Surroundings

A little more than a rock 5 kilometers from Porto Palo, it can be reached from the mainland through a small pier that separates two beautiful beaches with golden and fine sand and a beach that seems to never end. It houses the lighthouse and the ruins of a military post. Here you can deepen both the naturalistic and holiday aspect looking at migratory birds that cross the island, or practicing surfing and windsurfing.

It is a small fishing village at the southeastern end of Sicily, built around an active tonnara until the beginning of the Second World War. Today it is a popular seaside resort for the beauty of the pristine sea waters, for the immense and sandy beaches, for the low houses of the fishermen that overlook the sea and for the “balata” square, where you can taste various local products. Famous directors have immortalized and made famous this small fraction of Pachino. In August, Marzamemi organizes the “Fish and Wine Festival” which attracts many families and young people from nearby areas.

Cited by Cicero, Pliny and Ptolemy, the bay of Porto Ulisse is renowned as a legendary place where the Homeric hero landed during his roaming around the Mediterranean Sea. The archaeologists have identified Apolline, a Roman station where it was possible to haul boats. Several finds were found, including fragments covered with a Byzantine 6th century ship, discovered in 1960 about 500 meters from the coast.
This picturesque stretch of coast, located near Ispica along the south-eastern coast of Sicily, is characterized by the presence of a beach, called “Porto Ulisse”, known for its superb panorama of its suggestive faraglioni. The sea, clear and crystalline, offers calm and still waters thanks to the presence of a small inlet. Constituted by a sandy inlet, it is bounded by the rocky promontory of Punta Castellazzo, where an ancient fortress was built in defense of the hinterland and the port.

Ciriga’s faraglioni are two islets composed of limestone structures with a height of about 15 meters and a width of about 10 meters. They are located in the Malta channel, near the Sicilian coast, near Punta Ciriga.
Places a few meters from the Mediterranean coast, the faraglioni form with the beach in front of an attraction rather appreciated by visitors. The surface covered with vegetation, located at the top is impossible to reach without adequate equipment due to the shape of the stacks that have vertical walls on all sides.

Capital of the ancient County, Modica was razed to the ground by the terrible earthquake in 1693 and entirely rebuilt in baroque style. The city is divided into Modica Alta and Modica Bassa. Modica Bassa runs along two main streets, Via Marchesa Tedeschi and Corso Umberto, where once flowed the rivers Ianni Mauro and Pozza dei Pruni. Magnificent examples of Baroque architecture are the Cathedral of San Pietro with a monumental staircase embellished by the statues of the twelve apostles on the sides; the Church of Santa Maria di Betlemme, famous for its beautiful terracotta nativity scene created by Father Benedetto Papale in 1882; Church of Carmine, Church of San Domenico, Palazzo San Domenico, Palazzo De Leva. Modica Alta. The Cathedral of San Giorgio rises at the top of a splendid flight of 250 steps and has a high convex facade with three shelves and a Latin cross interior divided into five naves; Palazzo Polara, the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista.
HOW TO ARRIVE: from Villa Aurea take the SS115 up to Modica.

The urban layout of Scicli dates back to the eighteenth century when the city, razed by the earthquake of 1693, was completely rebuilt further south. The central and animated Piazza Italia is dominated by the Chiesa Madre di Sant’Ignazio, with its beautiful Baroque façade. from a majestic portal. Important is the Church of San Bartolomeo, dating back to the fifteenth century, the only one that has resisted the earthquake of 1693. Behind the church stands the hill of San Matteo; along its slope you can see the caves of the rock settlement of Chiafura and on the top the Church of San Matteo. The pearl of the city’s baroque are the ecclesiastical and civil monuments that are found in via Mormino Penna: the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, the Church of San Michele and the Church of Santa Teresa. In Piazza Busacca you can admire the Church of Carmine. Even the civil architecture is full of monuments from the Baroque period such as Palazzo Fava, Palazzo Spadaro, Palazzo Busacca and Palazzo Beneventano.
HOW TO ARRIVE: from Villa Aurea take the Pozzallo Marina di Modica, Sampieri. Here take the road to Scicli.

The city, despite the damage suffered by the earthquake of 1990 and the ravages of time, still exerts an immense charm for its beautiful buildings and baroque churches. The main street of the city, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, crosses three scenic squares: one central, Piazza Municipio, and two side, Piazzetta 30 Ottobre or dell’Immacolata in the east, and Piazza XVI Maggio or San Domenico in the west.
The Piazza dell’Immacolata is crowned by the Church of the Immaculate Conception introduced by a staircase and by the convent of the SS Salvatore. Piazza Municipio is instead dominated by a staircase that leads to the Church of San Nicolò.
Once a year, on the third Sunday of May, the streets of the city of Noto turn into a blaze of colorful flowers. The so-called infiorata.
HOW TO ARRIVE: from Villa Aurea take the SS for Noto

The city includes an area of ​​eighteenth-century plant, after the earthquake, with a wide-straight and wide road-grid checker’s mesh, and an area of ​​medieval layout with irregular traces; the latter is adjacent to a cliff where there are the ruins of a fortress and the ancient city of Spaccaforno. The eighteenth-century Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore with three naves preserves a stucco decoration by Giuseppe and Giovanni Gianforma. The Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata was built after the earthquake beginning in 1970, replacing the homonymous building destroyed in ancient Spaccaforno, today in the Forza park. The architectural structure of the Madonna del Monte Carmelo church is gradually defined throughout the seventeenth century with 18 cells for the friars and other service rooms. Reduced to rubble due to the earthquake of 1693, it was rebuilt together with the church in the 18th century. The church’s façade includes handcrafted Renaissance style bas-reliefs dating from the second half of the 16th century to the first half of the 17th century. The city of Ispica, and in particular the Loggiato del Sinatra with the background of the Basilica of S.Maria Maggiore, has been transformed into an amazing film set for the staging of the film “La Mossa del cavallo” taken from a novel by Andrea Camilleri.

The ancient Akrai was founded by the Greeks Corinthians of Syracuse in 664 BC. as a military outpost to control the road to the west. It was immediately embellished with temples, streets and a theater. It was first destroyed and then rebuilt by the Arabs; then finally razed to the ground by the earthquake of 1693. Today the historic center is presented with extraordinary baroque churches, eighteenth-century palaces, squares. The excavations begun in 1809 by the baron Gabriele Judica have brought to light the Theater, the remains of Bouleuterion, meeting place of the Senate, the Latomie of Intagliata and Intagliatella with Greek, Roman and Christian tombs and twelve rock engravings representing divinities. Palazzolo Acreide hosts the International Festival of Classical Young Theater every year.
HOW TO ARRIVE: from Villa Aurea take the SS 115 up to Noto. Take the SS 247 and continue until you reach the SS 124. Follow the signs for Palazzolo Acreide.

Rock settlement already inhabited in the Eneolithic. The quarry extends from north-west to south-east for about 13 kilometers between two streams, the Pernamazzoni and the Busaitone. It can be accessed from Ispica and from Modica. The entrance from Ispica is dominated by the fortifications of the medieval city, the “Fortilitium”. Inside you can visit the Archaeological Park “Forza”, the jewel of the quarry. Of particular interest are the ruins of the Castle, of the Palazzo Marchionale, of the Church of the Annunciation and of the “one hundred stairs”, a staircase made up of 280 steps carved into the rock through which one reaches the bottom of the valley. The entrance from the Ispica-Modica state is dominated by the Catacombs of the “Larderia” with about 300 paleochristian burials of the IV-V century BC.
HOW TO ARRIVE: from Villa Aurea it is easy to reach the Cava in a few minutes along the Ispica-Pozzallo state road.

Located between Noto and Pachino, it extends over five marshes: the Piccolo, the Grande, the Roveto, the Sichilli, the Scirbia. The reserve includes more than three kilometers of beaches of unique beauty accessible to visitors. The variety of environments, rock, sea. sand, dunes, fresh and salt water, make it a unique place.
Vendicari is, above all, a stopping point for numerous species of migratory birds, from flamingos to herons, from the black stork to the pelicans. The vegetation is very varied, as evidenced by the presence of myrtle, mastic, thyme, juniper, rush.