italiano 
Ortygia-Island
Ortygia Island, Syracuse’s sparkling island.
The Island of Ortygia is a maze of narrow alleys that unravel all the way from Maniace Castle to the Ponte Umbertino in an etching made of buildings and secret squares created by theSea. The Greek name of this island means Quails’ Island and its hues resemble those of Delphi e Delos . Its column’s capitals, stones and archways draw massive geometric patterns which overlook the sea showing traces of this city’s lush past which Plato viewed as the most beautiful of Classical Antiquity.
With its smooth surfaces and inlets, Ortygia Island is like a treasure preserving seashell. Here lived Archimedes and stories of the past lie like sediment over the seabed. Seagulls fly over the towering columns of Apollo’s temple. The wind sneaks through the buildings reaching out to brush across the drapery of Artemis’ statue. Waves flutter and crash against the walls of Maniace Castle, located at the furthest point of the island, the boundary between water and sky
.
The sulfur-colored stones open into natural amazing crevasses, among which you can find the very ancient Papyrus Grove at Fountain of Arethusa, a natural spring of freshwater located on Ortygia Island. The ribs and buttresses of the cathedral hide inside the ruins of Athena’s Temple , with its tapered columns carved by ancient hands. Everything seems to communicate with an ancestral language, as if Ortygia was mankind’s very origin.
U’Scogghiu, “the cliff”, as nicknamed by locals, is the wonderful strip of land on which the Maniace boutique hotel stands. You will fall hopelessly in love with the island of Ortygia and the thousand voices and influences that will stir and beckon you.
"U’scogghiu", accussì a chiamiamo nuatri siciliani, era pi Platone u paisi cchiù bìeddu du munnu. Cca i milli anime di la sicilia brillanu, s'illuminannu l’una cu l’altra.
(The cliff, as we Sicilians call it, was the most beautiful city in the word for Plato. Sicily's thousands of souls shine here, lightning each other up.)
