Julies, would love to have your opinion about time spent in the Modica area. I see you felt 3 nights were not quite enough in Modica, but do you mean Modica itself or did you use it as a base to visit other towns in the area e.g. Ragusa, Scicli, Noto. We will be staying in Noto for 3 nights and driving out during the day. Does that seem practical? (We chose Noto for the hotel frankly, since I fell in love with it on line, the 7Rooms Villadorata).

shellio--Modica was our base for our three night stay.

ORTYGIA

We flew into Catania, via Rome, from the US and at the airport quickly found the bus for the hour-long trip to Siracusa. The contact person from our apartment picked us up at the bus station in Siracusa and drove us to our apartment, so that worked out well for us. Otherwise, I am sure we would have just taken a cab from the bus station to the apartment.

Our apartment on Rive Levant, on the southeast side of the peninsula, was in a great location that was easily walkable to everywhere but not in the midst of the most concentrated tourist area. We chose the apartment because of the large terrace and the expansive sea views from the entire apartment, and we really enjoyed this aspect of the apartment. However, if you are really serious about doing any real cooking or even any reheating, this is not the apartment for it. In fact, we felt that their photos and descriptions of the apartment’s cooking possibilities are quite deceptive. Ever tried reheating leftover pizza in a frying pan on top of a stove? Doesn’t work out too well. The apartment does have a toaster and some sort of toaster over, but we could not figure out how to use them since there was no place to plug them in. Both were located on a console table on a wall without any outlets. The only place we could figure out that might have worked to use them was sitting them on top of the gas-burner stove, not exactly a safe spot to plug in an electric appliance. So we never used these appliances. http://www.dicasainsicilia.com/riva-levante---veranda/

We had wondered whether we’d like Ortygia or not, whether it would be too touristy for us, and when making our apartment reservations we debated how many days to stay. It turned out we liked it a lot, so much so that we extended our original four night stay for a fifth night. Part of the reason we liked Ortygia, we know, was because we had an apartment in a lovely setting, with great views out over the sea so we were often happy just sitting on our terrace. Since we were also recovering from jetlag, we found this a relaxing place to be. Others in different situations might not feel a need for as much time here.

Ortygia can be touristy, but it is quite easy to avoid those main tourist areas by just taking alternate streets. Sundays in particular were very busy with local area tourists who came in for the day. This is a great town for just walking and wandering without having any significant destination in mind. Unless you have mobility impairments, you can probably stay anywhere on the peninsula and be within easy walking distance of everything. Plus, there is a circulator bus for only .50 euros.

Our original plan called for us to leave Ortygia on a Sunday, so this meant we had to pick up our rental car on Saturday since Europcar’s office is closed for car pickup between noon on Saturday and Monday morning. It was an easy walk up into Siracusa to Europcar’s rental office, and we did it twice because the first time my husband wanted to make sure we could actually easily find the office since we’d be picking up on a day when the office closed at noon.

We hadn’t really wanted a car at all while we were in Ortygia, but there was no other choice because of Europcar’s hours. Then, when we decided to add an additional day stay in Ortygia (we were lucky in that the apartment didn’t have anyone else coming in until two days later), it meant we had our car for two days there. Forget the idea of trying to find free parking near your lodging, and just resign yourself to using the Talente parking. It is easy to find, and there were lots and lots of spaces available on both weekends and during the week. Since we'd already walked around for a couple days and observed the parking scenario before we picked up the rental car, my husband absolutely refused to even contemplate driving in far enough on the peninsula to get close to our apartment. In fact, when it was time to leave and move on, he insisted on us taking our luggage on the circulator bus and getting off at the Talente parking lot so he wouldn’t have to attempt getting close to our apartment with the car. This way of leaving wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it worked out fine.

We did take the car out one day for an excursion to the necropolis at Pantalica, a place that does not seem to get as much publicity as other locales around Ortygia. Getting in and out of the city with the car wasn’t too bad at all, but maybe it was because it was a Sunday. We found Pantalica quite fascinating and a great place for a longish hike. Apparently we screwed up when we arrived and took the much longer and much more challenging, more wild route. While we hiked it was very interesting looking all around and trying to figure out how, in the days, before any mechanization, people were able to access these high, vertical cliff structures and then transport bodies up into them. We’d brought a picnic with us and found a large rock to picnic on next to the lovely and secluded small stream at the bottom of the ravine.

We spent a lot of our time in Ortygia just walking around, without doing any of the major tourist destinations or real sight seeing. This mode of operation fit us well, and this is a city we would return to for another four or five day stay. Since we live in a really rotten winter climate, we are always keeping our eyes open for locations we’d be happy settling into for a month or so in the ickiest winter months. For a while at the start of our visit to Ortygia we had though to ourselves that this is such a desirable location that we might consider it for a month-long vacation sometime in February or March when we want to get away from our crummy climate. However, after a few days we decided that, while it seems to have a great climate, for our needs it is just too small of a city for a month-long stay.

Although we are kind of churched-out in Europe, having seen hundreds and hundreds, the Cathedral is quite interesting since it is built around and incorporates the former Greek temple.

When we were there (in shoulder season in October) boat trip plans could basically be made on the spot with departures within a half hour or less. If you plan to do a trip by boat during your stay, do it earlier on if the weather is nice. The weather suddenly changed for us for the worse, with the seas becoming very rough with high winds and we were only able to fit in the ride on our last morning. In fact, we delayed our departure that day specifically so we could do the boat trip.

Although the boat trip seems like it would be quite lovely late in the day with the setting sun, our boatman told us that the seas are generally calmer in the mornings, so you’ll have a better guarantee of being able to go out in the mornings. We did the longer boat tour that goes around both the historic area and into the caves (our captain actually went into the caves, and we saw some who did not). We felt the cave part was the most interesting, so definitely pick the tour that does both.

We visited the market several times and found it an enjoyable place although not nearly as large or as exotic as many we’ve been to. Although the market is supposed to only be open M to Sat., there were a few places open (including the sandwich guy) on Sunday too. The market was definitely busier on Saturday than it had been during the week.

We found a mix of eating experiences from extremely casual and cheap to more quality dining; we would recommend them all except one. In somewhat of an order from cheaper to more expensive—

*the sandwich guy at the market (you’ll know who I mean when you get there). Five euros gets you a huge, high quality sandwich that feeds two.

*the market stall that sells octopus salad

*Fratelli Burgio on the corner in the market (buy some of their sun-dried tomato jam too as a souvenir)

*la Pizzoleria (ate here twice, once for regular pizza and once for their specialty pizzolo which also has a very thin and crispy top crust and is more filling)

*La Tavernetta da Piero—recommended by our apartment, and it was really good food. Go to the original not the Due site.

*Sicilia in Tavola—This is the one place we were very disappointed in the food and would not return.

*Il Veliero—really great pasta with some unique flavors

Glad to hear that you liked Ortygia.

Kathy--Ortygia we liked a lot. One of your other favorites--Erice--was okay but not nearly as appealing to us.

To anyone reading this, I want to clarify when I talk about parking issues. We are not from suburbia or rural USA; we live in the city and many places we regularly visit entail driving around the block(s) and looking for a small spot in which to parallel park. But, the parking challenges we encountered in Sicily often really put things in a completely different perspective. I think the additional challenge is that in your own country you usually have a much better grasp of what the real guidelines are. For example, several places we sere trying to figure out if white painted over blue (but not completely) meant the white or blue rules were in effect.

great tips about apartment rental, julies - but otherwise it seems that you were pleased with your apartment. it's going on my "possible" list, especially as we would be likely to eat out most of the time. [we once spent a week in Rome with a full kitchen and only ever used it to make coffee!]

Really enjoying reliving our Spring trip thru yours. Glad you enjoyed Ortygia and so lucky you could extend your stay there. We went to Pantalica on holiday and the area was packed with locals hiking and picnicking.

Ortygia looks gorgeous, just the sort of place I'd like to get lost in.

<<We brought along a long bicycle chain lock and used that to secure our suitcase that had to sit in the backseat. We had another smaller, cable luggage lock we also used.>>
You must be joking!

Very much enjoying your report - I'm so looking forward to our trip next May. I'm saving your notes on Ortygia as we will be starting our trip there, too.

Looking forward to the rest - especially Modica. We are booked in Palazzo Il Cavaliere on Corso Umberto. After looking at streetview in Google, the street looks a bit dull. Yet taking a place up the hill seems like it will be a problem for both parking and going out to eat. I have some difficulty with steps, though am able to manage slowly, so I'm a little concerned about staying in Modica at all, yet it also seems like a place we'd enjoy. I'm curious what you think the "ideal" location is in this city. I look forward to your take -- your descriptions have been very detailed and give a good sense of place.

progol,

I think the location of that hotel will reduce quite a bit of stress about driving in the city, since it right at the "gateway". Once you've parked you car and checked in, you are also less than a 15 minute flat walk to the social heart of Modica around the area of the commune. If your problem is with steps, you can avoid them. (Regarding San Giorgio church, its exterior is its most strking aspect, visible from many parts of town, and it is not worth climbing the front steps to see the interior.) However, Modica sits in something of a bowl, so if you walk 15 minutes to the area of the commune from that hotel, you will need to walk 15 minutes at an uphill grade to get back.

]

annhig--Our apartment was fine, not perfect, but fine. As in many such rental places, things were done to make it appealing on the surface and in photos but these are fixes we'd never do in our own homes. For example, there were some extremely shoddy repairs done in the bathroom with duct tape (they didn't hold). But, we would probably rent it again because if all of its pluses.

yestravel--We had the same experience as you with lots of locals, especially since we went there on a Sunday afternoon. Lovely place, so I can see why so many people go there.

Myriam--I am not kidding about the lock. We have done a lot of traveling all over the world and in Europe but have never been as paranoid about theft from the car as on this trip. Warnings about never, ever leaving anything anywhere in the car are rife over at TA (and there is a trip report on this site from someone who did have luggage stolen out of the trunk). By the end of the trip we were feeling more comfortable about the idea of short stops, but we had the car that was not large enough to hold two standard size suitcases so one was always visible in the back seat.

progol--Modica is next of my list of places to report on, but I really don't know how helpful I'll be.

<<but we had the car that was not large enough to hold two standard size suitcases so one was always visible in the back seat.>>
Same with ours. We always rent a small car and have one suitcase in the back seat. I also read those warnings on TA and other travel sites but I've never been really worried. If it were at night, yes. But we don't leave our luggage in the car during the night (unless it is in the trunk and we leave the car in a parking garage).

Paule, the Palazzo Il Cavaliere looks charming and, on the map I saw, just off the main drag which is definitely not dull. I really enjoyed Modica, a living, breathing real town that also happens to be lovely and a tourist attraction.

Many thanks, sandralist and bon_voyage for the reassurance about Modica and staying on Corso Umberto. I think we'll be fine with Palazzo Il Cavaliere. I'm very taken by Palazzo Faillo, but think it will be more difficult to navigate the car and manage the ups and downs.

julies, your descriptions are very helpful and give a good sense of place. I appreciate your take on places and find it invaluable in my own planning.

Am signing on for a virtual trip! Julie's, I appreciate your detail and helpful tips. It sounds like a fantastic journey.

-- Annie

We are already missing some of the fabulous food we had during our visit. For some reason we both agree that we had the best meals during our stay in eastern Sicily. Maybe it was our restaurant selections, but all over I read reviews before we ate out so theoretically we should have had the same quality food all over. Perhaps it was just luck.

MODICA

After our morning boat tour, we left Ortygia around 12:30 or 1:00 and drove straight to Modica, arriving mid afternoon after having been turned around a bit once or twice on our driving instructions. We had a three night stay in Modica but could have very easily added a fourth night. However, we are not people who need to be on the go and sightseeing every second; we are more in the mode of settling in and enjoying the more leisurely culture we are visiting.

We stayed in Modica alta in a B&B (Le Case dello Zodiaco) that is set in dispersed individual houses in the regular residential section. The women who run this B&B (actually these are apartments with small kitchens) are extremely helpful and responsive, quickly replying to any inquiries. This private apartment in a regular, residential neighborhood was a good match for us since it was not at all touristy, but others might find a set-up like this too isolating. Modica bassa, lower down, is the real main shopping area and center of the city, but for a number of different reasons we didn’t see too much of it.

When we booked we also said we would pay the extra 5 euro per night fee for a parking place. However, when we arrived in mid-afternoon, the woman who helped check us in told us (mistakenly as it turned out) that parking really is not too much of a hassle. She helped us find a place to park within a block of our rental and also showed us where the extra-fee parking spot is. That extra-fee spot seemed quite tiny and quite difficult to maneuver into, so we told her we would just take our chances with street parking. Bad decision on our part since we had quite a bit of difficulty finding a place to park in ensuing days. Driving through and parking in the old sections of Modica (and other similar towns) can be quite challenging to say the least!

When we had set up our booking (only a day previously), I had asked about their various rooms pictured online and requested the one (Cancer) that has a small outside sitting area. When we arrived at our rental, we were a bit disappointed. Instead of the spacious, brilliantly lit, wall-of-windows apartment overlooking the sea that we had just left in Ortygia, we were in a smallish, ground-floor space with not only no views but also hardly any natural light. (Of course, here we were also only paying a little more than half of the price of the Ortygia rental.) This is what the reality of living in an old building in the center of the old part of the city is. The saving grace that worked out for us since we were lucky with the weather was that there was a very small outside seating area in the courtyard. Since it was decent weather with no rain until our last day, this lodging worked out for us. If we had had bad weather and been stuck inside for our stay we probably wouldn’t have been too satisfied.

After settling in a bit, we set out walking to try to orient ourselves to the area we were staying in. Several blocks away there was a block-long main shopping street with a bit of a square with benches. This was the real deal as far as a Sicilian town, not another tourist in sight and with quite a few older men just sitting around and visiting. As I’ve observed in so many other parts of the world, it always seems to be the men who are out in public visiting with their friends. Are all the women at home cleaning the house and cooking dinner? Or, are all the wives of these men sick of them being under foot all of the time and tell the guys to go hang out somewhere?

After exploring for a while, we walked up to a nearby church and from there found one of the town’s prime overlooks—great for taking in the panoramic views with the setting sun. As we were walking around this area and others we kept seeing these nearly poster-size placards pasted on many walls, particularly in the areas around churches. Initially we thought perhaps they were election posters but then after wondering why all of the people running for office were so old, we took a closer look. It turned out that these were funeral notices or notices commemorating the first anniversary of someone’s death.

We used Modica as a base for day trips around the area, primarily concentrating on the countryside and more rural sites. Many of the more noted Baroque towns in this area can seem very similar and can start to run together in your mind; we preferred to be out in the countryside at sites which gave us very different experiences and environments.

Our first day we did a day trip to Cava d’Ispica which is a much smaller site than we had assumed. After reading the description of it as a miles-long gorge, we were thinking that this would be an extensive area for hiking, somewhat similar to Pantalica. While it is a large site, there is no real hiking here. But, here you can actually climb up into and access the areas that were carved out into the rock face, so this made for an interesting two hour excursion. Further back in one of the caves there were numerous coffin-shaped burial niches.

While in this area, and for the remainder of the trip, I started to notice many wildflowers in bloom. Some I was seeing for the first time. I’d heard of autumn- blooming crocuses but had never seen them before. And, I have never before seen wild cyclamen, so it was a pretty time of year to visit. I’d sure there were not as many things blooming as in the spring, but the September rains had greened everything up, and many different flowers were in bloom.

After leaving Cava d’Ispica we began a triangular shaped driving tour that included this site, the coast, and Scicli. We drove down to the seaside south of Modica and found it to be absolutely deserted in October, and there was nothing all that unique about it anyway. We made a brief stop in the town of Pozzollo and ate our bread and cheese picnic on a bench by the sea. This could have been a standard beachfront town anywhere, so we did not find it at all intriguing. We ended up with a brief stop in Scicli where we had intended to take the steep hike up to the Colle di San Matteo. In the end, we both said forget it and that we really were not all that interested in ending the day by making a long steep climb just to get a different view of a town that in many ways is similar to others in the area.

The next day we once again got a later start after leisurely strolling down to the local bar where the B&B has a breakfast arrangement for guests. Our first destination for the day was Noto Antiqua. This is a large, spread-out site that reflects its status as a fairly good size town that was not rebuilt after the earthquake in the area. Parts of some of the buildings are somewhat intact so they are fairly easy to imagine as they might have been, whereas others are basically just rubble that leaves a lot to the imagination. We scrambled around some places and in others just walked the easy path through the site of the ancient city.

Unfortunately, while climbing down to explore an out-of-the-way part of the ruins I took a rather nasty fall of about three feet. I am always careful when doing anything of this sort and had stepped on a large sturdy-looking rock. It gave way, and I went down--hard. Looking back at it after my fall, we think that this step-like stone had probably had its dirt footings eroded away by all of the rain they had in the area right before we visited.

As he saw me tumble, my husband was panicked that I might have hit my head and had a head injury. He had visions of trying to figure out what in the world he’d do out there in the middle of nowhere in Sicily, not speaking any Italian. Luckily for me I landed flat on my side without hitting my head. I had some really bad road rash on my leg, a huge egg-sized lump on my arm, and my thigh got a deep soft tissue injury that negatively impacted my desire to do a lot of walking and climbing in the next few days. I think it must have been a bone bruise on my thigh since now, about a month later, it still hurts deep down even though the 6” bruise I had has long since faded.

This incident pretty much ended the idea of the longer hike we had initially planned for the site. After we made our way back to the car, we decided to make a stop in Noto to see the town in the afternoon glow. As we made out way into Noto, we had been flagged down by a kid and told to park in a certain location on the outskirts. We thought the kid was just trying to make some money, so we drove on for a block or two trying to get closer in. It turns out that this is where we should have parked. There was a lot of traffic, it was starting to get towards the end of the day, and now there were no other easily identifiable options for parking without a lot of back-tracking. My leg was hurting a lot, and we decided to just head back to Modica rather than trying to loop around looking for other parking. So, we didn’t see Noto or Ragusa. I’m fine with that since I am not a huge fan of the Baroque, and I felt we had at least a dose of it.

There is lovely scenery in this area with some fantastically engineered long bridges over very deep gorges. We also were very impressed by the scenery between Modica and Piazza Amerina (our next base).

For dinners we limited ourselves to restaurants within easy walking distance of our B&B, so we stayed in Modica alta in the evenings. The first night we discovered Locanda del Colonnello, about three blocks from our apartment, and had a fabulous meal. This is more along the line of fine dining with artistically presented small portions of absolutely delicious food. Our fellow diners here appeared to be visitors to the town who were looking for nice night out. It was so good that we returned our last night in town (they were closed our second night in town). The first time we split an appetizer (fabulous grilled octopus), primi (homemade lemon ricotta gnocchi), secondo (mackerel with caponata) and a crispy chocolate cigar stuffed with mocha ricotta and garnished with chocolate sauce and pistachios. The second night we went back we felt the food was good, but it just didn’t compare with the first night. We had this experience a couple times in Sicily where we liked a restaurant so much that we went back a second time. The second night just never met up to the standards of the first night.

The second night we were in Modica we went to a more down-home restaurant we’d noticed as we wandered around the town on our first afternoon. Taverna Nicastro is set on the top of some steps where apparently in nicer weather there are tables set outside on the steps. This was the antithesis of Locanda del Colonnello, instead it specialized in huge portions of home cooking and house-made meats. We think there were more locals here looking for very reasonably priced and filling food. Having just been to Locanda del Colonnello the night before whose servings are quite small we thought we would be fine with an antipasto and a pasta to split and then two secondos. It was way too much food for us, and we were so glad that they somehow screwed up and did not ever deliver the other secondo we’d ordered.

I am a chocolate lover but did not find the Modica’s grainy chocolate at all appealing.

Thanks for such a great report!

thanks for all the lovely detail, jules, and thank goodness you survived your fall.

are you all recovered now?

Fabulous detail. So sorry for your fall -- how scary and while it sounds like you really got hurt, at least nothing broken.

So sorry to read about the fall. Scary!