One of the most famous places in Western Greece: a freshwater mirror just steps from the sea, along the promenade of Ortigia. The myth: the nymph Aretusa, pursued by the river Alpheus, was transformed by Artemis into a spring and emerged here; Alpheus, becoming a river, crossed the Ionian Sea to mix his waters with hers. Pindar, Virgil, and Ovid wrote about it; Nelson replenished his water supply here before the Battle of the Nile. In the basin, papyrus grows spontaneously — one of only two sites in Europe along with the Ciane River — and mullets and ducks swim. At sunset, it is the most romantic spot on the Ortigia promenade, with a view of the Porto Grande and the Iblei mountains.
In the app, check in on site: you earn a point and the AI guide tells you about the place in your language.
