Page 366 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

Via Roma 81 ( 0931 65 760). Outside normal working hours, pharmacies open on a

rota system that’s posted outside, and is also available at www.comune.siracusa.it.

Police For police, call 0931 495 111; call 112 in an emergency. There’s a
Carabinieri post in Piazza San Giuseppe, Ortigia ( 0931 441 344).

Post office The main post office is at Piazza delle Poste 15, Ortigia (Mon–Fri 8am–
6.30pm, Sat 8am–12.30pm).

< Back to Siracusa and the southeast

North of Siracusa

The coast north of Siracusa, the Golfo di Augusta, sports one of the largest
concentrations of chemical plants in Europe. This mammoth industrial zone employs
one-tenth of the local population, and fills the air with acrid fumes and the sea with
chemicals. Hardly surprisingly, it figures on no holiday itineraries, though the
industrial port of AUGUSTA – half an hour by train or bus from Siracusa – does at
least offer the compensation of a handsome, if crumbling, Baroque centre. Despite the

town’s superficial resemblance to Siracusa – its old centre detached from the
mainland on its own islet, surrounded by two harbours – the port has never attained
the same importance and didn’t even exist until 1232. Frederick II, who founded
Augusta, characteristically stamped his own personality on it in the form of a castle
(no public access), though everything else of the medieval town was destroyed by the

1693 earthquake. The Villa Comunale below the castle is a shady public garden, on
both sides of which are views out to sea, on one side over the port and tankers, on the
other to the headland. A few blocks down the main Via Principe Umberto, a piazza
holds the eighteenth-century Duomo and a solemn Palazzo Comunale, its facade
crowned by Frederick II’s imperial eagle.

BEACHES NORTH OF SIRACUSA

North of Siracusa, much of the coast has been contaminated by noxious chemicals,
but there are popular swimming spots south at Arenella (bus #23 from Piazza
Pancali), mostly consisting of private lidos, but with a free, sandy beach a 5min

walk along a cliff path heading back in the direction of Siracusa, and a rocky cape to
the south where the inlets create clear pools that are good for snorkelling.

On the other side of the cape – a 30min walk away – is Ognina, a small fishing
port and marina, also accessible by bus. It has no beach, but lots of appealing little
coves.

Fontane Bianche, 20km south of Siracusa (buses #21 or #22 from Piazza Pancali),

is another very popular spot with the locals, with a wide arc of sand ringed by