This morning we went to the local supermarket to get staples for the kitchen: coffee, milk, yogurt, water, eggs. We had breakfast on the terrace.
An earthquake in the late 1600s destroyed the city and then a new Baroque town was built called Ragusa Superiore, the upper town. Our apartment was in the older part, Ragusa Ibla. Today we headed up to Superiore, walking up hidden stairs and back alleys, passing baroque houses and small churches.
We walked around for a few hours and decided to have lunch on our terrace so we stopped at an amazing bakery for a loaf of bread run by an older couple and a small shop for Ragusano cheese, olives, and beautiful baby tomatoes. And if there wasn't enough cheese, bread, and tomatoes, we also finished the leftover pizza form last night. We had lunch with an awesome view then it was unavoidable siesta time.
lunch with a side of pizza
We took a small day trip to a neighboring city called Modica, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was only 15 minutes away. We almost chose Modica as a hub when planning the trip but something drew us to Ragusa Ibla. Anyway, we had a bit of trouble finding parking and getting oriented till we found an information point and got a map.
walking to the chocolate festival
walking to the chocolate festival
the kite runner playing in modica
It turned out today is the beginning of a chocolate festival! Modica is famed for it chocolate which has a grainy texture, similar to the kind you find in Spain. The main street had chocolate shop after chocolate shop and there were tents being set up for the evening events. We stopped in 2 shops and bought loads of it in different flavors that we got to sample first. Our favorite was the vanilla but the pistachio came in at close second. Modica's Cathedral of San Giorgio, architecturally looks a lot like the San Giorgio in Ragusa Ibla.
cathedral of san giorgio
There is a long staircase that leads up to it. Then we walked up many many more steps to the high part of town, Modica Alta, for an incredible vista.
it is worth walking the stairs for the view of modica
stony modica
Lots of stair climbing today! We encountered a lot of tourists, mostly from other parts of Italy and found this to be true for all of Sicily. After a long walk back to the car we were totally beat and took a nap before heading out to dinner.
sunset on cathedral of san giorgio, ragusa ibla
At 8:30 the Ibla was hopping! Tons of restaurants were buzzing and had not a free table in sight so we went to a cafe and had a glass of wine. We then chose Il Barocco for dinner after much deliberation of where to eat. There was an English menu - bad sign - but when we stepped inside, the place was packed with Italian families - good sign! There were groups coming and going with little kids even at 10pm. We started with the antipasto bar, which we can't resist anywhere we go. This was not a help yourself but there was an old man who plated your choices. I got a veggie extravaganza of sauteed mushroms and spinach, stuffed tomatoes, zucchini stuffed with rice and cheese, peperonata, baked and breaded mushrooms, and stuffed artichokes. For main dish we both got pastas and a carafe of local red wine. I got the cavati alla norma with ricotta salata and Ken the cavati con broccoli e acciughe wth pecorino. Scrumptious. We were exhausted after a long day of stair climbing in the sun and the red wine tipped us over the edge.
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