Isle of Ortigia

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After leaving Taormina, we took the train south along the coast—a smooth and scenic ride, with waves rolling against the tracks and small fishing towns tucked into the shoreline. It’s the kind of trip that reminds you Sicily is an island meant to be seen from the water as much as from land.

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Walking Through Time

• Sony A7R III
• f/4.5
• 52mm
• 100
• 1/200 sec

Syracuse feels immediately different from Taormina. Where Taormina thrives on luxury shopping and yachts, Syracuse breathes history. The pace is slower, the streets more lived-in, and the past feels embedded in the stone. This was once the most powerful city of the ancient Greek world—so mighty it even defeated Athens in 413 BC during the Peloponnesian War.

• Sony A7R III
• f/10
• 51mm
• 100
• 1/800 sec

From there, we wandered Ortigia, the island heart of Syracuse, where every corner reveals another layer of history. Baroque palaces rise on Greek foundations, medieval arches frame Renaissance courtyards, and tucked beneath a quiet hotel we found the ancient Jewish ritual baths. No photos are allowed, but descending into the stone chambers, still damp with groundwater, felt like stepping into a memory preserved for centuries.

• Sony A7R III
• f/10
• 24mm
• 100
• 1/160 sec

At the Temple of Apollo, dating back to the 6th century BC. The ruins themselves are modest, but standing among the broken columns you sense just how long Syracuse has been shaping Mediterranean history. Archimedes, the brilliant mathematician and inventor, was born here—the same Archimedes who is said to have run through these streets shouting “Eureka!” after discovering the principle of buoyancy.

Food and the Sea

• Sony A7R III
• f/4
• 39mm
• 125
• 1/160 sec

We paused for a meal of homemade pasta—simple, fresh, and full of Sicilian flavor. Later, as the sun dipped lower, we reached the edge of Ortigia where the sea meets the city walls. There, locals swam in the same waters that once carried Greek triremes and Roman galleys, turning ancient fortifications into their own seaside lido.

• Sony A7R III
• f/4.5
• 28mm
• 100
• 1/400 sec

If Taormina is Sicily at its most glamorous, Syracuse is Sicily at its most historic. It’s a place where Archimedes dreamed, Caravaggio painted while in hiding, and generations of Sicilians have lived shoulder to shoulder with the ghosts of their past. Wandering through its streets is less about checking off monuments and more about feeling the weight of history still humming in a living city.