Ortigia is about a kilometre long and four hundred metres across, and it is the reason people fall for Syracuse.
It is an island, joined to the mainland by two short bridges, and it has been lived in continuously for roughly three thousand years. Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Spanish, and then a great deal of Baroque after the 1693 earthquake knocked much of it down. All of that is still legible in the walls if you look up.
What it is not is a preserved old town. People live here, hang their washing here, and shout at each other across the lanes at eight in the morning. That is the whole appeal. The wider planning is in my complete guide to Syracuse.
What the island actually looks like
Honey coloured limestone, everywhere, which goes gold in the late afternoon and almost pink at sunset.
The streets are narrow enough that most of them are in shade for most of the day, which matters enormously in August. They are also crooked, because the plan underneath is medieval and Greek rather than anything designed, so you will get lost. The island is too small for this to be a problem.
Look up constantly. The balconies are the thing: bulging wrought iron on carved stone brackets, and the brackets are often faces, or lions, or something grotesque and half eaten by weather. Nobody points them out and they are on half the buildings in the old town.
The one street and the many lanes
There is a main street running the length of the island from the bridge, and it is where the shops and most of the foot traffic are.
Everything good is off it.
The rule on Ortigia is that if a lane looks too narrow and too residential to be going anywhere, go down it. That is where the small squares are, and the churches nobody visits, and the doorway with a courtyard behind it full of lemon trees.
The spring with papyrus in it
Halfway along the western sea wall there is a round pool of fresh water, walled in stone, ten metres from the salt sea and full of papyrus.
The Greeks explained it with a story about a nymph who fled across the sea from a river god and was turned into a spring, only for him to find her anyway. It is a good story and the water is real: a genuine freshwater source that has run in the same spot for as long as the town has existed, which is a large part of why anyone settled here.
The papyrus is the other thing. This is one of the very few places in Europe where it grows naturally, and there is a great deal more of it on a small river just south of the city.
It is free, it takes four minutes, and it is the single most photographed thing on the island after the cathedral.
The sea wall, and when to walk it
The eastern and southern edges of the island are one long stone promenade with a low parapet, and it is the best walk in Syracuse.
Do it at about seven in the evening. The light comes in low and sideways off the water, the stone holds the heat of the day, and half the town is doing the same thing at the same slow pace.
At the far point there is the fort, thirteenth century and squarely military, sea on three sides. You can go in, and the walk out to it is worth as much as the visit.
The island after six
Syracuse takes a long lunch and then reopens.
From about six the island fills, and it fills with residents as much as visitors. Older men sit on the steps of the small squares. Children are let loose in the cathedral square, which is entirely traffic free and about the size of a football pitch. The passeggiata is real here and it goes on until eleven or midnight in summer.
This is when Ortigia is at its best, and it is the argument for sleeping on the island rather than commuting to it. The day trippers leave at five. What is left is the town.
Where the tourists are, and where they are not
The main street, the cathedral square and the market are busy from ten until about four in season. The rest of the island is not, at any hour.
The northern end near the bridge is workaday and slightly scruffy and has some of the better cheap eating.
The southern tip past the fort is almost residential and quiet all day.
The western sea wall catches the sunset and is busy for exactly forty minutes at the end of the day, then empties.
You are never more than five minutes from somewhere with nobody in it.
Getting onto the island
Walk. The bridges are short and the bus and train stations are about a fifteen minute walk from the north end.
Do not bring a car onto Ortigia. Access is restricted, the lanes are impossible, and there is nowhere to leave it. Park on the mainland side and cross on foot. In August this is not advice, it is the only workable plan.
The Jewish quarter, and what is under it
The southern part of the island is still called the Giudecca, and before 1492 something like a quarter of Ortigia’s population was Jewish. There were said to be a dozen synagogues.
Then the Spanish expulsion, and the community was gone.
What survives is underneath. A miqwe, a Jewish ritual bath, cut eighteen metres down into the rock, reached by fifty eight steps, with five stone basins still filling from the groundwater. It is thought to date from around the sixth century AD, which would make it the oldest in Europe. It was sealed and hidden in 1492 and only rediscovered in 1989, during building work.
You go down in a small group, on a short guided visit that runs every half hour. It is cold, completely silent, and among the most affecting fifteen minutes in Sicily. The street above gives no indication whatever that it is there.
Read also: the best things to do in Syracuse, where to eat in Syracuse, and my complete guide to Syracuse.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Ortigia?
Ortigia is the small island that holds the historic centre of Syracuse in Sicily, joined to the mainland by two short bridges. It is about a kilometre long, has been inhabited for roughly three thousand years, and contains the cathedral, the market, the sea wall and almost all of the city’s good hotels and restaurants.
Is Ortigia walkable?
Entirely. The island is around a kilometre end to end and four hundred metres across, and you can walk its length in about twenty minutes. The streets are narrow, crooked and mostly shaded, and no vehicle would help you.
How long do you need in Ortigia?
A full day covers it properly, and two evenings are better than one because the island changes character after six. Most visitors underestimate it and give it an afternoon, which means seeing the cathedral square in the heat and missing the passeggiata.
Can you drive on Ortigia?
Not usefully. Vehicle access is restricted, the lanes are too narrow for most cars and parking inside the old town is close to impossible in summer. Leave the car on the mainland side and walk over one of the bridges.
Why is there papyrus growing in Syracuse?
Syracuse is one of the very few places in Europe where papyrus grows naturally, both at the freshwater spring on the Ortigia sea wall and along a small river just south of the city. The likeliest explanation is an ancient introduction from Egypt that established itself, and the plant has been used locally to make paper by hand ever since.
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