Siracusa

Siracusa: a city on a splendid location, whose glorious past is drawn by the island of Ortygia, which prolongs the modern town inland.
The city was founded circa 734 B.C. As a Corinthian colony, and bares the name of its neighbouring marsh “Syraca”. Siracusa was once at war with Athens and won, but later on had to surrender to the domination Carthage. The Romans also sacked Siracusa in 213 B.C., to subdue its influence once and for all.
The city then suffered many the changes of many influences and invasions, like the rest of the island – most notably a Baroque influence during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Unfortunately however, a substantial portion of the city had to be rebuilt after a massive earth-quake in 1693.

For a tour of the city, it is recommended to start Ortigia, where the antique city-centre is. The remains of an Apolline temple, restorate around 1930, can be found there, as wells the Archimedes Square, the Artemisia Fountain, the piazza del Duomo, and the ruins of a grand Ionic temple dating back to the 6th century B.C. The cathedral, built on the foundations of a temple to Athena from the 5th century B.C., is endowd with a façade from 1725 to 1753, by Andrea Palma. The structure of the temple isvisible from the entrance of the nave.
Continue your visit by going from the island to the more modern districts. See the Euryale castle and its military architecture. Further on you will find a Roman amphitheatre from the 3rd century B.C., and then the Theatre, one of the biggest of ancient Greece: 67 gardens, 9 sections, 8 stairways.
It is a popular place for events and shows.

If you're looking for a tour of the unfamiliar, go to the Latomie, stone quarries which served as prison cells. According to legend, the acoustic properties of the caves were used to listen to the prisoners' conversations...