Instead of Siracusa
Instead of Siracusa: coastal towns and hill towns within 90 minutes
Ortigia is one of the best small islands in the Mediterranean to walk around and it is no longer a secret from anybody.
The Val di Noto behind it and the coast south toward Capo Passero carry the same baroque and the same limestone.
Coastal towns and hill towns in our catalogue within 90 minutes of Siracusa by road, ranked by outside recognition. Siracusa itself and the other famous places are left out. 10 towns match, and all of them are below.
Instead of Siracusa
Siracusa · 115,515 residents · Sicilia
- Palazzolo AcreideSiracusa
Hill town · Borghi più belli d'Italia
- From Siracusa
- 47m by car
- By train
- Reachable
- Residents
- 8,101
- When to go
- Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct
- ModicaRagusa
Hill town · UNESCO
- From Siracusa
- 1h 9m by car
- By train
- Reachable
- Residents
- 53,503
- When to go
- Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
- FerlaSiracusa
Hill town · Borghi più belli d'Italia
- From Siracusa
- 1h 1m by car
- Residents
- 2,305
- When to go
- Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
- SortinoSiracusa
Hill town · UNESCO
- From Siracusa
- 55m by car
- Residents
- 8,234
- When to go
- Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
- AgiraEnna
Hill town · Borghi più belli d'Italia
- From Siracusa
- 1h 29m by car
- Residents
- 7,671
- When to go
- Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
The 5 best-recognised of the 10 towns that match. Drive times measured by road from Siracusa. More of them follow below.
Palazzolo Acreide
Province: Siracusa · 670 m
An 8,000-resident hilltop town on the Iblei plateau at 670m, rebuilt entirely in late Baroque after the 1693 earthquake and founded over the Greek Akrai colony in 664 BC, with a Greek theatre and a cluster of rock carvings unlike anything else nearby.
Modica
Province: Ragusa · 296 m
A vertical Baroque city in the Hyblean Mountains, rebuilt from the 1693 earthquake and home to a chocolate recipe brought from Aztec Mexico.
Ferla
Province: Siracusa · 500 m
A baroque village at 500 meters on the Monte Lauro slopes, the western gateway to the UNESCO necropolis of Pantalica eleven kilometers downhill.
Sortino
Province: Siracusa · 438 m
The eastern gateway to UNESCO Pantalica at 438 meters in the Iblei, Sicily's city of honey and home of the stuffed Sortino pizzolo.
Agira
Province: Enna · 650 m
Birthplace of the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus and burial site of 490 Canadian soldiers of the 1943 campaign.
Catania
Province: Catania · 7 m
Sicily's second city and the cultural anchor of the Ionian coast, a UNESCO late-Baroque centro storico rebuilt in lava-black stone after the 1693 earthquake, sitting at the foot of Etna with a 17th-century elephant fountain (U Liotru) as its civic symbol.
Giarre
Province: Catania · 81 m
An Etna town that split from Mascali in 1815 and built a neoclassical duomo, with two bell towers framing the volcano behind it.
Pachino
Province: Siracusa · 65 m
Sicily's southernmost town, on the Capo Passero promontory, and the name behind the Pomodoro di Pachino PGI cherry tomato.
Aci Castello
Province: Catania · 15 m
A coastal town just north of Catania on the Riviera dei Ciclopi, where the basalt headland holds the 1076 Norman Castello d'Aci and the seven volcanic Faraglioni dei Ciclopi rise from the sea, the rocks the Cyclops threw at Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey.
Riposto
Province: Catania · 6 m
The Ionian port whose name comes from the Sicilian for cellar, where the wine of Mascali and Giarre was stored before shipping.
Drive times measured by road from Siracusa. A town with no time shown is one the router could not reach, usually because it is served by ferry. How this data is built.