Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(Via San Sebastiano; 9.30am-12.30pm & 2.30-5.30pm Tue-Sun)
The city's most extensive
catacombs
lie
beneath the Basilica di San Giovanni, itself a pretty, truncated church that served as the
city's cathedral in the 17th century. It is dedicated to the city's first bishop, St Marcian,
who was tied to one of its pillars and flogged to death in 254. The catacombs, visitable by
guided tour only, are dank and spooky.
Thousands of little niches line the walls, and tunnels lead off from the main chamber
(decumanus maximus)
into
rotonde,
round chambers used by the faithful for praying. All
of the treasures that accompanied the dead on their spiritual journey fell victim to tomb
robbers over the centuries bar one: a sarcophagus unearthed in 1872 and now on exhibi-
tion in the Museo Archeologico Paolo Orsi.
Museo del Papiro
MUSEUM
( 093 16 16 16;
www.museodelpapiro.it
; Viale Teocrito 66; 9am-1pm Tue-Sun)
This small mu-
seum includes papyrus documents and products, boats and an English-language film about
the history of papyrus. The plant grows in abundance around the Ciane River, near Syra-
cuse, and was used to make paper in the 18th century.
Santuario della Madonna
delle Lacrime
CHURCH
(Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Tears;
www.madonnadellelacrime.it
;
Viale Teocrito; 8am-noon & 4-7pm)
Supposedly modelled on the shape of a tear drop, the 102m-high spire of this church dom-
inates Syracuse's skyline. The modern church beneath it houses a statue of the Virgin
Mary that allegedly wept for five days in 1953 and bestowed more than 300 miraculous
the Lacrymation; admission €1.55;
9am-12.30pm & 4-6pm)
on the sanctuary's lower floor.
BEACH
Beaches
When the heat of the summer kicks in, the sparkling blue waters that surround Ortygia's
sea walls look very tempting. The best swimming in town is off the rocks at
Forte Vigliena
OFFLINE MAP
GOOGLE MAP
, although beach bunnies would do better to make the short trip
south to the sandy blue-flag beaches at
Lido Arenella
. Be warned, though, that it gets very
busy here, particularly on summer weekends.
