Our visit to Noto should have been 10 days or so later when the world-renowned annual “infiorata” or flower festival takes place. Our Covid anxiety during pre-trip planning and our distaste for crowds kept us away from attending. Although, if we hadn’t been in the north of Sicily at the time, we probably would have tried to go for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see arguably the best display of street flowers, and their incredible design creations, anywhere. It is this plain street below that is covered from end to end with millions of colorful flower petals and designs.


Via Corrado Nicolaci, Noto

Baroque. Baroque. Baroque. Some say they have their fill of baroque architecture after visiting one of the three main cities. We think baroque is beautiful. Although we were happy with a busier Modica as a base, we thought Noto was clearly the baroque winner. Cathedrals, regular churches, palaces and a lot more.

We started our visit in a quiet area of large buildings, one marked hospital and others in some type of military zone. These buildings didn't seem to match the small town feeling of Noto.

We generally wore masks indoors, although the mask rules loosened up the day after we were in Noto. A group of young boys chased me in a little neighborhood square, several blocks from the hub of the town, yelling “maschera, maschera”. I noticed my mask was hanging around my neck, and I pulled it up over my mouth and nose to their shouts of “bravo, bravo.”

Noto is a bit more concentrated than Modica, but this makes for a party-like atmosphere. The churches, palaces and other buildings, designed by three architects more than 300 years ago, are gorgeous. Ortigia and Noto in one day was overly ambitious. We definitely could have spent more time in Noto.

Before we headed out for the day, we took a closer look at Modica, its castle, ancient cave church, chocolate museum, and striking theatre.

The Modica Castle, also known as Alamo castle, was built in 1340 for an aristocratic count as a summer home. But, it was not all fun and play, since one tower was used as a torture chamber. It sits on a promontory overlooking the city. Some remnants of the once luxurious gardens remain. Some parts of the castle have been modernized for museum space and meeting areas. At one end of the castle, there is a path to a newer clock tower (1700 or so).
















































Besides Baroque, Modica, to some extent like Matera, has a history of cave houses and even the remains of a fairly recently uncovered cave church with frescoes.









It is never too early for chocolate, the thick pudding-like Italian kind. But Modica is famous for another kind of chocolate. It is not smooth, but is granulated, because it is made without heat and no added cocoa butter. We are cholocate lovers and got hooked. Not too sweet. The Spaniards brought the technique here perhaps 700 years ago, and locals have been making it since. We visited the chocolate shop of the 150 year-old Bonajuto family manufacturing company. The packed place has chefs also busily making pastries and cannoli, all finely wrapped.






















Our last stop was the city’s striking theatre. We simply asked at the box office if we could see it, and they pointed the way.

Ragusa Ibla fast became one of our favorite towns in Sicily. We still think Modica was better located as a base for us for southeast Sicily, but what a beautiful place Ragusa Ibla is! And, a lot fewer tourists than we had expected.

First, make sure you don’t confuse Ragusa with Ragusa Ibla. This is not like Modica Bassa and Modica Alta, which are essentially the same place, with one being higher than the other. Ragusa itself is a couple miles away and is a very commercial/industrial city. Ragusa Ibla is the fabulous old baroque village.

We were there for a Sunday afternoon, and we had a great lunch on a rooftop terrace. The restaurant was multi-story with an elegant stone interior. The owner proudly told us that he worked with Rick Steves. There are so many baroque churches (nine I believe), similar on the outside, but so different on the inside. One is used as an art gallery; another displaying various types of creches. This near perfect village also has a very large peaceful park, with even more churches.

We will let the photos do the talking:























































































































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Sicily, as well as parts of the mainland, notably Naples and Rome, have had garbage (and litter) issues for many years. This has been blamed on full landfills, politics, organized crime, and labor strikes. We want to get this out of the way for now, but felt it disingenuous if we didn’t mention it. Much of Sicily is beautiful and unspoiled, so it’s especially sad and jarring to see some areas with lots of roadside litter and other areas, often rural and sometimes road view pull-offs, where there are piles of garbage. Those who stick to the most popular and immaculate tourist areas like Cefalu, Taormina and Ortigia might wonder what I am talking about. We emphasize that Sicilian homes, including ALL we stayed in, were impeccable. There is also a pride in most villages in Sicily that keeps them super clean as well. We saw finely dressed women in their 90’s cleaning their apartments and terraces. We side-stepped locals in small towns scrubbing the streets in front of their homes. We are, among other things, former restaurant owners who know first hand the work required to keep our facilities clean after long work days. Every restaurant kitchen we peeked in was as clean as any we have seen anywhere. And, trash separation and recycling rules and habits seem to be practiced everywhere in a much more concerted way than we experience at home.

Marzamemi has long been a fishing and fish processing (mostly tuna) community. For visitors, it’s primarily a seaside dining spot. An empty state fair-like parking area was the first sign that we picked the right time and day to be there, especially given the warmth and bright blue skies. The town is tiny; the waterfront area compact. So, we cannot fathom what it’s like when the parking lot is full.

We didn’t stay for lunch among the sleeping dogs on this lazy day, because we had plans for a hike. We did enjoy seeing its Arab influenced Moroccan look.

I look forward each day to revisiting the places I’ve been and the adventure of the new—thank you!

Did you drive down that track, and if so, what were you driving?

Love the flowers and the sea.

Thank you. While our trip ended less than two week ago, the trip report process is also our way of re-visiting all these wonderful places and making plans to return to some.

It may not have looked like it in the photo we posted, but the huge parking lot was all on firm ground and prepared for hundreds of cars. Besides ours, there was only one other.

Thanks for sharing - your photos are amazing, as always. Sicily is definitely on our list!

What an incredible in depth journey and report. Endlessly fascinating. I’ve gone back over your photos many times. Much of it was not what I was expecting, I guess I’ve only really seen photos of the more well known sights.

Love revisiting our trips to Sicily through your TR.

Jackie44 Thank you. Sicily is photogenic. It has so many dimensions. And, you really should go!

Adelaidean We have been to Sicily twice before (on much shorter trips), but, surprisingly the many, many new places weren’t completely what we expected either.

yestravel Your report of your Greece trip has allowed us to revisit a few places too and also find so many more places we might visit in September.

Tonnara di Vendicari is a multi-faceted nature reserve, not far from Marzamemi. There are viewing areas, from a distance, of salt marsh migratory birds, such as herons and the popular pink flamingoes. The only other place we have seen the latter in Italy was in Cagliari, Sardinia. And, we got an up close look when one loudly flew overhead.

The miles-long reserve offers beaches, hiking trails, industrial archaeology and history. The Sveva Tower was built in the 1200’s by Peter of Aragon, a Spanish ruler who conquered and became King of Sicily. It is adjacent to rare ancient industrial remains (1500’s-1900's) of an old tuna factory.

The prize for getting to the end of the long seaside path is supposedly a secluded beach, but we didn’t make it all the way. We did walk a few miles on this seashore trail until remembering that it was a few miles more to return to our car. This was one of the many places in Sicily where we saw school groups doing their end of year class trips. A great day and a great spot for it.

That's a superb photo of the flamingo!

Action photography with a smart phone had more misses than hits on this trip, such as the family of three, with multiple grocery bags, flying by on a scooter in Catania, the fast-moving parade of a dozen antique Fiats suddenly pulling out of a tiny medieval street in Modica, and several crazy driver situations (my navigator wife, not me, trying to take those photos). We just didn't get the photos in time. The flamingo fortunately provided an early warning with its noisy wing flapping approach.

(Our best success with action photography will be Day 25, when we arrived as a forest fire was raging.

Our last stop of the day was Pozzallo, a beach town, on the south end of the island facing Malta. The winds were intense there (not so much anywhere else we went this day), which favored several windsurfers, but seemed to move beach sands against buildings. A long stretch of roadway looked like it was often threatened (and probably covered at times) by a wall of high dunes that pressed against the road.

The large sand beach might be enough for most visitors here, unless the sand is blowing in your eyes all the time. For miles we saw numerous small beach shower stalls on the road. We walked around the town, saw an ancient tower and an impressive palatial shorefront municipal building but little else of interest to us. There is a strong connection here to Malta (the first undersea phone cable in the Mediterranean was laid between Pozzallo and Malta) and if you travel by sea from Sicily to Malta (105 minutes), this is where the port is.

Whitehall, what amazing photos and I really appreciate your history from the different towns you visited. We will end our Italy vacation this fall in Sicily. What was the restaurant in Ragusa Ilba that you enjoyed if you would care to share?
Anxiously awaiting the rest of your TR.
Best,
mcs

Thanks you mcsles . I have attached a photo of the restaurant name.

Yes, sure looks like those dunes want to move inland! I stayed on a beach in Vietnam once that was fine in the morning, but you could get sandblasted in the afternoon and I had to retreat to the hotel pool.

I am still holding onto my actual camera, I just don't feel comfortable using my phone that way, plus I have trouble controlling the zoom.