance, must have been actively involved in its renovation. Despite the effort and ingenuity that went into making this site impregnable, the castle has no very glorious history: ignored altogether by the attacking Carthaginians, it surrendered without a fight to the Roman forces of Marcellus in 212 BC.

Assailants had to cope with three defensive trenches, designed to keep the new artillery of the time at bay, as well as siege-engines and battering rams. The first of the trenches (approached from the west, where you come in) lay just within range of catapults mounted on the five towers of the castle’s keep, while in the trench below the keep you can see the high piers supporting the drawbridge that once crossed it. Long galleries burrow beneath the walls into the keep, serving as supply and escape routes, and also enabling the defenders to clear out by night the material thrown in by attackers during the day.

Epipolae gate

Behind the keep is a long, wedge-shaped fortification, to the north of which is the main gateway to the western quarter of the city. This, the Epipolae gate, was built indented from the walls, allowing the defenders to shower attackers with missiles, and is reminiscent of the main gate at Tyndaris, a city that shared the same architects. The longest of the underground passages surfaces here stretches 180m from the defensive trenches. From the gate, you can stroll along Dionysius’ extensive walls, looking down over the oil refineries and tankers off the coast north of the city, and back over Siracusa itself, with Ortigia clearly visible pointing out into the sea.

THE FIUME CIANE

Just southwest of Siracusa, the source of the Fiume Ciane (Ciane River) forms a pool said to have been created by the tears of the nymph Cyane when her mistress Persephone was abducted into the underworld by Hades. The pool and the river banks are overgrown by thickets of papyrus, apparently the gift of Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt to Hieron II, making this the only place outside North Africa where the plant grows wild. Boat cruises operate between early March and November from the bridge over the Ciane, a 5km signposted drive from Siracusa on the SS115; you can also take bus #21, #22 or #23 from Piazza Pancali. There are daily departures between 10am and 6pm, with tickets costing around €10 per person (minimum three people); call tel_icon 346 159 9635 or 368 729 6040 for information. As well as the river, you’ll also see the scant but evocative remains of the Olympieion, or Tempio di Giove Olimpico, a Doric temple built in the first half of the sixth century BC. The hillock the ruin stands on, a vital strategic point in classical times, was often occupied by Siracusa’s enemies when the city was under attack. The pestilential air of the Lysimelia marshes below saved the day on more than one occasion, infecting the hostile armies with malaria.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: SIRACUSA

By train Siracusa is at the beginning of two train lines: the main line running up to Catania, Taormina and Messina, and a little branch line to Gela via Noto, Sampieri, Scicli, Modica, Ragusa and several other small Baroque towns. The city’s train station is on the mainland at the end of Via Francesco Crispi. You can walk from here to Ortigia in around 20min, and there’s a taxi rank outside the station. Depending on the financial circumstances of local bus company AST, there may or may not be free shuttle minibuses to Ortigia, leaving every 15min or so from a bus stop, a couple of minutes’ walk away on (the second parallel street) Via Rubino.

Destinations Catania (7–11 daily; 1hr 15min); Lentini (7–11 daily; 45min); Messina (7–9 daily; 3hr); Modica (4 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 45min); Noto (7 daily Mon–Sat; 1 daily Sun; 30min); Ragusa (2 daily Mon–Sat; 2hr); Sampieri (4 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 20min); Scicli (4 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 25min).

By bus All regional buses stop across the road from the train station, on the parallel streets Corso Umberto I and Via Rubino. AST ( tel_icon 0931 462 711, web_icon aziendasicilianatrasporti.it) has services to and from Lentini, Catania, Comiso, Ispica, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo Acreide, Ragusa, Sortino and Vittoria; while Interbus ( 0931 66 710, interbus.it) runs to Avola, Catania, Noto, Pachino and Palermo.

Destinations Avola (7 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 40min); Catania (1–2 hourly; 1hr 25min); Catania airport (6–7 daily; 1hr 15min); Ferla (1 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 35min); Lentini (11 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr–1hr 30min); Modica (8 daily Mon–Sat, 3 daily Sun; 1hr 45min–3hr); Noto (12 daily Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 55min); Pachino (6 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 20min); Palazzolo Acreide (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 1hr 10min–2hr 15min); Palermo (3 daily; 3hr 20min); Piazza Armerina (1 daily Mon–Sat; 4hr); Ragusa (4 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 2hr 15min–3hr); Sortino (Mon–Sat 10 daily; 1hr 15min).

GETTING AROUND

By bus City buses are run by AST ( tel_icon 0931 462 711, web_icon aziendasicilianatrasporti.it) and depart from Piazza Pancali in Ortigia. All services run on circular routes. Tickets cost €1.20 for 120min, and €1.80 for two days, and should in theory be available at tabacchi and newsstands displaying an AST sticker. However, thanks to internal problems within AST, the availability of both tickets and buses may be erratic. At the time of writing, only the buses out to the beaches are reliable. If they do start running again, the most useful buses for getting to the Archeological Zone are #1, #3, #12; plus #4 for the Museo Archeologico and #25 and #26 for Castello Eurialo.

By car Siracusa’s drivers are as undisciplined as any in Sicily, but nevertheless drivers will find the city a breeze after Palermo and Catania. Parking on the street in Ortigia is almost impossible, so leave your car at the covered Talete car park to the east of the island. Ortigia is completely closed to traffic (except for residents) on Sundays and on certain other occasions – a traffic signal at the foot of Corso Matteotti indicates whether access is permitted or not. When access is not permitted, you can either turn left and drive around the coast road to Talete (for a scenic route, and the rare chance of picking up a free parking place), or turn right and go directly to Talete.

By taxi There are ranks in Piazza Pancali ( tel_icon 0931 60 980) and at the train station ( 0931 69 722).

PARKING IN SIRACUSA

As in the rest of Italy, parking in Siracusa is free for everyone on the white lines along the Lungomare Levante between the junction with Via Maestranza, though you’ll be lucky to find a place. For streets with blue lines, payment (€0.60/hr) is often required; on Riva Nazario Sauro, fees are charged all day, every day, but everywhere else in the city, you pay only Mon–Fri between 9am–1pm & 4–8pm. There are no parking meters and no ticket machines in Ortigia; instead, parking tickets are sold at tobacconists and newsagents, and cost €0.60 per hour.

The Talete car park is at the end of Via Trieste (look for the sign) on the lungomare (Mon–Sat: 7.30am–2.29pm & 10pm–7.29am fixed charge of €1; 2.30–9.59pm €0.60 per hour; Sun and hols 7.30am–9.59pm €0.60 per hour; 10pm–7.29am fixed charge of €1. Talete is an easy walk from the centre of Ortigia, though look out for the free shuttle-bus (navetta) which in theory leaves from outside every fifteen minutes, dropping passengers in Piazza Pancali and Piazza Archimede.

The other car park is at the Molo San Antonio, on the mainland across the bridge from Ortigia, daily 8am–9.59pm, €0.60 per hour; 10pm–7.59am, fixed rate of €1.

INFORMATION AND TOURS

Tourist information For maps, accommodation, details of performances in the Greek theatre, and other information, head for the extremely helpful and well-informed InfoPoint, inside the provincial offices at Via Roma 31 on Ortigia (Mon–Sat 8am–8pm, Sun 9.15am–6.45pm; tel_icon 0931 462 946 or 800 055 500, web_icon provsr.it).

Boat trips Ortigia Tours ( tel_icon 368 317 0711, web_icon ortigiatour.com) offers daily cruises around the city’s harbours and nearby coastline. Boats leave from near the bridge on Ortigia (from 9am in summer, 10am in winter, weather permitting), and trips last an hour or so; tickets are €10 per person (minimum 4 people). In summer, a kiosk on the quayside provides tickets and information. For a more exclusive experience, book a day or evening cruise with lunch or dinner on Fiesta ( tel_icon 333 329 3732; from €90 per person), a classic wooden 30ft sailing ketch.

ACCOMMODATION

Siracusa holds a lot of accommodation, much of it in the old town on Ortigia, which is by far the best place to stay, with scores of B&Bs in the backstreets and a cluster of four-star hotels on the waterfront. Note that in high summer and during the theatre season (May–June), it’s wise to book in advance. Unless your chosen establishment has private parking, it’s best to leave the car overnight in the Talete garage. The cheapest beds are at the hostel by the train station; camping is available at a very basic site outside the city or at a much better-equipped site down the coast towards Avola. For apartment rentals contact web_icon lacasadellefate.it.

HOTELS AND B&BS

Algilà Via Vittorio Veneto 93 tel_icon 0931 465 186, web_icon algila.it; map. Recently opened hotel on the eastern seafront of Ortigia, with all the comforts of a four-star plus friendly, helpful staff. Styled by Siracusa-born theatre director, Manuel Giliberti, the design has a Maghreb feel, with Tunisian tiles in the bathrooms, kilims on the floors, watercolours of sun-scorched palms and North African piazzas, and a tiny decorative courtyard with fountain. €300

author_pick Alla Giudecca Via Alagona 52 tel_icon 0931 22 255, web_icon allagiudecca.it; map. A stunning renovation in the old Jewish quarter has brought an interconnected series of medieval houses back to life as an exquisite little boutique hotel. There’s exposed stone, soaring arches, colourful tapestries and dried flowers everywhere, while the 23 rooms feature eye-catching wrought-iron beds, stone-flagged floors and antique furniture. €120

author_pick L’Approdo delle Sirene Riva Garibaldi 15 tel_icon 0931 24 857, web_icon apprododellesirene.com; map. Smart B&B in a tastefully renovated waterfront palazzo overlooking the channel between Ortigia and the mainland. Owned and run by a charming mother-and-son team: Fiora runs cooking courses in her apartment next door and Friedrich, who has trained as a pizza chef, is opening a pizzeria. Great home-made breakfasts with abundant fresh fruit are served on a terrace overlooking the sea. Facilities include mini-laptops in rooms, free wi-fi and bikes for guests’ use. €125

Ares Via Mirabella 49 tel_icon 0931 461 145, web_icon aresbedandbreakfast.it; map. Comfortable B&B on a quiet street, a skip and a jump from the sea and in the less touristy east side of Ortigia. Rooms are smart and spotless, there’s a lovely roof terrace, and owner Enzo will go out of his way to make sure guests have all the information they need on Ortigia. Breakfast is by voucher at the fabulous Bar del Duomo opposite the cathedral, just a few minutes’ walk away. €80

author_pick Caol Ishka Via Elorina, Contrada Pantanelli tel_icon 0931 69 057, web_icon caolishka.it; map. Minimalist chic in a cluster of traditional stone farm buildings, all painted the same lavender-mink grey as the sky at dusk. The rooms have resinated cement floors, and spacious bathrooms with showerheads the size of soup plates. The grounds are ample, with a good-sized pool, and there is a superb restaurant. It’s about 2km west of Siracusa; the little beaches at nearby Isola and boat excursions along the River Ciane make it an ideal choice for anyone who wants to alternate sightseeing with lazy days by the beach or pool. €230

Domus Mariae Via Vittorio Veneto 76 tel_icon 0931 24 858, web_icon www.sistemia.it/domusmariae; map. Occupying a former religious school, this three-star hotel is still owned and run by an order of nuns. Half of the rooms have views to the sea and all are efficiently maintained, if a little plain. There’s a fitness centre, a roof terrace, parking and, of course, a chapel. They have expanded across the road, transforming another convent into a hotel and spa. €160

author_pick Giuggiulena Via Pitagora da Reggio 35 tel_icon 0931 468 142, web_icon giuggiulena.it; map. Chic but friendly and relaxed B&B in a clifftop villa, along the eastern seafront of Siracusa and ideal for families. Flooded with light from floor-to-ceiling windows, the main living/eating area has a glass cube suspended above the ocean and a bookcase stuffed with English paperbacks. All six rooms have balconies overlooking the sea, and you can swim off rocks or forage in rock pools (the hotel has a supply of chairs, mats and beach shoes), yet Ortigia is just a 15min walk away. Breakfasts are abundant and delicious, and eaten on a balcony overhanging the sea. €80

author_pick Gutowski Lungomare Vittorini 26 tel_icon 0931 465 861, web_icon guthotel.it; map. Chic simplicity and intelligent design make this hotel overlooking the sea on the eastern edge of Ortigia a good restful choice. It’s worth booking in advance to secure one of the rooms with private terrace. Great breakfasts, with freshly squeezed orange juice and, in summer, home-made almond granita. There is also a little wine bar, and private dinners can be arranged for four or more guests. €110

author_pick Palazzo del Sale Via S. Teresa 25 tel_icon 0931 69 558, web_icon palazzodelsale.it; map. Stylish, relaxed B&B in a nineteenth-century salt-merchant’s home and warehouse on a quiet street behind Piazza del Duomo. Six spacious rooms with wooden floors, architect-designed beds, and intriguing touches such as mirrors framed with driftwood and lamps with palm-bark shades. Breakfasts are superb, and service is unfussy and friendly. Free wi-fi – though the hefty stone walls mean that the signal can be weak – and a PC for guests’ use. €110

Roma Via Roma 66 tel_icon 0931 465 626, web_icon hotelromasiracusa.it; map. A serene four-star oasis in the old centre, the chic Roma presents spacious, contemporary rooms with wood-block floors and excellent bathrooms. Staff are charming, breakfast is an extensive buffet spread, and there’s also a fine-dining restaurant, fitness area and sauna. Excellent deals online, even in high season. €125

HOSTELS AND CAMPSITES

Lol Hostel Via Francesco Crispi 92 tel_icon 0931 465 088, web_icon lolhostel.com; map. This smart, modern youth hostel in a converted old palazzo is just a few steps down from the train station, with dorms holding up to ten beds as well as private singles and doubles, all air-conditioned and with en-suite bathrooms. Reception is 24hr, no membership is required, and there’s internet access and the cheapest bike rental in town, plus use of a kitchen. Dorms €22; doubles €50

Paradiso del Mare Contrada Gallina Fondolupo, Avola tel_icon 0931 561 147, web_icon paradisodelmare.it; map. The best-equipped local campsite lies 22km south of Siracusa off the SS115, in a small secluded spot under trees and close to a great beach. To get here by public transport, take any bus for Avola, get off at Ospedale di Maria and walk a couple of kilometres back up the road – or call for a pick-up. Closed Nov–March. Camping €6.50 per person, plus €6.50 per pitch

Rinaura Località Rinaura tel_icon 0931 721 224, web_icon campingrinaura.it; map. Some 4km south of Siracusa, this is a very basic campsite – more a couple of fields, really, with little shade. The washing facilities are fine, though, and there are electric hook-ups as well as self-catering bungalows. Take bus #21, #22 or #23 (also #24 or #25 in summer) from Corso Umberto I; it’s less than a 10min walk from the stop on the SS115 (signposted to the right after the Albatros hotel). Camping €5 per person, plus €4 per pitch; bungalows €50

EATING AND DRINKING

Ortigia holds the city’s best array of cafés and restaurants, most within a short walk of each other. Prices are on the high side for Sicily, though there are few nicer places in Sicily to sit outside in a medieval street or courtyard and while the evening away. Ortigia also has excellent bars – from Italian-style pubs to cocktail joints – and most of the late-night action is concentrated on the streets and alleys near the Fonte Aretusa, particularly around Piazzetta San Rocco and along Lungomare Alfeo.

CAFÉS

Caffè d’Ortigia Largo XXV Luglio tel_icon 349 628 9674; map. Opposite the Temple of Apollo, on bustling Largo XXV Luglio, this is not only a great spot for people-watching, but has friendly staff and great cornetti filled with fresh ricotta. Daily 6am–9pm.

Gran Caffè del Duomo Piazza del Duomo 18 tel_icon 0931 21584; map. Bang in front of the cathedral, this is the place to sit and watch life pass by over a lazy breakfast or aperitif – staff are friendly and attentive and its prices are so reasonable that even street-sweepers and dustmen stop by for a coffee on their morning rounds. Cornetti here are more like brioche than croissants – try them filled to order with fresh ricotta. Tues–Sun 8am–late.

Viola Via Roma 43 tel_icon 331 861 8415; map. Light and buttery, the best cornetti in town are made by Viola, though if you hang out here for any length of time, you will realize that constant repetition of their sole Norah Jones CD is a torture to rank alongside anything dreamed up by Japanese game-show directors. Daily 7.30am–9pm.

RESTAURANTS

Apollonion Via Campisi 18 tel_icon 0931 483 362 or 349 535 4189; map. You’ll feast on some of the best seafood in town at this quietly elegant family-run eatery, though there’s no menu. Instead, you’ll be pampered with a succession of superbly prepared dishes – from such starters as a mix of sardines, swordfish and shrimps in olive oil to mussels in a garlicky broth, baked langoustines and fritto misto, served with delicious rustic bread – all for €35. There’s a small lunchtime à la carte menu as well. Booking recommended. Mon–Tues & Thurs–Sun lunch & dinner.

Arrusti e Mangia Ronco Cristina 3 tel_icon 333 644 0847; map. Hidden in a dead-end Ronco behind Corso Umberto, just across the bridge from Ortigia, this is a very simple place, run and owned by butcher Ciccio and his childhood friend Mauro. It offers a fixed-price set menu (€18) of antipasti, charcoal-grilled meats and wine. It is always full. At present only the interior is open, but they have applied for permission to put tables outside in the Ronco. Thurs–Sat 8pm–midnight, Sun 1–3pm.

Castello Fiorentino Via del Crocifisso 6 tel_icon 0931 21 097; map. The finest pizzas in the city centre – people queue out of the door waiting for tables. It’s really good value, and the in-your-face waiters, blasting TV and general mayhem at peak times are all part of the charm. Pizzas are €3–10, other dishes – pastas, seafood and meat – €7–10. There’s a takeaway service too. Tues–Sun lunch & dinner.

Don Camillo Via della Maestranza 96 tel_icon 0931 67 133, web_icon ristorantedoncamillosiracusa.it; map. If locals want to impress visitors, they bring them to this refined restaurant in the fifteenth-century vaults of a former convent. The fish is fantastically fresh, and the menu emphasizes unusual Sicilian specialities, like pasta with tuna, mint and tomatoes; or a whole fish baked inside a crust of golden bread. It also has Siracusa’s finest wine cellar. Prices are high at around €16 for pastas and from €20 for mains, and there’s a tasting menu for €55. Mon–Sat lunch & dinner; closed part of Feb, July & Aug.

author_pick La Foglia Via Capodieci 21 tel_icon 0931 66 233, web_icon lafoglia.it; map. The city’s most idiosyncratic eatery, from the antique shop/art gallery furnishings to the hippy-chic tableware and place settings. It’s actually quite romantic, and a very laidback place to sample Mediterranean and vegetarian cooking, from rustic soups and home-made ravioli to veggie platters or fish matalotta (with tomatoes, onions, capers and olives). You’ll pay €12–15 for most dishes, up to around €22 for seafood. Daily lunch & dinner.

author_pick La Gazza Ladra Via Cavour 8 tel_icon 340 060 2428; map. Most restaurants around Via Cavour are very similar, but the “thieving magpie” tries to do things a little differently. A friendly family-run osteria, it has just eight tables and concentrates on authentic Sicilian cuisine with a homestyle touch, using staple ingredients like courgettes, aubergines, tuna, capers, olives, mint and oregano to great effect in antipasto platters and pasta dishes. Mains of the day (mostly fish) are chalked on the board. A meal will cost around €25, or you can just drop in for a salad, panino and a drink. Tues–Sat dinner only; closed July & Aug.

Al Mazari Via G. Torres 7 tel_icon 0931 483 690; map. Run by a family from Mazara del Vallo, this sophisticated yet cosy restaurant is the place to come for a romantic meal for two, or if you just need a treat. Carefully sourced ingredients are used to prepare dishes such as an excellent fish couscous (€20), handmade pasta with prawns and cherry tomatoes (€12), or casarecce pasta with swordfish, aubergine, wild mint and breadcrumbs (€12) that are typical of western Sicily. Daily lunch & dinner; sometimes closed Sun in winter.

author_pick Zsa Via Roma 73 tel_icon 0931 22 204; map. Good pizza – the dough is made with a light touch, and comes blistered from the wood oven, and the quality ingredients on top are abundant. They kick off at €4, but for a bit more you can feast on a vegetariana, laden with succulent grilled vegetables laced with radicchio, or a stufata, scattered with chilli and fennel-seed scented sausages and potatoes. In summer try the range of Philadelphia pizzas (made with cream cheese). In summer there is pizza at lunchtime too, though the choice of seafood pasta might divert you. Take-away available too. Tues–Sat lunch & dinner.

BARS

Bar Collo Via Pompeo Picherali 10 tel_icon 0931 24 580; map. Set in the courtyard of a palazzo, with wrought-iron filigree furniture on a candle-lit terrace below a bougainvillea-covered wall, Bar Collo is probably the most romantic place on the island for an early evening aperitivo. Later things hot up and the party crowd arrives. Outdoor heaters in winter. Daily 6.30pm–late.

Blu Via Nizza 50 tel_icon 0931 445 052; map. Don’t leave Ortigia without tasting a seasonal fresh-fruit prosecco or daiquiri at Blu. It’s also one of the few places where you can sit outside and watch the open sea. Owner Seby plays a laidback and eclectic range of music, and provides delicious home-made nibbles, as well as full meals featuring fresh fish. During the day there are fresh fruit gremolatas and pane cunzato to eat on the terrace or on the swimming rocks across the road. April–Oct daily 11am–late; Nov–March Mon–Sat 6.30pm–late.

Tinkite Via della Giudecca 61–63 tel_icon 348 597 5369; map. In the heart of the Giudecca, Tinkite attracts a rather hip crowd, and with gas-heaters and blankets, it’s one of the few places in Ortigia where you can sit outside comfortably in cold weather. Help yourself from the buffet of snacks to accompany your drink. If you’re not in the mood for alcohol, there’s a huge choice of speciality teas (served with little biscuits) along with hot chocolate, and, of course, coffee. Daily: April–Oct 9.30am–1.30pm & 7–11pm; Nov–March 8.30am–1pm & 5–10pm; closed Wed morning year-round.

Il Sale Via Amalfitania 56 tel_icon 0931 483 666; map. Atmospheric place for an aperitivo or for partying till late, this is one of three bars on a hidden courtyard off Via Amalfitania. Whitewashed stone vaults, candles and semi-outdoor seating. There are often live bands on Thursdays. Daily 7pm–late.

ENTERTAINMENT

Siracusa is one of the easiest places to catch a traditional Sicilian puppet theatre performance, though the best-known cultural entertainments on offer are the open-air classical Greek dramas performed in the Teatro Greco. Focusing on contemporary music and performance art, the Ortigia Festival in September has lapsed, though may be revived.

Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico (INDA) Palazzo Greco, Corso Matteotti 29 tel_icon 800 542 644 or 0931 487 200, web_icon indafondazione.org. Classical Greek drama is performed each year (May and June, usually Tues–Sun from around 6.45pm) at the Teatro Greco in the Parco Archeologico. It’s a real spectacle, though performances are in Italian only. Tickets range from €32 to €64, but vary from performance to performance according to availability, with cheaper last-minute tickets available for some performances. Get details on the INDA website or from Siracusa’s tourist offices; tickets are available at the INDA box office or online.

Piccolo Teatro dei Pupi Via della Giudecca 17 tel_icon 0931 465 540 or 328 532 6600, web_icon pupari.com. Traditional puppet shows by the Vaccaro-Mauceri family, Siracusa’s pre-eminent puppeteers, are held at least twice weekly between March and Oct (twice daily in Aug, and daily late Dec to early Jan) in their thriving theatre. You can check up-to-date schedules on the website; behind-the-scenes tours and special shows take place throughout the year. Tickets €7.50.

SHOPPING IN SIRACUSA

At Fonte Aretusa, shining like a pearl among the tourist tat, is Circo Fortuna, Via Capodieci 10 (Mon–Sat 10am–1pm & 5–7pm; tel_icon 347 216 3374, web_icon circofortuna.it; map), where Caroline Van Riet creates quirky and original ceramics that will make you think of Ortigia and smile, when you get back home. Alessia Genovese’s workshop-store, Artesania, behind the temple of Apollo at Via dell’Apollonion 5 (Mon–Sat 10am–1pm & 5–8pm; tel_icon 0931 21 778; map), is the source of the inspired furniture and smaller objects made from driftwood and reclaimed window frames, beams, doors, planks – that you will find in Ortigia’s boutique hotels and bars. She and her collaborators also create gorgeous textiles and knits – dyeing the yarns themselves from esoteric potions of Mediterranean plants. At Sete d’Incanto, Via Roma 27 (Mon–Sat 11am–2pm & 6–8.30pm; tel_icon 333 594 4518, web_icon silkinortigia.wordpress.com; map), owner-artist Elene Moreau is inspired by Ortigia’s architectural forms and natural elements to produce her hand-painted silk scarves and wall-hangings. For carefully sourced clothes and shoes from niche designers, head to Via Cavour 38 (Mon–Wed & Fri–Sun 11.30am–8pm; no phone; map); for designer and high-street clothes, try the shops along Corso Matteotti.

BEACHES NORTH OF SIRACUSA

North of Siracusa, much of the coast has been contaminated by noxious chemicals, but there are popular swimming spots south at Arenella (bus #23 from Piazza Pancali), mostly consisting of private lidos, but with a free, sandy beach a 5min walk along a cliff path heading back in the direction of Siracusa, and a rocky cape to the south where the inlets create clear pools that are good for snorkelling.

On the other side of the cape – a 30min walk away – is Ognina, a small fishing port and marina, also accessible by bus. It has no beach, but lots of appealing little coves.

Fontane Bianche, 20km south of Siracusa (buses #21 or #22 from Piazza Pancali), is another very popular spot with the locals, with a wide arc of sand ringed by hotels, bars and restaurants, though there is a stretch of free public beach as well. An unofficial coastal path heads off south along the cliffs, taking you to a handful of swimming spots, but no beach. If you get off the bus at the junction between the road to Fontane Bianche and the main SS113 (whether you arrive here before or after arriving in Fontane Bianche depends on the route), a 10–15min walk along the main road brings you to the utterly lovely La Marchesa beach, backed by orange groves. There is a charge for access during the summer, but if you speak nicely to the custodian in low season he will usually let you in.

Megara Hyblaea

Daily: June–Sept 9am–7pm; Oct–May 9am–1hr before sunset; last entry 1hr before closing • €4

The extensive (and well-signposted) remains of MEGARA HYBLAEA are considered to be the most complete model of an Archaic city still surviving. The settlement prospered as a Greek colony after the Sikel king of Hybla had granted land alongside his own to Greeks from Megara (near Athens). By the middle of the seventh century BC, the population had done so well out of trade and their high-quality pottery that they were able to found some minor colonies of their own, including Selinus in the west, though their city was eventually submerged by Syracusan ambitions and destroyed by Gelon in 482 BC. The town flourished again later in the fourth century BC, but was finally levelled by the Romans in the same avenging campaign that ended Syracuse’s independence in 214 BC. Most of the ruins belong to the fourth-century revival, but the fortifications were erected a century later, interrupted by the Romans’ arrival. Various buildings lie confusingly scattered over a wide area, though all the finds are in Siracusa’s Museo Archeologico.

< Back to Siracusa and the southeast

Pantalica

Always open • Free

PANTALICA, Sicily’s greatest necropolis, lies in the folds of the Monti Iblei, around 40km northwest of Siracusa. Here, in the deep gorge of the River Anapo, you can follow tracks past several thousand tombs hollowed out of the valley sides at five separate locations. Several skeletons were found in each tomb, suggesting that a few thousand people once lived in what is now largely a craggy wilderness. It’s an extraordinary location, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but it’s virtually impossible to get to Pantalica by public transport; by car, the approaches are from the small towns of Sortino or Ferla, at either end of the gorge, with parking at various points near both places; the northern necropolis, approached via Sortino, makes the most dramatic introduction to the area.

The site was first used between the thirteenth and the tenth centuries BC by Sikel refugees from the coast. After the eighth century BC, it is thought to have been the location of the city of Hybla, whose king invited Megarian Greeks to colonize Megara Hyblaea; remains from this era are visible, but all pale into insignificance in contrast with the five thousand or so tombs hewn out of the gorge below. In some were found the traces of several separate skeletons, probably of the same family, while others show evidence of habitation – though much later, when the Syracusans themselves were forced to flee inland from barbarian incursions. The atmosphere is primeval and almost sinister – for Vincent Cronin, even something terrifying: “Here is Sicily of the stone age, intent on nothing higher than the taking of food and the burial of its dead.” For Cronin, the free play of nature in this ravine embodied Sicily’s own particular contribution to the man-made wonders bestowed later by the island’s conquerors, and as such – symbolized by a honeycomb he came across in one of the caves – the object of the quest described in his book, The Golden Honeycomb (1954).

The site

The road ends at a parking area at the entrance to the northern necropolis, 6km from Sortino (follow the signs). An obvious but rocky path leads around a plateau, then down to the river and up the other side (where there’s another parking area, but this time accessed from Ferla – the road was originally planned to span the gorge, but never completed). You’ll soon see the tombs, first just dotting the walls of the valley in clusters and finally puncturing the whole vertical cliff face – this last view is about 1km, or a thirty-minute walk, from the parking area. There are superb views from the higher reaches, and the path and rock-cut steps remain good all the way.

You can continue down across the river and up the other side of the gorge, where the road begins again and runs west to Ferla, another 9km beyond. This is the upper road to Ferla, with a parking area allowing access to the foundations of the Anaktoron, or prince’s palace, a building from ancient Hybla, and to the southern necropolis, where more rock tombs are visible. A lower road from Ferla has another parking area, from where you can stroll easily along the bottom of the gorge for a while.

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING: PANTALICA

Il Giardino di Pantalica Via Orazio Motta Tornabene 3 tel_icon 095 712 2680, web_icon pantalica.it. An agriturismo on an estate within the Pantalica natural reserve; to get there take the Siracusa road from Ferla, and enter (after 3km) via the park entrance. There are one- and two-bedroom apartments and a summer swimming pool, and as for food, there are barbecue facilities and a restaurant (open daily if there are guests) specializing in local meat, where you can eat for €20–25 per head. No credit cards. €70

< Back to Siracusa and the southeast

Palazzolo Acreide

Set on a hill some 40km west of Siracusa, PALAZZOLO ACREIDE is a mainly Baroque town with the remains of the ancient city of Akrei, one of the province’s classical sites, lying just outside the modern settlement. Palazzolo makes a good excursion from Siracusa, or a rather quiet overnight stop if you have your own transport (the nicest places to stay are in the surrounding countryside).

Palazzolo’s main square, Piazza del Popolo, is the heart of the Baroque town, with two sides dominated by the handsome church of San Sebastiano and the gleaming town hall. From here lanes radiate down past opulent facades, hidden courtyards and gargoyled balconies, eventually leading to a trio of fine Baroque churches, the Chiesa Madre, San Paolo and the Annunziata. Everything you will want to see is within walking distance of the centre, though it is quite a slog up the hill to Akrei, especially in the height of summer.

Casa-Museo di Antonino Uccello

Via Machiavelli 19 • Mon–Sat 9am–6.30pm, Sun 9am–12.30pm • €2 • tel_icon 0931 881 499, web_icon casamuseo.it

Palazzolo’s main focus of interest – at least for anyone curious about the roots of Sicilian culture – is the Casa-Museo di Antonino Uccello, tucked away in a house in the old centre. The fruit of one man’s thirty-year obsession to preserve the traditions of rural Sicily, it constitutes an important documentation of folk art, showing trousseaux, ceramics, olive presses, puppets, reconstructions of houses and stables, and anything else judged by Uccello to be in danger of extinction.

Akrai

Daily 9am–5pm • €4 • A 20min walk up from Palazzolo Acreide town centre, or you can park close to the entrance

The first inland colony of Siracusa, ancient Akrai thrived during the peace and security that characterized Hieron II’s reign during the third century BC. It declined under the Romans, but later re-emerged as an important early Christian centre (as shown by the number of rock-cut tombs in the area), only to be eventually destroyed by the Arabs.

Many remains give little impression of their former grandeur. You’ll have a job identifying the excavated Roman Tempio di Persefone, above the Greek theatre, an unusually round chamber that was formerly covered by a cupola. Equally fragmentary is the much older Tempio di Afrodite, sixth or fifth century BC, lying at the head of what was the agora. From here you can look straight down into one of the two quarries from which the stone to build the city was taken. Later they were converted into Christian burial chambers, and in the first of them, the Intagliata, you can plainly see the recesses in the walls: some of them catacombs, others areas of worship, the rest simply rude dwellings cut in the Byzantine era. The narrower, deeper quarry below it, the Intagliatella, holds more votive niches and a relief cut from the rock-face, over 2m long, that combines a typically Greek scene – heroes banqueting – with a Roman one of heroes offering sacrifice. It’s thought to date from the first century BC.

There are more niches and chambers in a lower quarry, the Templi Ferali, though you’ll have to ask the custodian to let you see this.

Teatro Greco

Of the visible remains, the most complete is the small Teatro Greco, built towards the end of Hieron’s reign. A perfect semicircle, the theatre held six hundred people and retains traces of its scene-building. Behind the theatre to the right is a small senate house, or bouleuterion, a rectangular construction that was originally covered. Beyond lies a 200m stretch of decumanus that once connected the two gates of the city. Crossed at regular intervals by junctions and paved in lava rock, it’s in better condition than many of the more recent roads in the area.

Santoni

Currently closed for refurbishment; call for an update • tel_icon 0931 876 602 • The sculptures are a 15min walk from the main Akrai site

Comprising twelve rock-cut sculptures (carved no later than the third century BC), the Santoni represent the fertility goddess Cybele, a predominantly eastern deity whose origins are steeped in mystery. There’s no other example of so rich a complex relating to her worship, and the local name tagged to these sculptures – santoni, or “great saints” – suggests that the awe attached to them survived until relatively recently.

Parcallario

June–Sept daily 10am–sunset; Oct–March weekends or by appointment 10am–sunset, but always call first • €9 • tel_icon 333 921 8145, web_icon parcallario.it • There are no buses to the park, so you’ll need your own transport

Half an hour’s drive northwest of Palazzolo on the Vizzini–Caltagirone road (the SS124), set in cool, shady woods outside the little village of Buccheri, the well-run Parcallario offers the opportunity to head up into the tree canopies. There are currently four routes of varying difficulty (and more in the pipeline), with rope-walks, zip wires and swinging wooden bridges, as well as a fun course for young children. There are also barbecues (Buccheri and Palazzolo are famous for their butchers), picnic tables and a small bar selling freshly grilled sausage sandwiches and powerful local red wine.

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: PALAZZOLO ACREIDE

By bus AST buses from Siracusa pull up in the central Piazza del Popolo in the heart of the historic centre.

Tourist information There’s a tourist office on Piazza del Popolo (daily 9am–1pm & 3–7pm, 4–8pm in summer; tel_icon 0931 472 181).

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING

Anapama Contrada Fiumara tel_icon 0931 24 011, web_icon anapama.it. Three apartments on a rambling country estate with lush gardens and masses of space for children to play. There’s a swimming pool fed by a freshwater spring, bikes for guest use and three horses which guests can ride. If you don’t like dogs, give it a miss, however. €70

Fattoria Giannavi Contrada Giannavi tel_icon 0931 881 776, web_icon fattoriagiannavi.it. A farm with rooms, pool and a restaurant serving home-grown, home-cooked food, with good deals if you stay on a full- or half-board basis. It’s set high on a bluff with extensive views, 8km from Palazzolo on the Giarratana/Ragusa road (10min drive). Camping also available here. Camping €10 per person; rooms €60

Il Portico Via Orologio 6 tel_icon 0931 881 532. Grandly renovated old palazzo, with painted ceilings and period furnishings – dining here is something of an occasion. The menu includes such dishes as fresh pasta and grilled meats, and prices are excellent: pizzas are €4–10, all other dishes are €7–15, and tasting menus are €35 and €40. Mon & Wed–Sun dinner only.

Lo Scrigno dei Sapori Via Maddalena 50 tel_icon 0931 882 941. A great spot for a lunch or more substantial dinner, where the inventive menu is strong on meats, for example ravioli with a hare and nut sauce, pork with a pistachio crust, stuffed rabbit, and lamb’s ribs, all at reasonable prices. There are pizzas in the evening too. Tues–Sun lunch & dinner.

< Back to Siracusa and the southeast

Noto

Some 32km southwest of Siracusa, the exquisite town of NOTO represents the apogee of the wholesale renovation that took place following the cataclysm of 1693, a monument to the achievement of a few architects and planners whose vision coincided with the golden age of Baroque architecture. Although a town called Noto, or Netum, has existed in this area for centuries, what you see today is in effect a “New Town”, conceived as a triumphant symbol of renewal. The fragile Iblean limestone used in its construction was grievously damaged by modern pollution, but years of restoration work have gradually shaken off the grime and most of the harmonious buildings have regained their original honey-hued facades. Some characterful B&B accommodation, and traffic-free old-town streets that are at their most charming as the lights come on at dusk make this one of the island’s essential stopovers.

Brief history

Noto was flattened by the earthquake on January 11, 1693, and a week later its rebuilding was entrusted to a Sicilian-Spanish aristocrat, Giuseppe Lanza, Duke of Camastra, on the strength of his work at the town of Santo Stefano di Camastra, on the Tyrrhenian coast. Lanza visited the ruins, saw nothing but “un monton de piedras abandonadas” (a mountain of forsaken rocks), and quickly decided to start afresh, on a new site 16km to the south. In fact, the ruins weren’t abandoned; the city’s battered population was already improvising a shantytown, and even held a referendum when Lanza’s intentions became known, rejecting the call to relocate their city. But partly motivated by the prestige of the undertaking, partly by the need to refurbish the area’s defences, Lanza ignored the local feeling, even pulling down their new constructions and the old town’s remaining church.

With the help of the Flemish military engineer Carlos de Grunemburg, Lanza devised a revolutionary new plan, based on two gridded sections that were to be almost completely separated from each other – a lower area for the political and religious establishment, the upper town for the people. The best architects were to be used: Vincenzo Sinatra, Paolo Labisi and the master craftsman Rosario Gagliardi – not innovators, but men whose enthusiasm and experience enabled them to concoct a graceful synthesis of the latest architectural skills and forms. Their collaboration was so complete that it’s still difficult to ascribe some buildings to any one person. Within an astonishingly short time the work was completed: a new city, planned with the accent on symmetry and visual harmony, from its simple street plan to the lissom figures adorning its buildings. It’s easily the most successful post-earthquake creation, and, for a time, in the mid-nineteenth century, the new Noto replaced Siracusa as the region’s provincial capital.

AMONG THE RUINS OF NOTO ANTICA

Until finally abandoned in 1693, the original town of Noto had several times been a significant historical stronghold: one of the few Sicilian towns to resist the looting of the Roman praetor Verres, it was also the last bastion of Arab Sicily before the Norman conquest of the island. Only sparse remnants of the old town survive, but Noto Antica makes a fascinating side-trip nonetheless. It’s 16km northwest of Noto, signposted from the western end of the Corso in town (there’s no bus) – the turn-off to the site is also that for the convent of Santa Maria delle Scale, with Noto Antica another 5km past the convent. You park outside the surviving gate of the castle (occupied from the eleventh to the seventeenth century), where renovation work has rebuilt some of the circular tower. Early Christian catacombs honeycomb the rock beneath the tumbled walls that line the valley cliff. An unsurfaced country lane pushes on through the castle gate past the now-puzzling, completely overgrown remains of an abandoned city – square-cut stone blocks, shattered arches, bramble-covered courtyards and crumbling walls. If you come out here, you might as well plan the day to take in the Cava Grande canyon, too, which is only another twenty minutes’ drive away – back past the convent to the main road, turn left and look for the signposted right turn.

Porta Reale

From the public gardens on the eastern side of town, the centre of Noto is approached through the monumental Porta Reale, built in 1838 and topped by the three symbols of the town’s allegiance to the Bourbon monarchy: a dog, a tower and a pelican (respectively, loyalty, strength and sacrifice). The main Corso Vittorio Emanuele, running from here through the heart of the lower, patricians’ quarter, is lined with some of Sicily’s most captivating buildings. Now the traffic’s kept out you can stand back and admire them at will, while floodlights, many set into the pavement, show them off to glorious effect at night.

The Duomo

Piazza del Municipio • Usually daily 10am–1pm & 5–7pm

Mid-way along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Piazza del Municipio forms the dramatic centrepiece of the town’s design, with the imposing twin-towered Duomo magnificently restored following the dramatic collapse of its dome in 1996. First completed in 1776, it’s said to have been inspired by models of Borromini’s churches in Rome – the story of its reconstruction, and some of the Duomo’s treasures, are on display around the back of the cathedral.

Palazzo Ducezio

Piazza del Municipio • Opening hours vary, and the Hall of the Mirrors is sometimes closed for civic events; check with the tourist office • €4

Piazza del Municipio is bordered by gleaming buildings restored to look as they must have done when first built. Opposite the Duomo and currently serving as the Municipio (town hall), the Palazzo Ducezio presents a lovely, convex front of columns and long stone balconies. The interior is well worth a visit to see the so-called Hall of Mirrors, with its splendid trompe l’oeil ceiling.

Via C. Nicolaci

West of the Duomo, the steep Via C. Nicolaci culminates in the elliptical Monte Vergine church. It’s a perfectly framed view that’s enhanced during the annual Infiorata flower festival (third weekend of May), when flower petals are laid up the entire street in a swirl of intricate designs. Palazzo Villadorata, the palace that flanks the west side of the street, also makes rather an unusual, not to say eccentric, sight. Onto a strictly classical front six extravagant balconies were grafted, supported by the last word in sculpted buttresses – griffins, galloping horses and bald and bearded figures with fat-cheeked cherubs at their bellies. The palazzo is sometimes open for guided visits – ask at the tourist office.

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: NOTO

By bus All buses stop at the Giardino Pubblico at the eastern end of town, close to the Porta Reale.

Destinations Avola (1–2 hourly; 15min); Eloro (2–4 daily Mon–Sat; 20min); Ispica (9 daily Mon–Sat, 6 daily Sun; 45min); Siracusa (11 daily Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 55min).

By train The train station is a good 10–15min walk away down Via Principe di Piemonte, has no facilities – not even a bench – and is often unstaffed. If you have luggage, you may need a taxi ( tel_icon 0931 838 713 or 338 945 8206).

Destinations Ragusa (1 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 40min); Siracusa (8 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 35min).

By car Traffic through town is all one-way and while it’s easy enough to drive in (follow “centro” signs) or out (destinations are all well signposted), finding a particular spot while driving can be difficult. The best advice is to park first (there’s a free waste-ground car park behind the stadium, among others) and get your bearings. Many hotels and B&Bs are signposted through town as well.

Tourist information There’s a well-informed tourist office in Piazza XVI Maggio, set back from the Corso behind the Hercules fountain (April–Oct Mon–Sat and most Sundays 9am–1pm & 2.30–7.30pm; Nov–March daily 8.30am–1pm & 2.30–7pm; tel_icon 0931 573 779, web_icon comune.noto.sr.it), which has a full list of accommodation.

CAVA GRANDE DEL FIUME CASSIBILE

A spectacular winding route northwest of the ramshackle agricultural town of Avola climbs past the Convento di Avola Vecchia to the magnificent gorge and nature reserve of the Cava Grande del Fiume Cassibile. There’s parking by a sensational viewpoint over the Cassibile River gorge, which really is quite Grand Canyon-esque, with sheer rock walls visible across the divide, birds of prey circling, and the river glistening far below. The very steep path that leads down to the bottom of the valley is closed at times of high fire risk, and you need to be properly shod, fit enough to climb back out, and to carry plenty of water. The round-trip requires a good three hours, plus any time you spend splashing in the natural swimming pools or following the footpath alongside the river, which runs for most of the gorge’s 11km length. If you don’t fancy going right down to the bottom, follow the gentler path that hugs the canyon walls, branching off to the left about halfway down the steps. At the top, at the parking area, you can get a drink or a meal from a rustic tavern, the Trattoria Cava Grande (no phone; June–Sept Tues–Sun lunch & dinner; Oct–May Sat & Sun lunch only).

Cava Grande is not accessible on public transport. It’s a 15km drive from Avola, or you can also approach from Noto up the SS287, past the turn-off for Noto Antica. For walking tours with an English-speaking guide, including transport, call tel_icon 333 329 3732.

ACCOMMODATION

author_pick Il Castello Via Fratelli Bandiera 2 tel_icon 320 838 8869, web_icon ostellodinoto.it. Youth hostel housed in a converted palazzo in the upper part of town with wonderful views, large dormitories, excellent showers and laundry service; there are some family rooms too, sleeping four. It’s accessible from the centre in a few minutes up signposted steps from Via Cavour, behind the Duomo. Dorms €16; beds in family rooms €19.50

La Fontanella Via Rosolino Pilo 3 tel_icon 0931 894 735, web_icon albergolafontanella.it. Thirteen rooms in a sympathetically restored nineteenth-century palazzo on a busy road on the northern edge of Noto Alta. It’s a three-star place, and the only hotel (rather than B&B) within walking distance of the centre (10min), but there’s no restaurant. Often cheaper than the B&Bs, though lacking some of their charm. Parking is for once easy around here. €60

Liberty Rooms Via Francesco Ferruccio, corner Corso Vittorio Emanuele tel_icon 338 230 4042. This beautiful Art Nouveau “palazzetto” on Noto’s central Corso has gracious rooms furnished with antiques. A kitchen for guests’ use and a huge roof terrace on which to eat mean there’s no need to dine out. €100

Macrina Vico Grillo, corner Via Fabrizi tel_icon 0931 837 202, web_icon b-bmacrina.com. Family-run B&B in a neighbourly street, with three spacious and airy rooms, each with its own terrace. There’s also a huge walled garden with a couple of swings plus use of a barbecue, making this a good choice if you have kids. The small breakfast terrace is useful if you want to rustle up a snack or aperitivo. €75

author_pick Montandon Via A. Sofia 50 tel_icon 0931 836 389 or 339 524 4607, web_icon b-bmontandon.com. A real gem, this B&B in a grand palazzo in the upper town has three huge rooms, each with its own terrace. Guests have access to an enchanting garden (with swings), which makes a welcome summer retreat from heat and crowds. The owner is a marvellous host, and serves outstanding breakfasts, including eggs, local ricotta, salami, ham, pastries, fruit and home-made jams. €80

Villa Canisello Via Cesare Pavese 1 tel_icon 0931 835 793, web_icon villacanisello.it. An old farmhouse on the western outskirts of town in a quiet residential suburb; rooms open to a patio or terrace, and there’s parking. Signs lead you right there from the western end of the Corso – it seems like a bit of a slog, but it’s actually only a 10min walk to the centre. Closed Nov–Easter. €80

EATING, DRINKING AND ENTERTAINMENT

Although there are surprisingly few restaurants in the centre of Noto, you’ll be able to ring the changes over a couple of days, and prices are pretty reasonable. The cafés along the Corso come into their own during the evening passeggiata, while the local authorities put on a full range of concerts and events throughout the year, from religious processions at Easter to summer music festivals – get details from the tourist office.

CAFÉS AND RESTAURANTS

Caffè Sicilia Corso Vittorio Emanuele 125. You really shouldn’t leave Noto without sampling the ice creams at its rival prize-winning gelaterie, Costanzo and Sicilia. This is the more radical of the two, with flavours such as lemon and saffron, and even basil. Daily 8am–8pm, closes later in summer.

author_pick Carmine Via Ducezio 1 tel_icon 0931 838 705. Locals flock to this trattoria for a good meal at low cost and it’s certainly pretty remarkable value, with rustic antipasto and pasta dishes running at €6–7, grilled fish from around €11, and a mixed grill at €13. It perfectly defines the phrase “cheap and cheerful”, though the downsides are that it’s too brightly lit, the house wine is challenging to say the least and the interconnected rooms get very busy. Daily lunch & dinner; closed Mon Sept–June.

Costanzo Via Silvio Spaventa 7–11. A well-known pasticceria and gelateria, known for producing what may be the best ice cream in Italy (the other contender is Sicilia) in flavours such as mandarin, ricotta, jasmine and rose (depending on the season), as well as sweets and pastries, including dreamy cassata. The almond milk is joyous. Mon–Tues & Thurs–Sun lunch & dinner.

Emily’s Wine Via Cavour 34 tel_icon 0931 838 028, web_icon enotecanoto.com. A nice place for a glass of good wine (€6) and tasty snacks such as crostini with ricotta and honey, an unctuous caponata (€9), foccace (€2–3), and local cheeses and hams (€3 per portion). They also have several pasta dishes daily (€5.50–6.50) and a range of lentil and pulse soups to eat in or take away and heat up at home – useful if you have an apartment. Daily 11am–3pm & 4pm–late; winter closed Wed.

Trattoria Baglieri Il Crocifisso Via Principe Umberto 46 tel_icon 0931 571 151. Fine trattoria using seasonal local ingredients in ways that make the taste-buds zing: spaghetti with prawns and wild asparagus (€12), rabbit in agrodolce with orange-blossom honey, wild greens, celery, carrot and peppers (€12), or tuna in a pistachio and sesame crust (€14). Mon–Tues & Thurs–Sun lunch & dinner.

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South of Noto

South of Noto lies the most undeveloped stretch of coast on the east side of the island, sheltering excellent sand beaches – like Noto Marina and Eloro – and the extensive Vendicari nature reserve. Minor roads run all the way south to the Capo delle Correnti, the southernmost point of Sicily, while in between the old restored fishing villages of Marzamemi and Portopalo di Capo Passero serve as small-scale summer resorts. There are several good rural accommodation options in the area, though with a car, you could see the whole of the coast – as far as the cape and back – from Noto in a day, but public transport is practically nonexistent.

Noto Marina and Eloro

Eloro Mon–Sat 9am–1.30pm • Free • Buses operated by Caruso ( tel_icon 0931 836 23) run from Noto to Noto Marina

Noto’s local beach, 5km southeast at NOTO MARINA (also called Lido di Noto), is fine for a swim and a bite to eat (in summer at least). You can walk from here (though it’s easier to drive) just south to the seaside ruins of Helorus, or Eloro, a Syracusan colony founded in the seventh century BC at the mouth of the Tellaro River. It’s all a bit ramshackle, and the few remains are quite difficult to make head or tail of, but its position right above the shore is very attractive. The broad expanse of sand below offers good swimming, but direct access is tricky from the site: a road to the south, across the river, leads directly to the beach.

The Riserva Naturale di Vendicari

Daily: April–Oct 7am–8pm; Nov–March 7am–6.30pm • Free, parking €2.50 • tel_icon 0931 67 450, web_icon oasivendicari.net

Some 10km south of Noto is the magical Riserva Naturale di Vendicari, an enchanting landscape of marshes, lagoons, dunes and saltpans. There’s parking at the entrance, but no other facilities. Loads of waterbirds can be seen from the hides, including herons, cranes, black storks and even pelicans, though the more than three hundred flamingos can be elusive at times, while sandy tracks and boardwalks fan out north and south through the marshland, leading to some splendid sand crescents. The reserve takes its name from the brick tower, the Torre Vendicari, which looms over a part-restored tonnara (tuna-fishing village) by one of the beaches. Its internal courtyards and sandstone pillars gleam brightly against a turquoise sea. Another good beach, signposted San Lorenzo, lies just a short drive further south of the reserve, down the main Pachino road, and has very clear water and a small summer lido.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT RAGUSA IBLA; ORECCHIO DI DIONISIO, NEAPOLIS; RISERVA VENDICARI

ACCOMMODATION: RISERVA NATURALE DI VENDICARI

Agriturismo Cala Mosche Riserva Naturale l’Oasi di Vendicari tel_icon 347 858 7319. This agriturismo with six rooms and a restaurant is set right inside the reserve (take the Cala Mosche entrance), in walking distance of the beaches. Ideal for families. €50

Il Roveto Contrada Roveto-Vendicari tel_icon 338 742 6343, web_icon roveto.it. This beautifully restored old farmhouse is signposted at the Riserva Naturale turn-off on the SP19 Pachino road. The five self-contained apartments with kitchen sleep either two, four or six people, and you’re only 800m from the pristine Torre Vendicari beach. Three-night minimum stay. From €90

Terre di Vendicari Contrada Vaddeddi tel_icon 346 359 3845, web_icon terredivendicari.it. Minimalist chic in a country hotel at the heart of the Vendicari nature reserve, with views out to sea over its olive and lemon groves. Rooms are cool and stylish, with freestanding Philippe Starck baths and abundant bathtime products. Fabulous swimming pool, too. €230

Villa Romana del Tellaro

Contrada Vaddeddi • Daily 9am–7pm • €6 • tel_icon 0931 573 883, web_icon villaromanadeltellaro.com

In 1971 the remains of the Villa Romana del Tellaro, an Imperial-era Roman country villa dating back to the fourth century AD, were discovered on land above the River Tellaroo, about 2km inland from Vendicari. Though on a smaller scale than the Villa Romana del Casale, Tellaro too has some fantastic mosaics, including scenes from the Odyssey, and a wonderfully realized wild-animal hunting scene in which people and animals are shown wading through water. There is a magnificent tiger too – suggesting that these mosaics, like those at Casale, were the work of North African craftsmen.

Marzamemi

MARZAMEMI, prettily set around a crescent harbour backed by the port’s old tonnara, is still renowned for its tuna dishes, and is home to a film festival in late July ( web_icon cinemadifrontiera.it), showing international contemporary and vintage films in open-air venues. Behind the shell of a church and palazzo, the restored tonnara square shelters bars and restaurants that come into their own in high summer, when tourists descend on the village in droves.

EATING: MARZAMEMI

La Cialoma Piazza Regina Margherita 23 tel_icon 0931 841 772. Immediately appealing, cosy little restaurant run by a family of women, occupying one of the diminutive buildings of the tonnara complex and specializing not just in tuna, but in several local varieties of blue fish, served in hearty and tasty traditional dishes with a light creative touch. Daily lunch & dinner; closed Nov, and Tues Dec–Feb.

Portopalo di Capo Passero

Eight kilometres south of Marzamemi down the rugged coastal road, PORTOPALO DI CAPO PASSERO is another low-key summer resort. You might be able to persuade someone to row you over to the little islet that lies just offshore, complete with a seventeenth-century castle. Otherwise, follow the minor cape road out to the southeastern point of Isola delle Correnti (the tiny islet just off the cape, linked to it at low tide). You’re on the southernmost tip of Sicily here, with nothing between you and Africa.

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Ispica and the Cava d’Ispica

Inland from the cape at ISPICA, 18km southeast of Modica, human settlement can be traced back 4000 years, to the cave dwellings and tombs carved out of the wide gorge of the Cava d’Ispica. These were later used by generations of Sikels, Greeks and early Christians to bury their dead, while during medieval times a strong fortified castle, town and churches were built on the rocky bluff above the southern section of the gorge. Then, in 1693, disaster struck, as the great quake levelled thousands of years of habitation in one swift blow. A new town was rebuilt on the neighbouring hill, which is where modern Ispica thrives today, a rather sprawling place set around a central kernel of restored squares and Baroque churches, including the rather special elliptical Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore.

Parco Archeologico della Forza

Daily 9am–1 hour before sunset • Free • tel_icon 0932 951 133 • You can walk here from the centre of Ispica: follow signs to Rosolini, and at the foot of the town the road forks – the left fork is marked Parco Archeologico della Forza, where there’s a car park

Ispica lies at the head of a dramatic limestone gorge, some 12km long and honeycombed with rock-cut tombs and dwellings. The area nearest to Ispica, designated as the Parco Archeologico della Forza, has a well-marked path taking you past the broken remains of palaces and churches and into the southern section of the gorge itself, where caves were used as houses, storerooms, stables, workshops and cemeteries, right up until 1693. The nearest water supply was the river at the bottom of the gorge, reached by 3300 steps, no less. A separate path from the parking area leads to the church of Santa Maria La Cava, cut into the rock and dating back to the very earliest days of Christianity in Sicily – some medieval frescoes can be seen inside.

In the week before Christmas, tableaux vivants are staged in the caves of the Parco della Forza, with locals dressed up as peasants, reviving old traditions such as making ricotta and shoeing horses.

Cava d’Ispica Nord

April–Oct daily 9am–1hr before sunset; Nov–March Mon–Sat 9am–1.30pm • €4

The Ispica gorge actually runs for 13km northwest towards Modica, with rock-cut dwellings and tombs lining the entire route. It’s possible to walk through the gorge, starting either at Ispica or at the northern section, the Cava d’Ispica Nord, which is around 7km east of Modica (and very clearly, indeed almost obsessively, signposted).

From the entrance (where there’s a café), a landscaped path descends into the gorge, where towering fronds of bamboo and wild fennel grow amid the fig, pomegranate and walnut trees. There are catacombs immediately below the site entrance, while the path meanders back through the site past tombs and dwellings cut into the cliff face. The route through the gorge starts on the other side of the road from the entrance, running under the road bridge.

Molino ad Acqua

Via Cava d’Ispica 89, Modica • Daily 9am–7pm • €3 • tel_icon 0932 771048, web_icon cavallodispica.it

Heading to Cava d’Ispica Nord from either Modica or Ispica, you may like to make a stop at the fascinating working watermill of Molino ad Acqua – just follow the many signs. Here you can watch the mill – set on the horizontal, rather than the vertical, so that it could still work when water levels were low – grinding wheat into flour, and visit the cave-house (with bed, laundry and kitchen) where members of the family who ran it lived until the 1950s.

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Modica

The small but busy town of MODICA, 17km northwest of Ispica and 18km south of Ragusa, is enjoying a new lease of life as a select tourist destination, based again on its remarkable late Baroque heritage. A powerful medieval base of the Chiaramonte family, and later the Cabreras, it was once far more important than Ragusa itself, though ironically, following the reconstruction after 1693 (which has earned it UNESCO World Heritage status) it never regained its erstwhile prestige. There’s really not much to see to Modica – a night would do it full justice – but it is an enjoyable place to visit. There’s interest enough in simply strolling the Corso and window-shopping in the boutiques, fancy shoe shops, enotecas and gourmet delis.

SICILY’S CHOCOLATE CITY

Mention Modica to most Italians and they’ll think chocolate. The great Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia declared that “Modican chocolate is unparalleled … tasting it is like reaching the archetype, the absolute … chocolate produced elsewhere, even the most celebrated, is an adulteration, a corruption of the original.” In fact, the chocolate sold here is unlike most other chocolate you’ll have encountered, from its grainy, crunchy texture to the undertones of cinnamon, orange, vanilla, honey, almonds and even salt and pepper. You can sample it in a myriad of ways, from ice cream to Modica’s famous hot chocolate, but it’s most readily available in the traditional chocolate bar format available from numerous shops in the town. Above all, seek out Sicily’s oldest chocolate manufacturer, the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, up an alley at Corso Umberto I 159 (daily 9am–8pm; tel_icon 0932 941 225, web_icon bonajuto.it), which has been making the stuff since 1880. The shop’s a beauty, filled with old display cabinets, and you can sample from dainty little tasting dishes on the counter before you buy.

Corso Umberto I

Modica’s upper and lower towns are divided by the long main drag of Corso Umberto I – which originally was a river until a flood of 1902 prompted the authorities to cover it over. The Corso is flanked by a run of handsome palazzi, whose balconies are buttressed by gargoyles, twisted heads and beasts, while its churches make grandiose Baroque statements of intent. That of San Pietro, for example, has a wide flight of steps framing the life-sized statues of the Twelve Apostles.

Modica Alta

The warren-like upper town of Modica Alta holds some genius in the shape of the magnificent eighteenth-century facade of San Giorgio, a worthy rival to the church of the same name in Ragusa Ibla. It’s thought that architect Rosario Gagliardi was responsible for this, too: the elliptical facade is topped by his trademark, a belfry, while the approach is characteristically daring – twin flights of stairs zigzag up across the upper town’s hairpins, ending in a terrace before the church. From here, and from the tight streets above San Giorgio, you can look back over the grey-tiled roofs and balconies of the town, built up two sides of a narrow valley. There are more views from the remains of the castle and its clocktower, which perches on a rocky spur above the main part of town.

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: MODICA

By bus Regional buses drop you right in Modica’s centre on Corso Umberto I.

Destinations Catania (9 daily Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 2hr 10min); Catania airport (9 daily Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 1hr 55min); Ispica (9 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 30min–1hr 10min); Noto (hourly Mon–Sat, 6 daily Sun; 1hr 25min); Ragusa (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 25min–1hr); Scicli (1–2 hourly Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 30–40min); Siracusa (10 daily Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 2hr–2hr 40min).

By train The train station is a good 10min walk away from the town centre.

Destinations Noto (4 Mon–Sat only; 1hr 15min); Ragusa (4 Mon–Sat only; 15min); Scicli (4 Mon–Sat; 20min); Siracusa (4 Mon–Sat; 1hr 45min).

By car Drivers can park on the street, but in most central areas you need to buy a parking voucher (from tabacchi) to put in your window (€0.75/hr, half day €2.50; charges apply Mon–Sat 9am–1pm & 4–8pm). Note also that if you’re going to the Cava d’Ispica, you can drive directly to the northern section closest to Modica (there’s a brown sign at the ornamental fountain) – you don’t need to take the main road to Ispica itself.

Tourist information The tourist office is at Corso Umberto I 141 (Mon–Sat 8am–1.30pm & 3–7pm; tel_icon 346 655 8227).

ACCOMMODATION

Casa Talia Via Exaudinos 1 tel_icon 0932 752 075, web_icon casatalia.it. Occupying a cluster of restored houses in what was once Modica’s Jewish ghetto, Casa Talia is far removed from the city-centre bustle, yet just a 5min walk down a series of steps and alleyways from the main Corso. A garden planted with fruit trees adds to the feeling of seclusion. Rooms, designed by the architect owners who live on-site, are stylish and practical, and breakfasts are excellent (freshly squeezed juices, home-made cakes, jams and breads), served in a nook-and-crannied whitewashed room occupying what were once caves used as a cistern and stables. €130

L’Orangerie Vico de Naro 5 tel_icon 0932 754 703 or 347 067 4698, web_icon lorangerie.it. Tranquil, refined B&B with three huge suites (with kitchens) and four spacious rooms, in a palazzo with frescoed ceilings and private flower-filled terraces. Doubles €96; suites €126

Palazzo Il Cavaliere Corso Umberto I 259 tel_icon 0932 947 219, web_icon palazzoilcavaliere.it. A down-to-earth aristocratic family run their eighteenth-century palace as a B&B. The setting is splendid and authentic – original Caltagirone tiled floors, frescoed ceilings and antique furniture, and three of the eight rooms open on to a courtyard. €88

Palazzo Failla Via Blandini 5 tel_icon 0932 941 059, web_icon palazzofailla.it. Reborn as a comfortable four-star hotel, this handsome upper-town palace by the Santa Teresa church retains its intimate, aristocratic feel. The seven rooms are elegant and traditional, with tiled floors, high frescoed ceilings and antique beds. There are also three contemporary minimalist rooms in an annexe across the road by the trattoria La Locanda del Colonnello. Check the website for good last-minute deals. €109

I Tetti di Siciliando Via Cannata 24 tel_icon 0932 942 843, web_icon siciliando.it. Simple, friendly and unpretentious budget hotel, popular with backpackers and set in the tangle of historic streets above Corso Umberto I. Rooms are pretty basic, but it’s very reasonably priced and sociable. The owners are very helpful, and have rental bikes (€15/day) and can help organize bike tours of the surrounding area. Look for the sign opposite the Agip petrol station towards the top of the Corso (where you’ll have to park), and follow the steps up around the passageway for the signposted “bed, bike and breakfast”. €35

EATING AND DRINKING

La Gazza Ladra Via Blandini 5 tel_icon 0932 755 655, web_icon ristorantelagazzaladra.it. Top-class restaurant that’s part of the Palazzo Failla hotel, offering creative and exquisitely presented Sicilian cuisine (spaghetti with anchovies, candied orange, wild fennel flowers, chilli and wild-onion greens; a fillet of Nébrodi mountain pork, with a cream of pine nuts and asparagus). Degustazione menus at €65 and €80 a head plus drinks. Daily lunch & dinner.

La Locanda del Colonnello Vico Biscari 6 tel_icon 0932 752 423. Done up like a traditional locanda, with chequered tiled walls, a pietra pece (local limestone, naturally impregnated with petroleum) floor below cantilevered white vaults, and evocative photos of old Modica on its walls. Heavy napery and good service, however, remind you that this is a Palazzo Failla enterprise. The mixed antipasto (€9) is highly recommended: sardine polpettine with wild fennel, a crisp scacce (savoury pastry) with a reduced tomato filling, pepper- and fennel-seed studded salami, a sformatino of asparagus, and a miniature arancino. Primi are all €9, and make great use of legumes in dishes such as maccu, a traditional fava bean puree/soup, or pasta with chickpeas. Secondi (€10) include sausages and pancetta in a stickily reduced tomato sauce. Mon–Tues & Thurs–Sun lunch & dinner.

Osteria dei Sapori Perduti Corso Umberto 1 228–30 tel_icon 0932 944 247. Right on the Corso, offering reasonably priced rustic dishes with a strong emphasis on beans and pulses. The abundant mixed antipasto (€7.50) is a good way to start, and enough for two people, followed by lolli con le fave (handmade pasta with fava bean puree) or pasta with broth and meatballs. Primi are around €6. The menu is in Sicilian, but translations are available, and it’s marvellous value – you can walk away with a full stomach for €10–15. Mon & Wed–Sun lunch & dinner.

Taverna Nicastro Via S. Antonino 30 tel_icon 0932 945 884. For traditional meat (and especially pork) dishes, try this delightfully old-fashioned and very reasonably priced trattoria with tables outside on a flight of steps in Modica Alta. Specialities include sausages and salamis made on the premises, good hearty legume dishes, and classic Modican fare such as ricotta ravioli with a sauce of tomato, pancetta, sausage and pork. Secondi highlights include rabbit with potato, olives, tomato and pork, and lamb stewed with tomato, capers, cherry tomatoes and onion. You could eat a four-course meal (including a cannolo or a lemon, cinnamon or almond jelly) for under €20, while house wine is €4 per litre. Nicastro is signposted from outside San Giorgio, but it’s quite a walk, and you will probably still have to stop several people to ask the way before you find it. Tues–Sat dinner only.

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Scicli

Ten kilometres south of Modica, SCICLI is dramatically pitched against the bottom of a knobbly limestone bluff. Like southeast Sicily’s other Baroque towns, it has seen quite a restoration in recent years, most strikingly on the main Piazza Italia and the pedestrianized Via Mormina Penna – a scenographer’s dream of a street, lined with exuberant and painstakingly restored Baroque churches and palazzi, including the Municipio fronted by a marvellous sculptural staircase and a small bandstand.

If it is open, be sure to step inside the church of San Giovanni Battista, which holds one of the strangest images of Christ you are likely ever to see, standing before a crucifix dressed in what appears to be a long white skirt. Dating back to the seventeenth century, it originated in the Spanish city of Burgos, where representing Christ in a skirt (actually his death shroud) was normal, and was given to the city by a Spanish nobleman. Gender norms are challenged once again in the town’s main church, Sant’Ignazio or the Chiesa Madre, which holds Italy’s only representation of the Madonna as a belligerent horseriding warrior.

IL GRUPPO DI SCICLI

Sampieri beach, down the road from Scicli, is the spiritual home of a group of artists known as the Gruppo di Scicli. For over thirty years they met here every morning, to walk together on the strand before starting work. They walk less often now – the oldest members of the Gruppo are over eighty and the younger ones live away in Modica or Catania – but they still come down for a stroll occasionally.

Since its beginnings in the 1980s, the Gruppo di Scicli has shrunk and grown and shrunk again, accommodating and adapting, like an extended family. At present it has nine members. Operating outside the mainstream of contemporary art, the Gruppo has no manifesto or ideology. The artists were brought together by their shared approaches to painting, sculpture, light and landscape and, not least, in how they wanted to live.

Having exhibited widely – in group and solo shows – all over Italy, October 2012 saw the first Gruppo di Scicli exhibition abroad, at the Bernaducci Meisel Gallery in New York. In Scicli, their works can be seen on the walls of the Hotel Novecento, and often at the QUAM art gallery, Via Mormino Penna 79 (Tues–Sat 10am–1pm & 4.30–8pm, Sun and hols 5.30–8.30pm; tel_icon 0932 931 154, web_icon tecnicamista.it), recently opened within the vaults of a restored monastery refectory. If it’s open (hours vary), poke your head in too at the cosy Brancati Associazione Cuturale, also on Via Mormino Penna, founded by members of the group back in the 1980s.

Around Piazza Italia

Just off Piazza Italia is one of Scicli’s Baroque showpieces, the Palazzo Beneventano, complete with spectacularly grotesque grinning faces with lolling tongues and bald heads tucked under the balconies and clinging to the walls. Beyond the palazzo, the voluptuously curvy Baroque church of San Bartolomeo stands embraced by the towering limestone gorge. Walking on, you’ll find yourself in the honeycomb of the old town, clamped to the sides of the gorge, with dwellings at times almost indistinguishable from the natural caves. Although it has a fair number of abandoned houses, the area is by no means deserted, and several of the buildings are now undergoing restoration.

San Matteo and around

Continuing up the stepped path above Palazzo Beneventano, you can enjoy grand views over Scicli from the terrace of the abandoned church of San Matteo. Just below the church, a further stepped path (signposted “Chiesa S. Lucia”) leads to the remains of another church; at the top of the ridge here, you’re standing right above a series of abandoned cave-dwellings that litter the hills around, used from Neolithic times until fairly recently. From the vantage point you can make out bricked-up entrances, caves and doorways in the tree-dotted cliffs below.

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: SCICLI

By car Scicli is an easy stop by car en route to or from Modica or Ragusa. There is a tricky one-way route through town, so you may prefer to park at the train station.

By bus Regional buses from Modica and Ragusa drop you in the centre on Piazza Italia.

By train Scicli is a stop on the Siracusa–Gela train line. The train station is a 15min walk from the centre, along Corso Mazzini.

Tourist information The tourist office is in the Municipio, Via Mormino Penna (Mon–Fri 8am–1pm, plus Tues & Thurs 3–6pm; tel_icon 0932 839 608, web_icon comune.scicli.rg.it).

ACCOMMODATION, EATING AND DRINKING

Baqqala Piazzetta Ficili tel_icon 0932 931 028. On the steps above Palazzo Beneventano, this shabby-chic osteria has lunchtime snacks and fuller meals in the evening (most dishes €8–10). But it’s most fun for a drink at night, when you can lounge on the divans outside, soaking up the mellow soundtrack. Tues–Sun lunch & dinner.

Conte Ruggero Piazza Italia 24 tel_icon 0932 931 840, web_icon conteruggero.it. Smart old B&B in a restored palace on the main square, fine for a night or two. The spacious rooms have a/c, and some have minibars and balconies. €90

author_pick Novecento Via Duprè 11 tel_icon 0932 843 817, web_icon hotel900.it. Occupying a Baroque palazzo in the heart of town, this stylish hotel has fully equipped rooms with architect-designed beds and arty but sumptuous bathrooms with Bisazza mosaic tiles. The tone is contemporary and cultured, and staff are friendly and helpful. €90

Satra Via Duca degli Abruzzi 1 tel_icon 0932 842 148. This recently opened place in the vaulted cellars of a former convent has a seasonally changing menu featuring innovative versions of traditional dishes. There is a tasting menu priced at €75, but choosing à la carte you can eat for considerably less. Try handmade spaghetti flavoured with chilli, saffron and wild fennel, served with sardines, pine nuts and toasted breadcrumbs. Mon & Wed–Sun lunch & dinner.

Scicli Albergo Diffuso Reception at Via Mormino Penna 15 tel_icon 0932 185 555, web_icon sciclialbergodiffuso.it. A great idea this – accommodation on a B&B or self-catering basis in one of eleven restored houses scattered around the historic town centre. Two-person apartments €75

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Ragusa

A Baroque town laid out on a grid system over a mountain plateau, RAGUSA has two very distinct identities. The 1693 earthquake destroyed many towns and cities that were then rebuilt in a different form, but the unique effect on Ragusa was to split the city in two. The old town of Ragusa Ibla, on a jut of land above its valley, was comprehensively flattened, and within a few years a new town on a grid plan emerged on the higher ridge to the west, known simply as Ragusa (or Ragusa Superiore). However, Ibla was stubbornly rebuilt by its inhabitants, following the old medieval street layout. Rivalry between the two was commonplace until 1926, when both towns were nominally reunited.

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PUZZLING PLAQUES

Intrigued by the plaques that appear in various spots throughout the Siracusa and Ragusa area, featuring a portrait of a bald man, architectural notes, strange quotations and photographs of crime scenes? The explanation is that Italy’s most popular TV crime series Montalbano, based on books penned by Antonio Camilleri, is filmed in the area, especially Scicli itself, which serves as the town of Vigata in the books and TV series. The building used as Montalbano’s house is on the beach at the nearby resort of Punta Secca, while Scicli’s Municipio plays the part of the police HQ.

Numerous people in Scicli organize Montalbano tours such as the summer-only Il Treno di Montalbano (€45 per person; web_icon gogreensicily.blogspot.it), which departs Siracusa by train, and includes a walking tour of Scicli, a Montalbano lunch, and a bus to various nearby locations including Punta Secca.

Ragusa Ibla

The original lower town of Ragusa Ibla is totally charming, its appealing, stepped alleys and dead-end courtyards a delight to wander around. Over the past decade or so, Ibla (spurred on by European funding) has undergone a renaissance, with the renovation of historic buildings and the opening of some stylish hotels and restaurants. Something of a magnet for Americans and northern Europeans tired of the charms of Tuscany and Pugli, Ibla is, however, something of a charmed and slightly unreal museum town, with just 2000 inhabitants (out of a total of around 72,000) and little in the way of everyday Sicilian life. It is, however, undeniably gorgeous, and wandering along its limestone pavements, past the grand facades of golden palaces and town houses, is like walking onto a film set. What’s more, Ibla is virtually traffic free, and certainly makes for a very agreeable night or two’s stay.

San Giorgio

Piazza del Duomo • Mon & Wed–Sun 10am–12.30pm & 4–6.30pm, Tues 4–6.30pm • Enter up the steps to the left-hand side

The central focus of Ragusa Ibla is the sloping Piazza del Duomo, split by six palms, which ends in impressive wrought-iron fencing, beyond which broad steps lead to the church of San Giorgio. A masterpiece of Sicilian Baroque, it’s the work of Rosario Gagliardi – one of Noto’s chief architects – and took nearly forty years to complete. Its three-tiered facade, with sets of triple columns climbing up the wedding-cake exterior to a balconied belfry, is an imaginative work, though typically not matched inside. As with Gagliardi’s other projects, all the beauty is in the immediacy of the powerful exterior. The architect gets another credit for the elegant rounded facade and bulging balconies of San Giuseppe in Piazza Pola, 200m below San Giorgio.

The Giardini Ibleo and around

The main Corso XXV Aprile runs down the hill through the restored heart of town, past stores selling designer sunglasses, “slow food” gourmet delis, galleries and wine bars. At the foot of town, the Giardino Ibleo public garden is a favourite spot for an evening stroll and a drink in the nearby cafés. You can enjoy dramatic views from the very edge of the spur on which the town is built, while the violet-strewn flowerbeds set off the remains of three small churches, abandoned in the grounds. To the right of the garden’s entrance stands the Portale San Giorgio, a surviving Gothic church portal whose badly worn stone centrepiece depicts a skeletal St George killing the dragon.

Ragusa Superiore

If you’re driving – in which case you can head straight to Ibla – you might not visit the upper town of Ragusa Superiore at all, though that’s where most of the city’s shops and services are located. It’s built on a grid plan, slipping off to right and left on either side of the sloping Corso Italia, just off which stands the sombre Duomo, completed in 1774. Although Baroque Ragusa received its share of good-looking buildings (like the few grand palazzi down Corso Italia), most of the architects’ efforts seem to have been devoted to keeping the streets as straight as possible, and the town’s most striking vistas are where this right-angled order is interrupted by a deep gorge, exposing the bare rock on which the city was built.

If you’re walking back down to Ibla, you could make a stop on the terrace by the restored fifteenth-century church of Santa Maria della Scala (which features the remains of an unusual exterior pulpit). A mighty view lies beyond, of the weatherbeaten roofs of Ragusa Ibla straddling the outcrop of rock, rising to the prominent dome of San Giorgio. From the church terrace, steps descend beneath the winding road to another church, the Chiesa del Purgatorio, from where winding alleys climb back into the heart of Ragusa Ibla.

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: RAGUSA

By train The station is just off Piazza del Popolo in Ragusa Superiore, a short walk from Ponte Nuovo and Via Roma.

Destinations Comiso (5 daily Mon–Sat; 30min); Gela (5 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 20min); Ispica (4 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr); Modica (4 daily Mon–Sat; 20min); Noto (4 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr 30min); Scicli (4 daily; 35min); Siracusa (2 daily Mon–Sat; 2hr); Vittoria (5 daily Mon–Sat; 45min).

By bus Buses stop next the the train station.

Destinations Catania airport/Catania (10 daily Mon–Fri, 6–7 daily Sat & Sun; 1hr 45min–2hr); Chiaramonte Gulfi (Mon–Sat 7 daily; 50min); Gela (3 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 1hr 30min); Ispica (6 daily Mon–Sat, 1 daily Sun; 55min–1hr 40min); Kamarina (6 daily; 1hr); Marina di Ragusa (hourly; 1hr); Modica (Mon–Sat 1–2 hourly, Sun 3 daily; 30min–1hr 10min); Noto (6 daily Mon–Sat, 4 daily Sun; 1hr 45min–2hr 15min); Palermo (Mon–Sat 4–5 daily, Sun 2 daily; 4hr); Scicli (9 daily Mon–Sat; 1hr–1hr 50min); Siracusa (6 daily Mon–Sat, 2 daily Sun; 2hr 45min).

By car Drivers can follow the signs to Ragusa Ibla, where there’s a capacious car park below Piazza della Repubblica.

Tourist information Ragusa Superiore has a small tourist office in front of the Duomo on Piazza San Giovanni (Mon–Fri 9am–7pm, Sat 8.30am–2pm; tel_icon 0932 684 780, web_icon comune.ragusa.gov.it), where you can pick up a map and an accommodation booklet.

GETTING AROUND

By bus The most useful city buses are #11 and #33 (both every 30–60min; buy tickets in advance from any tabacchi), which ply between the upper and lower towns along Via Roma and Corso Italia, stopping outside both Santa Maria and Purgatorio churches, and ending their run in Ibla outside the Giardino Ibleo.

On foot If you’re based in the upper town, the best advice is to walk down to the lower town – less fatiguing and you can enjoy the magnificent view – and catch the bus back. The walk down to Ibla takes about half an hour, heading down Corso Italia and the narrow Via XXIV Maggio.

ACCOMMODATION

It’s infinitely preferable to stay the night in Ibla than in Superiore, where you can stroll the traffic-free streets in the evening and hop from bar to trattoria. Ibla holds more than two dozen B&Bs alone, as well as a handful of small, stylish hotels – all signposted – and most can find you a parking space outside or nearby. There’s a similar number of B&Bs in the upper town, as well as a few largely colourless business-type hotels.

Il Barocco Via Santa Maria la Nuova 1, Ragusa Ibla tel_icon 0932 663 105, web_icon ilbarocco.it. A very charming old-town hotel set around a bright courtyard – the rooms are in traditional style, with tile floors and oak furniture, but it’s a modern place, all very tasteful and understated. €125

Eremo della Giubiliana Contrada Giubiliana tel_icon 0932 669 119, web_icon eremodellagiubiliana.it. Some 7.5km south of Ragusa on the Marina di Ragusa road, this five-star country property is housed in the restored buildings of a feudal estate and hermitage dating back to the twelfth century. Rooms (converted from monks’ cells), suites and self-contained estate cottages all feature traditional Sicilian furnishings, the grounds are ravishing, and you can dine on their own organically grown food. It’s no surprise to find it also has its own airstrip and private beach, plus pool, nature trails and all sorts of tours and activities available. Rooms €211

Ai Giardini Iblei Via Normanni 4, Ragusa Ibla tel_icon 0932 246 844 or 338 640 1238, web_icon aigiardini.it. Right next to the town gardens, the three sunny rooms here have private bathrooms and are simply but tastefully furnished. Free internet. €70

author_pick Locanda Don Serafino Via XI Febbraio 15, Ragusa Ibla tel_icon 0932 220 065, web_icon locandadonserafino.it. Beautifully set within the hefty stone walls of a row of carefully restored Baroque cottages, the reception area here is tucked under exposed limestone vaults and paved with chocolate-brown pietra pece (a kind of limestone suffused with petroleum). Rooms combine rustic stone vaults (and in one case a Gothic arch that survived the earthquake) with boxy cream leather furniture. Best of all is the room in what was once the stables, with its shower inside a cave. €148

L’Orto sul Tetto Via Tenente Distefano 56, Ragusa Ibla tel_icon 0932 247 785 or 338 478 0484, web_icon lortosultetto.it. A short walk from the Duomo, this warm, friendly place, run by a mother and son, has three serene bedrooms. Breakfasts are served on a roof terrace full of plants and include pastries fresh from the bakery. €110

author_pick Risveglio Ibleo Largo Camerina 3, Ragusa Ibla tel_icon 0932 247 811 or 335 804 6494, web_icon www.risveglioibleo.com. A very friendly welcome awaits at this elegant townhouse with four studio apartments (for couples or families), either in the main house (for more character) or just around the back. The rooms are stylishly decorated, with small kitchenettes, and you come up to the owners’ second-floor rooms for a breakfast of fresh bread, home-made preserves and honey, served on the terrace in summer. No credit cards. €85

Villa Lauro Via Ecce Homo, Ragusa Superiore tel_icon 0932 655 177, web_icon villadellauro.it. Minimalist style within the exposed limestone walls of an eighteenth-century palazzo in the historic part of Ragusa Superiore. Excellent choice in summer, when you can while away afternoons in the serene, stylish garden with swimming pool. €170

EATING, DRINKING AND ENTERTAINMENT

Good restaurants are easy to find in Ibla, while a few cafés put out tables in Superiore’s Piazza del Duomo – as night falls, and the lights come on, it’s not too much of an exaggeration to suggest that this is the prettiest square in Sicily. The annual entertainment highlight is L’Estate Iblea, a series of concerts, recitals and events held throughout the town between late June and September, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display down at the nearby resort of Marina di Ragusa; ask at the tourist office for more information.

CAFÉS AND RESTAURANTS

Locanda Don Serafino Via Avvocato G Ottaviano, Ragusa Ibla tel_icon 0932 248 778. This stylish and costly cave-like restaurant, lit as deftly as an exclusive fashion boutique, is among the best places to eat in town, offering a modern take on traditional dishes – things like grilled vegetable pie, beef fillet flavoured with tobacco, or rabbit with bacon and pistachios. Mon & Wed–Sun lunch & dinner.

author_pick Orfeo Via Sant’Anna 117, Ragusa Superiore tel_icon 0932 621 035. Worth seeking out for traditional dishes like broad bean soup, stuffed sardines or the local speciality of cavati ragusana (fresh pasta with a pork ragù). Count on spending €20–25 for a full meal excluding drinks. Mon–Sat lunch & dinner.

Pasticceria di Pasquale Corso Vittorio Veneto 104, Ragusa Superiore tel_icon 0932 624 635, web_icon pasticceriadipasquale.com. The best ice cream in town, plus utterly divine pastries and cakes. Just downhill from the Duomo of San Giovanni. Tues–Sun 7am–9pm.

Ristorante Duomo Via Capitano Bocchieri 31, Ragusa Ibla tel_icon 0932 651 265. Meticulously sourced Sicilian ingredients reworked to stunning effect, in what is arguably Sicily’s greatest restaurant. Put yourself in the hands of the chef Ciccio Sultano, and opt for one of the tasting menus (€160), with wines selected from the copious cellar to match each course. At lunchtime, the simpler three-course tasting menu (€45 without wine, €59 with) is a very good deal. April–Oct Mon dinner only, Tues–Sat lunch & dinner; Nov–March Tues–Sat lunch & dinner, Sun lunch only.

U Saracinu Via del Convento 9, Ragusa Ibla tel_icon 0932 246 976. U Saracinu has been here donkey’s years, even before the fancy old-town restoration, and sticks with a traditional Sicilian menu of pasta and meat grills, though couscous (€8) and fish specials (€8–9) are also on offer. There are two fixed-price menus, at €15 (antipasto, pasta, main course, dessert and wine) and €18 (the same, but with couscous and fish instead of pasta and a main). Mon–Sat lunch & dinner.

Trattoria la Bettola Largo Kamarina, Ragusa Ibla tel_icon 0932 653 377. A rarity in Ibla: a simple, inexpensive family-run trattoria with red-and-white tablecloths that has been around for thirty years. Antipasti cost €4 and include deep-fried and breadcrumbed morsels of local cheeses, aubergine polpette and a lemon-scented tortino of courgettes. Primi (all €7) include tagliatelle with cream and saffron, secondi (€7–9) feature maiale ubriaco, pork braised in wine and wild herbs, in winter, and pork chops with citrus in summer. There is horsemeat as well, if you feel like going totally local. Tues–Sun lunch & dinner.

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Around Ragusa

To the south and west of Ragusa, the largely unsung Baroque towns of Comiso and Vittoria, the views from Chiaramonte Gulfi or the low-key resorts and beaches along the local coast can fill another day’s touring, but these are all mere sideshows compared with Ragusa itself. By public transport, to be frank, it’s barely worth the trouble to visit any of the places covered below.

COMISO CONNECTS

In September 2013, the little town of Comiso was given what could turn out to be a new lease of life, when its previous military airport ( web_icon aeroportodicomiso.it) opened to civil flights, kicking off with Ryanair routes to London Stansted, Brussels Charleroi and Rome Ciampino. What the effect this will have on sleepy Comiso, with its dusty Baroque core, remains to be seen, but there’s likely to be a rash of new B&Bs (details will be posted on the airport website). However, most folk are so far using the airport to get to the area’s more established tourist attractions, most notably Ragusa.

At the time of writing transport links from the airport were still in the developmental stage, with the website publishing new services as (or if) they are added, and the only bus routes from the airport ran to Catania Airport and Catania (1 daily Mon–Wed, Fri & Sun) and Ragusa (1 daily except Thurs), but note that departures don’t tie in with flight timings. A taxi to Ragusa from the airport should cost around €40, while there are also two local car-rental outfits: Morgan Service ( tel_icon 393 426 6443, web_icon morganservice.it) and Gianni Motors ( 0932 721 851, giannimotors.it).

Chiaramonte Gulfi

Twenty kilometres north of Ragusa, CHIARAMONTE GULFI merits a visit largely for its far-reaching views. This is one of several places dubbed the “balcony of Sicily” and, though hazy in summer, the panorama (west towards Gela and north to Etna) embraces dun-coloured farmland interspersed with solitary villages – a still, silent scene, but for the occasional dog’s bark or the whine of a Vespa.

Sampieri

There’s more to the province of Ragusa than its feted Baroque towns. Head down to the coast from Modica or Scicli and you’ll strike the magnificent beach of Sampieri, a stunning 2km sweep of sand running between the dramatic Gothic ruins of an abandoned brick factory (which fans of Montalbano will recognize). Sampieri village, a small and pleasantly low-key local resort, retains a core of traditional cubic fishermen’s houses, built of the same gleaming limestone as the cobbles on the streets. In summer a couple of small lidos open on the beach, but for the rest of the year it’s a marvellous place to spend a few days if you want to do nothing but swim and take long beach walks.

ACCOMMODATION: SAMPIERI

If you want to rent a house or apartment in Sampieri, the Abitare Solemare agency ( tel_icon 334 633 4423, web_icon abitaresolemare.it) has the widest choice, with high-season prices starting at €500 per week for two people – and low season prices around half that.

Poggio Bellavista tel_icon 0932 939 068, web_icon poggio-bellavista.com. If you want to stay in Sampieri you couldn’t do better than this welcoming and comfortable B&B, with five pretty rooms, perched on the hillside 1km outside town. The English-speaking owners go out of their way to make guests feel at home. €80

Marina di Ragusa

Southwest of Ragusa, it’s a straight 24km run down to the coast, and the start of the so-called “riviera”, which extends as far as Gela. the small resort of MARINA DI RAGUSA is a typical Sicilian mix of private lidos and apartments, and bars and restaurants that really only do business for four or five months of the year. A coastal road westwards (served by Tumino buses) offers access to more beaches near Punta Secca (not to be confused with the Punta Secca of Montalbano fame, which is just beyond Sampieri) and Punta Braccetto, almost as far as the desolate remains of ancient Kamarina (also spelt Camerina), a Syracusan colony founded in 599 BC. It lies on a headland overlooking beaches on either side, and has a small Museo Archeologico (daily 9am–1pm & 3–5.30pm; €4). Behind the antiquarium is all that’s left of a fifth-century BC Tempio di Atena, surrounded by the rubble of city walls and the various ruins of the Hellenistic-Roman city.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: MARINA DI RAGUSA

By bus Marina di Ragusa is served by Tumino buses from Ragusa ( tel_icon 0932 623 184, web_icon tuminobus.it),

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Gela

GELA couldn’t present a worse aspect: drivers have to negotiate a tangle of untidy backstreets, while the train line weaves through a mess of futuristic steel bubbles and pipes. Despite a few fine dune-backed beaches in the vicinity, it’s no place to bathe; this is one of the most polluted places in Sicily, with a worryingly high rate of certain cancers, and a chemical tang to the air. But it was not always so. Gela was one of the most important of Sicily’s Greek cities, founded in 688 BC, and under Hippocrates in the fifth century BC it rivalled even ancient Syracuse as the island’s political hub. Its artistic eminence attracted literary stars, including the world’s first cookery-book writer, Archestratus, and the dramatist Aeschylus, who, according to legend, met his end here when an eagle dropped a tortoise on him, apparently mistaking his bald head for a stone on which to dash its prey. However, Gela’s heyday was short-lived. Hippocrates’ successor, Gelon, transferred his power and half the city’s population east to Syracuse in 485 BC, the deep-water harbour there being more to the tyrant’s liking. Gela was later smashed by the Carthaginians and the Mamertines, its walls razed in the third century BC and abandoned to the encroaching sands. Modern Gela was the first Sicilian town to be liberated by the Allies in 1943, but otherwise – beyond an excellent archeological museum and a fine set of Greek defensive walls at the Capo Soprano archeological zone – is almost entirely without interest.

THE GELA PAINTER

Many major museums throughout the world have black-figure ware by the so-called Gela Painter, a prodigiously prolific potter and painter of jars who was working from around 510–480 BC. This anonymous Gelan has been criticized by academics for being more interested in composition and symmetry than in the narrative content of his paintings – it has even been suggested that, being a Sicilian, his knowledge of Greek myths left much to be desired. In recent years, however, the aesthetic merit of his compositions has come to be more and more appreciated.

Museo Archeologico

Corso Vittorio Emanuele • Daily 9am–6.30pm • €4, includes entry to Capo Soprano archeological zone • tel_icon 0933 912 626 • The museum is a 20min walk from the centre along the Corso

At the eastern end of the Corso, the Museo Archeologico is notable largely for its important collection of painted vases, on the upstairs floor. Mainly seventh to fifth century BC, the black- and red-figure jugs and beakers were Greek Gela’s speciality: most major world museums tend to feature one or two, but the bulk are here. Other impressive finds include an animated sculpture of a horse’s head (sixth century BC), and Corinthian and Athenian ceramics unearthed from various necropolises belonging to Geloan dependencies, illegally excavated in the late nineteenth century. Outside the museum, a small acropolis has been uncovered, consisting of a few walls and a single temple column from the fifth century BC, though the small site is drained of all romance by the brooding, dirty industrial plant that dominates the beach below.

Capo Soprano and the archeological zone

Viale Indipendenza, Contrada Scavone • Mon–Sat 9am–1hr before sunset • €4, includes entry to Museo Archeologico • tel_icon 0933 930 975 • Head along the Corso and take a left fork (Via Manzoni), which runs parallel to the sea as far as the red gates of the site, a distance of almost 4km

Gela’s main archeological site occupies the unexpectedly lovely Capo Soprano, at the western end of town. The Greek fortifications here date from the fourth century BC. Preserved by the sand dunes under which they were discovered, the walls, built under the tyrant Timoleon, stand nearly 8m high in parts, made up of perfectly fitted stone blocks topped by a layer of brick and now covered in protective glass panels. It’s a beautiful site, and you’re free to wander around the line of the walls: in some places you can make out the remains of watchtowers and gateways, while waves crash onto a duned stretch of beach below. If you’ve come this far out of town, you may as well nip around the corner (back towards the centre and left, by the hospital), to Via Europa, to see the remains of Gela’s fourth-century BC public baths, the only ones from Greek times discovered in Sicily and still equipped with their original seats.

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: GELA

By bus Buses stop directly outside the train station (tickets and information from the bar across the square); regular departures serve Licata and Agrigento, Vittoria, Caltanissetta and Siracusa. From the station, turn right down the main road and, at the junction, bear right for the town centre and Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

By train Gela is at the far end of the train line that runs from Siracusa via the Baroque towns of Noto (4 daily; 3hr), Ispica (4 daily; 2hr 50min), Scicli (2 daily; 2hr 15min), Modica (4 daily; 1hr 40min) and Ragusa (5 daily; 1hr), and consequently is a feasible day-trip from any of these places, especially if you bring a bike to get to Capo Soprano. There are no trains on Sundays, and journeys may involve a change.

By car Driving into town, simply follow the signs for museum and fortifications – it’s slow going on the SS115, which cuts right through the centre.

Tourist information The tourist office is at Via Pisa 65, off Via Bresmes, which cuts across Corso Vittorio Emanuele (Mon–Fri 8am–2.15pm, plus Wed 2.45–6.15pm; tel_icon 0933 913 788, web_icon comune.gela.cl.it).

< Back to Siracusa and the southeast

Siracusa and the southeast

Highlights

Siracusa

Brief history

The colony rebels

Tyrants, dramatists and philosophers

The end of the glory days

Ortigia

Tempio di Apollo

Ortigia market

Piazza Archimede

Arkimedeion

Piazza del Duomo

The Duomo

GOING UNDERGROUND

Santa Lucia alla Badia

THE MIRACLE OF SANTA LUCIA

The Burial of Santa Lucia

HEAR HEAR

Fonte Aretusa

Porto Marina

Galleria Regionale di Palazzo Bellomo

San Martino

Castello Maniace

Mainland Siracusa

Foro Siracusano

Ginnasio Romano

Arsenale and Edificio Termale

Basilica di Santa Lucia

Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime

Museo del Papiro

Museo Archeologico

Section D

Section B

Basilica di San Giovanni catacombs

Parco Archeologico della Neapolis

Anfiteatro Romano

Ara di Ierone II

Teatro Greco

Latomia del Paradiso

Latomie dei Cappuccini

Epipolae and the Castello Eurialo

Epipolae gate

THE FIUME CIANE

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: SIRACUSA

GETTING AROUND

PARKING IN SIRACUSA

INFORMATION AND TOURS

ACCOMMODATION

HOTELS AND B&BS

HOSTELS AND CAMPSITES

EATING AND DRINKING

CAFÉS

RESTAURANTS

BARS

ENTERTAINMENT

SHOPPING IN SIRACUSA

DIRECTORY

North of Siracusa

BEACHES NORTH OF SIRACUSA

Megara Hyblaea

Pantalica

The site

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING: PANTALICA

Palazzolo Acreide

Casa-Museo di Antonino Uccello

Akrai

Teatro Greco

Santoni

Parcallario

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: PALAZZOLO ACREIDE

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING

Noto

Brief history

AMONG THE RUINS OF NOTO ANTICA

Porta Reale

The Duomo

Palazzo Ducezio

Via C. Nicolaci

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: NOTO