Syracuse
The town of Syracuse occupies an extremely beautiful position between the waters of the Great Port, the only natural harbour to be found along all the Sicilian coast, and the Iblei mountains.
It was founded in the VIII century BC, by a group of Greek settlers from Corinth, led by Archia, although a number of remains discovered in the area of the Cathedral Square show that the zone was already occupied in the XIV century BC.
The name Syracuse comes from the Greek word Sirako, meaning swamp; the present-day city has a population of 127,000, divided among the five residential areas of the ancient Pentapolis of Dionysius &endash; the Greek-named Akradina, Tike, Neapolis and Ortigia, and Santa Lucia, and, to the south, at Cassibile along the river of that name, two tiny hamlets, which the Greeks called Kakiparys and Belvedere, not far from the Eurialo Castle.
The Corinthian settlers, led by Archia, arrived at Ortigia, which in Greek means “island of quails”, in the VIII century BC and there, from 540 to 478, the construction of the town was begun by the tyrant Gelon, while the zone of Akradina was founded on the mainland. In the V century a considerable demographic boom made it necessary to build the two additional residential areas of Tyche and Neapolis. In 405, Dionysius began the construction of a city wall, measuring 27 kilometres, with the castle of Eurialo as its central point of defence, and transferred part of the population to Akradina and Tyche, making Neapolis an area of monuments and Epipolos the strategic command area of the region. After a period of democracy under Timoleon and of despotism under Agathocles, the arrival in the city of Hieron II brought a period of peace, guaranteed by agreements between Rome and Carthage.
The Theatre of Syracuse is one of the largest of the Greek world. It was entirely built out of the Temenite hill by the architect Damocopos, known as Myrilla. It was also used for public meetings and modified first during the time of Hieron in the II century BC and later by the Romans to be used for other types of entertainment. In the XVI century the Spanish removed the marble covering the theatre steps. The theatre faces the sea and offers a magnificent view and extremely good acoustics; it is 138 metres wide and has 67 orders of steps divided into nine sectors. To the west, between two walls of rock containing votive niches dating back to the Hellenic period and also Byzantine underground burial chambers, there is the road of the Sepulchres, and down below the theatre an imposing flight of steps 27 metres long, very likely the remains of an even earlier theatre.
Noto
Is the capital of the 18th century Sicilian and European baroque, and its religious and civil monuments are the most valuable examples of talented artists of the time: Gagliardi, Sinatra, Labisi along with local skilled workers. Have a tour, starting with the Cathedral, Palazzo Ducezio, the Holy Crucifix, the Monastery of "SS. Salvatore", "S. Francesco", S. Domenico, Santa Chiara. Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata has incredible grotesque sculptures; Via Nicolaci", is called the street of balconies. But Noto is not only Baroque; its whole territory offers the necropolis of "Noto Antica" and of "Castelluccio", the archaeological finds of the Greek town of Eloro, the sanctuaries of "S. Corrado Fuori le Mura" and of "S. Maria della Scala", the rupestrian and Byzantine oratories, the beautiful sea and the naturalistic reserves of "Vendicari" and "Cava Grande".