Syracuse Events

Syracuse's calendar is anchored by two things that could not be less alike: Greek tragedy in a Greek theatre, and a saint carried through the streets in December.

Greek drama at the Teatro Greco — May to early July

The Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico has staged classical tragedy and comedy in the ancient theatre at Neapolis since 1914, making it the longest-running festival of its kind. Performances are in the open air in the late afternoon and evening, on the stone tiers cut into the hillside, and the repertoire is the surviving Greek drama itself — Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes — usually two or three productions in rotation across a season of some two months. Aeschylus worked in Syracuse and at least one of his plays is thought to have been first performed in this city, which gives the whole thing a directness that a festival staged anywhere else cannot claim. Tickets sell well ahead for the better seats; cushions are worth hiring, because the seating is two-thousand-year-old rock.

Santa Lucia — 13 December

Lucy was born in Syracuse and is its patron. Her silver statue is carried from the cathedral through Ortigia and across to her basilica on the mainland, accompanied by enormous crowds, and the city eats cuccia — boiled wheat berries, sweet or savoury — by tradition on the day. It is the most important date in the local year.

Ortigia Film Festival — summer

An independent film festival staged in open-air venues on the island, focused on Italian first and second features.

Christmas and the baroque

Nativity scenes in the churches, and a quiet, mild, very cheap off season.