Syracuse, Ortigia and Noto tour from Taormina and nearby area

Joe has fabulous command of the English language. He is quite passionate and engaging in his knowledge. We were met in a small van in Taormina. We then went to Catania to meet another couple as we then headed to Syracuse. Joe was presenting us with overall knowledge to both the areas we were driving through as well as Syracuse. Unfortunately when we arrived in Syracuse to view the archeological park, the heavens opened. After a few minutes, the worst of the storm passed. We proceeded to the ticket office. Unfortunately, there were two tour groups ahead of us that had about 30 members each. Instead of the tour guide buying 30 tickets per group, they each bought their tickets separately. That took over 40 minutes. Since we were already delayed by the rain, we realized we would have about 10 minutes to see the park before moving on, hence not worth the cost to enter. We did have a great walking tour of Ortigia, where we had lunch in a non-touristy panini shop. It was quite good. We did go to the old market. It was mostly closed due to weather. But we did see the an herbal display. It was quite lovely. After that we drove to Noto, a town that had been fully restored from the 1693 earthquake by the wealthy citizens. There were about 8 towns in this region that had the funds to restore their respective towns. The era in the restoration was baroque. So it is quite lovely. Rain started to fall as we arrived. It stopped by the time we parked. Fortunately, no rain after that. Joe gave us a good walking introduction tour in both Ortigia and Noto. He then left us plenty of time to explore. Overall, it was a great tour. We were not that disappointed by missing the architectural park, since we had seen a lot of Greek ruins already. Weather and other tour groups poor management caused us to miss it. Not the fault of Joe. Again, his passion for history and passing on his knowledge that included some local myths, was exceptional.

This tour is advertised as starting in Taormina In fact it was run from Catania We were picked up late from our hotel and driven to the departure point in Catania through peak hour traffic We were late getting to the departure point and then had to drive around Catania picking up others We then drove to Syracuse Our guide was silent the whole way there Did not give us any historical information about the archeological park and when we got there merely handed us a sheet of paper and told us to reconvene in 90 minutes The walk around Ortyga was not very informative as to history etc We visited Noto for an hour and then back to Catania We were left to last to leave the bus only to have our transfer to Taormina delayed so that we were again stuck in traffic The tour offered a lot more on paper than it delivered Disappointing as Syracuse was a day tour we were looking forward to