This palace is a must, its amazing balcony stretches along with consoles in the shapes of monsters, chimeras, grotesques and other figures, all more frightening as you go along and perfectly representative of the Baroque taste!

The ruins of the basilica stand open to the skies above the crypt of St Marcus and constitute one of the most fascinating places in Syracuse. Byzantine in style, it was destroyed by the Arabs, retaken by the Normans, it then lost its roof in an earthquake. The portico in front of the facade was rebuilt using material from the 15C.

Excavations have led to the discovery of the remains of a Roman villa (dating back to the 2nd half of the 4C) that probably aroused far more envy in terms of its decor than those of the Piazza Armerina (Roman villa of Casale). Archaeologists have unearthed the diamond and spiral-shaped mosaic pavement of its square peristyle and three superb mosaics illustrating hunting and erotic scenes and the scene where the ransom is handed over for the return of Hector's body.

Built in the imperial era, it has, like the Greek theatre, profited from the configuration of the terrain, at least for one of the hemicycles which is carved directly into the rock. In the centre of the arena, the rectangular cavity, linked to the entrance by a moat, was intended for storing equipment. The water used for water displays and for cleaning the arena of the blood of the combatants, was kept in a basin on the right of the pre-Romanesque chapel of San Nicolo dei Cordari.