Siracusa Sicily

I was surprised to see your reference to a train from the airport, but I see there is an airport train station. It doesn't look like it's walkable from the terminal, but perhaps I'm mistaken. Trains are not very frequent, and Sicilian trains are slow regionals; there will be 2 or 3 stops along the way. I suggest keeping an open mind as to whether a bus would be a better solution. During my 2015 trip to Sicily, I had the impression a lot of buses to and from Catania stopped at the airport on their way into town and out of town, so I think direct bus service to Siracusa is available.

I went to the archaeological museum and archaeological park in 2015. Although archaeological sites are not great favorites of mine, I enjoyed both of those. Be aware that the theatre is still used for performances, so your access to it might be limited if you visit on the day of a performance. I didn't buy tickets ahead of time. I suppose if you arrived right after two large tourist buses pulled up, you might have a significant line in front of you, but that seems pretty unlikely.

Ortygia is an atmospheric place simply to wander around. There are several very attractive Baroque towns in that corner of Sicily. They include Ragusa, Noto, Modica and Scicli. They are accessible by train (again, slow) or bus or both. There may also be bus tours offered, though I'd fear inadequate time allowed at each stop.

Go see a puppet show in Ortigia, it's all in Italian, but it's so fun! You will see places and lots of puppets there and there is a great museum.

https://www.teatrodeipupisiracusa.it/

The market area restaurants are really good on Ortigia.

I think we just bought our tickets at the gate for the Parks, but things may have changed since we were there in 2019, some places have become very busy. It is a bit out of town, so you need to take a bus or taxi to get there.

We just walked right in to the Archeological park in April ‘23 with no advance tickets.
If you are a good walker, you can easily walk to the park from Ortigia.
We could not find any local buses or bus stops, and a couple of local people that we asked didn’t think there were any local buses.
Very confusing.

I found this restaurant on my most recent visit to the city; it's in Siracusa, a block or so from the bridge leading to Ortygia; very good. Indoor and outdoor seating.

https://www.facebook.com/mammaiabicalatteria/?locale=it_IT

We took the bus from Ortega to the park.
Look at the route of the Hop On/Off bus.
I don’t really remember how we go there.

Latteria Mamma Iabica Is excellent.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/mamma-iabica-siracusa

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Especially appreciate the puppet theater suggestion susanking39 and the restaurant suggestion ekscrunchy (the reviews for the restaurant look great and it looks enticing - so we will be going there). Regarding transportation, online it does appear there is a direct no-connection train from the Catania airport rail station to Siracusa and we are train people so maybe that is the way we should go, but the bus option from the airport seems viable too. Anyone that has recent experience with either the bus or train from Catania Airport to Siracusa, your tips would very helpful. And appreciate anyone else who wants to chime in on anything Siracusa too. Thanks to all. Rick Steves travelers are THE BEST!!!!!

Good choice. When we ate at Mamma Iabica last fall, the dining room was filled with attendees of a G7 summit--all Italian.

Echoing acraven, unless this is some brand new train line, I would absolutely take the bus from the airport. I guess it’s been 9 years already, but there was regular bus service to Siracusa. The Catania airport is still fairly small, so it was a five minute walk and the bus station was right outside the door. I walked up and got a ticket at the kiosk. Couldn’t have been easier. Busses are generally the way to go around here. Sicily’s train service can be old, slow, and uncomfortable.

In Siracusa, if you’re interested in the Archeological Park be sure to visit the Museo Paolo Orsi. I thought it beat the pants off other museums.

Hello,
I would take a bus to Siracusa- you can buy the tickets same day right outside the airport and then hop on. You don't have to buy advanced tickets for the Theatres or Archaeological Park you can purchase when you get there. I would also recommend The Archimedes Museum as well as The Ear of Dionysius. The Duomo as well. I loved Siracusa! Very easy to walk around with great restaurants!