A tour through eastern Sicily south of Mount Etna passes through the towns of Catania, Siracusa (Syracuse), Noto and Ragusa -- architectural gems of the Sicilian Baroque.
-- Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
The harbor by Ponte Umbertino, connecting modern Syracuse to Otygia Island, where Green settlers from Corinth founded the city in 733 B.C. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
Santa Lucia alla Badia on Ortygia Island’s Piazza Duomo. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
A street musician on the Piazza Duomo. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
Tourists in the maze of streets that winds over Ortygia Island. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
Sunbathing on a spit off Ortygia Island. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
A window overlooking the Ionian Sea from Ortygia Island. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
A Syracusan cat on Ortygia Island. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
The extraordinary Greek theater in Syracuse, inaugurated in 476 B.C. with a debut of “Women of Aetna,” by Aeschylus. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
The new town of Ragusa, seen from the old town Ragusa Ibla, destroyed by an earthquake in 1693 and rebuilt in Baroque style. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
Among the alleyways of Ragusa Ibla. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
Ragusa Ibla’s Cathedral of San Giorgio, an elegant confection designed in 1744 by Sicilian architect Rosario Gagliardi. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
The Circolo di Conversazione, a private club, is a Neoclassical addition to Baroque Ragusa. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
Ragusa’s San Giuseppe Church on Piazza Pola has a floor made of locally mined black asphalt. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
Sunday afternoon on the piazza in Noto, another Baroque gem in southeastern Sicily. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
A relief in the historic center of Catania, Sicily’s second largest city, underneath Mount Etna. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
The day’s sardine catch, still twitching, in Catania’s colorful fish market. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
Giant swordfish steaks, known as spada on restaurant menus. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
Swordfish, still widely pursued in the waters off Sicily. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
The Cathedral of St. Agata, Catania’s Baroque Duomo, sits across from the fish market on a piazza that is a UNESCO World Heritage Monument. (Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times)
