The Duomo (Doric temple built on Sicilian settlements, Byzantine Basilica, Norman Church, the late Renaissance and Baroque finally) alone it is a perfect synthesis of all.
To Visit Ortigia, the soul of Syracuse, is an enjoyable and deep with a long journey in just one square kilometer of Greek temples and Christian churches, palaces, Swabians, Aragonese and Baroque palaces, courtyards, alleys Arab shops, modest homes and large public buildings. Beautiful squares. A Jewish quarter and the synagogue became the Catholic Church. Lonely streets and alleys. Abandoned houses. The Arethusa's Fountain, a place linked to a myth. Restaurants, cafes, bookstores and shops. A library contains rare books and antiques. A precious collection of coins.
The Regional Gallery with works by Antonello da Messina and Caravaggio. The Institute of Ancient Drama. A surprising Museum of Cinema.
Almost everywhere a peculiar baroque impression given by the eighteenth century reconstruction after the earthquake of 1693 and, since the previous century, the opera Vermexio, family of distinguished architects from Syracuse.
It 'impossible to summarize the monumental wealth, beauty, vitality and the melancholy of Ortigia. However happens to follow it - according to specific routes or left to chance - always will meet the sea: the great natural harbor is beautiful at sunset, the market, the smells in the streets, menus of seafood restaurants. Everything in Ortigia back to sea. And the relationship with the sea - more or less intensely lived antiquity to today - the old town owes its charm and its rich history but also its future uncertain.
Ortigia left, we reach the modern city. The urban area of more recent and extensive expansion has incorporated part of the archaeological heritage of the city as the Latomie dei Capuccini, the Church and the Catacombs of San Giovanni Evangelista, the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore.
Relatively isolated, the Park Neaopolis with the Greek Theatre (the largest come down to us from antiquity), the Roman Amphitheatre, the Altar of Hiero II, the Latomie of Heaven and St. Venera, the Rope Makers Cave ear of Dionysius, can give suggestions of a place where even nature, history and myth meet.
The Regional Archaeological Museum Paolo Orsi, among the largest in the world, presents a new and well-organized home important finds of prehistoric Sicilian Greek city, its colonies and other greek city-west. Nearby, privately owned, there is a papyrus museum.