Simply walking through Ortygia's tangled maze of alleys is an atmospheric experience, especially down the narrow lanes of Via Maestranza , the heart of the old guild quarter, and the crumbling Jewish ghetto of Via della Giudecca . At the Alla Giudecca hotel you can visit an ancient Jewish miqwe some 20m below ground level. Blocked up in 1492 when the Jewish community was expelled from Ortygia, the baths were rediscovered during renovation work at the hotel.
A short walk away, Syracuse's much-loved puppet theatre, the Piccolo Teatro dei Pupi stages puppet shows re-enacting traditional tales involving magicians, love-struck princesses, knights and dragons. See the website for a calendar of performances. The workshop, where the puppets are created, is at Via della Giudecca 19, while just down the road, the small Museo Aretuseo dei Pupi chronicles Sicily's history of puppet theatre.
