B&B Ortigia, Siracusa

The oldest evidence of the peoples who have settled on this island: Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Swabians, Arabs, Spanish and others. A riot of architecture and history from different eras, magically intertwined in the narrow streets of this village surrounded by the crystalline waters of the Ionian Sea.

The birthplace of Archimedes, Ortigia is the oldest part of Syracuse. Enriched with vestiges of the Spanish colonial era and the Baroque style of the 1700s, it nevertheless retains many vestiges of its older splendour, including the Church of St John the Baptist, in the Jewish quarter of Giudecca, and the Temples of Apollo and Athena, dating from around the 5th century BC. The latter was incorporated centuries later into the Baroque structure of the Duomo. And it is in Piazza Duomo that visitors flock for an aperitif at sunset, when the white rock is tinged with the colours of the sky. Not far away, just a stone's throw from the sea, is the Arethusa spring, a freshwater spring named after a muse, from which one of only two papyrus trees in Italy grows. It is said that it was an Egyptian pharaoh who gave the papyrus to the Tyrant of Syracuse, a plant that would otherwise only grow wild along the banks of the Nile. Finally, on the southern end of the island stands the majestic Maniace Castle, probably built on another ancient fortress by Frederick II of Swabia. And finally, just outside Ortigia, we find the archaeological park of Syracuse with its famous theatre, where tragedies and comedies, once performed by the Greeks themselves, are still performed in spring and summer.