Syracuse and Ortigia
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Syracuse And The Rocky Necropolis Of Pantalica, 2005); Parco Archeologico Di Siracusa, Eloro, Villa Del Tellaro E Akrai, Regione Siciliana · Syracuse, Sicily
Cicero called it the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all, and for a couple of centuries around 400 BC Syracuse genuinely rivalled Athens. What survives splits in two. On the mainland the Neapolis park holds a Greek theatre cut into the hillside, one of the largest in the Greek world, along with a Roman amphitheatre and the vast limestone quarries where seven thousand Athenian prisoners were left to die after their invasion failed. Across a bridge lies Ortigia, the island the city began on, where a cathedral was built straight through a temple of Athena and its Doric columns still stand inside the walls. Caravaggio's Burial of St Lucy hangs free in a church on the edge of town. The one thing to know before booking is that the ancient theatre spends most of the year hidden under the decking for its summer drama festival. Come between late summer and early spring and you see the stone; come in May or June and you see a festival instead.
Via del Teatro Greco, Syracuse, Sicily, 96100, Italy
Neapolis park daily from 08:30 with closing between about 18:00 and 19:15 depending on season and the ticket office shutting an hour or so earlier; no weekly closing day, but closing moves forward on performance days. The cathedral roughly 09:00-17:30 in spring and autumn and to 19:00 in high summer. Castello Maniace Monday and Sunday 08:30-13:30 and Tuesday to Saturday 08:30-18:00. The classical drama season runs early May to late June.
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