Syracuse and Noto One Day Tour: Greek Ruins and Baroque Landmarks Exploration
4.6
64 Ratings
Catania
Embark on a captivating one-day tour of Syracuse and Noto, exploring Greek ruins and Baroque landmarks. Discover hidden alleys, magical fountains, and marvel at Sicilian architecture. Book now!
Duration: 9 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Syracuse - The Syracuse and Noto tour will start with the visit of the Neapolis in Syracuse, the famous archaeological park in the countryside of Syracuse. This place houses also the Greek Theatre, Ear of Dionysius and the Latomie. The visit will last an hour and a half.

  • Ortigia - We will then reach the lovely peninsula of Ortigia. Starting From the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, with a lovely walking, you will finally admire the Duomo square with is beautiful white Cathedral of “Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception”, erected on the Ancient Greek temple of Athena. The walking will continue till the Fountain of Arethusa, a legendary fresh water spring with a fountain.UNESCO declared Syracuse World Heritage Site in 2005.
    Here in Ortigia we will offer you a tipycal sicilian snack made of “Tavola Calda” with water and red wine. Or, if you prefer, you will have one hour of spare time to have lunch in one of the many amazing restaurants in the alleys of the city.

  • Noto - After lunch we will drive to Noto, a jewel of Sicilian Baroque, Unesco heritage. Noto is considered a “open air museum”. Here we will visit its main street coming from the “Porta Reale”, pass by the Church of St. Francesco with the majestic staircase. Palazzo Ducenzio is located in Piazza Municipio. Admiring the many palaces and churches , it is not possible to miss the visit of the Cathedral Church

What's Included
  • Enjoy a complimentary Sicilian street food snack, water, and a taste of Etna wine
  • Professional driver included
  • All landing and/or facility fees covered
  • No surcharges on fuel – all fuel expenses included
  • Travel comfortably in an air-conditioned minivan
  • Convenient hotel pickup and drop-off or a nearby meeting point
What's Not Included
  • Touristic guide inside the historical places/churches/museums
  • Biglietti di ingresso
Additional Information

Embark on a day-long expedition to uncover the gems of Syracuse Ortigia and Noto with an informed guide. Discover the Grecian enchantments in Syracuse’s archaeological regions, hidden pathways, and captivating fountains in Ortigia, all while admiring the Sicilian Baroque structures. The tour involves famous spots like Nepaolis, the Duomo Square of Ortigia, and the splendid churches, buildings, and balconies of Noto. Experience all these locations in a single day, with seamless and luxurious transport, pick-up and drop-off at your lodging arranged for smaller groups. This trip will be led by experienced, multilingual, professional, and local driver/guides. A perfect opportunity to explore Greek culture and baroque masterpieces in a relaxed, safe, and comfortable trip in Sicily,

  • May be operated by a multi-lingual guide
Location
P.za Federico di Svevia, 32
Piazza Federico di Svevia
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.6
(64 Ratings)
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Susanlv5680td
Apr 22, 2024
Day trip to Syracuse, Ortygia and Noto from Catania - It was a lovely day, and our guide was so pleasant and informative. I highly recommend this tour. He gave us a lot of extra information and we had a tasty lunch too with wine!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Eric_g
Mar 16, 2024
Syracuse and Noto - Our guide was wonderful... patient, knowledgeable, and fluent in English. His driving was also great. We especially loved visiting the Greek and Roman amphitheaters in Syracuse, the "white island" of Ortygia, and Noto Cathedral.
Review provided by Viator
Valerie_c
Feb 25, 2024
This tour exceeded my expectations! - This was a great tour, I enjoyed not being herded around. We were given plenty of time in each place, to find our own way and see what we wanted to see. The lunch was great with plenty of choices. Thoroughly enjoyed my day. Thank you.
Review provided by Viator
Lisa_h
Sep 20, 2023
A bit of everything in Sicily - Three interesting spots in Sicily. Everybody had a different favourite. The guide knew tons about the history of each location, and the local culture. She was able to answer all of our questions, even some obscure ones.
Review provided by Viator
Soher_c
May 30, 2024
Beautiful places - The guide was very nice and quite knowledgeable. I would have liked to spend more time at Syracuse and Noto and lunch was okay. I understand the time limitations, but we could have gone to a better place to eat, I’m sure this has nothing to do with the driver.
Review provided by Viator
Jos348
May 26, 2024
Good transfer service, but a bit pricey - Overall good, but a bit expensive for what you get (read below for full details). This is essentially a transfer service which you share with others. We had 6 other people with us (8 total + driver), and because the mini van wasn't very big, it was a little tight (nothing too bad, but it wasn't spacious). Your driver is not a guide, he will only give you a leaflet and will point out the entrance to attractions, he will then meet you back at a certain time and you will leave for the next destination. Our driver Antonio was great and bent over and backwards to make sure we were happy and satisfied. He cracked jokes and was generally a safe driver (by Italian standards!). Pick up from Catania wasn't rushed, which means we didn't get to the first stop until after 11am. Because of this, there was a lot of traffic. The Archaeological Park in Siracuse is very expensive and tickets are not included (16.5 euro per person). You have the option of waiting until everyone is done exploring (which I would recommend, it is so not worth it). Around 1pm Antonio took us to Ortigia in the van, so that he could point out the various spots of interest. The streets were narrow, there were lots of pedestrians, so this took a really long time. We had to fully embrace the "no rush" mentality of Italians, otherwise we would be so frustrated at how inefficiently we were using our time (driving slowly through Ortigia, instead of walking through it...). And then we turned around and went back to where we came from to have lunch. That took almost an hour... but remember, like the Italians, you are not in a rush... The lunch was great! It was in a little bakery and you could pick whatever you wanted to eat - pizza, arancini, baked aubergines, potatoes, mozarella sticks etc. (you could take ALL of this, not 1 of these things). The dish is warmed up for you and although it's not the best food you will eat in Italy it was plentiful, hot, kept us full until the evening and it was included in the price! We even got some wine to go with the lunch - amazing! Again Antonio went above and beyond. We got some coffee and a dessert and I was too full to even walk out of there ;) We then had 2h in Ortigia which didn't feel like enough time, it's such a beautiful place. Wish we had 3h to walk around instead of that drive through... but we really enjoyed our time there. We met with Antonio after our 2h were up, and we were off to Noto. We arrived around 6pm in Noto and had an hour to walk around. It's a small little town but quite cute and we enjoyed a granita on the steps. It was a relaxing end to our trip. Antonio mentioned that in the summer he changes the order of the activities so that you visit the Archaeological Park last, as it gets really hot during the day. We then got back to Catania around 8:30pm. We had to move our dinner reservation as we expected to get back much earlier, but again, Antonio was an angel and helped us with that. He was 10/10. To sum up: this is a transfer service with lunch included, no guide and no tickets to the Archaeological Park included. Give the Arch. Park a miss, it's not worth your time and money. Lunch was fab, Ortigia was fab, Noto was good, the driver Antonio was fabulous, this is a no rush trip so don't expect efficient use of time - you're on holiday!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
_rcholder
Mar 12, 2024
Xxxxxxxxxx - Excellent tour, but microphone needed in van. Backseat passengers can’t hear driver/guide commentary. Xxxxxxxxxxxx
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Eugenio_i
Oct 2, 2023
Great tour mostly - We really enjoyed Siracusa and Ortygia ,could spend a few days there. Are driver spoke good English and was a real gentleman and very accommodating. We were not crazy about Noto , it was a very clean city and beautiful buildings, not much shelter from the sun and and unless you are into seating multiple churches it’s on the boring side
Review provided by Viator
Gene_h
Apr 15, 2024
Not a guided tour - The driver was very friendly and knowledgeable about Catania. He dropped us off at each location and gave us a map. I couldn't read the map and really don't know much about what we saw.
Review provided by Viator
Adele_l
Aug 5, 2023
Worst mistake of my entire trip - Our driver was about an hour late and cited bad traffic and other participants were late themselves. The entire tour was very rushed and we actually got back before 5pm (which was bad considering we started late) In the first stop, we had about an hour to visit the Neapolis which was way too long (considering how little time we had in other places) and we had 20 mins subsequently in Noto and Ortigia which were beautiful but unfortunately couldn't explore. All in all you have about 70 mins to visit these 3 places and the rest you're in the car. Lunch was not great and I wished we were given options to opt out of lunch to find our own food/spend more time in these charming towns instead of driving 15-20min outside of these places for sub par food. We were also rushed for our lunch and only had 20 mins to eat. Our tour guide Dario gave us more information on the rocks and plants than the history of this magical place unfortunately. I've been on many Viator trips and this is by far the worst one.
Review provided by Viator
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up to 15 guests
1 Adult
June 2024
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