Friday! Nearing the end of this quick trip. We wanted a short trip because we were not sure how we would like Sicily and we did not want to be here over Easter. Now I think it would be fun to be here for Easter. Our town, Scicli, put up lights on our street today for the celebrations.
Today we drove up to Ragusa. It is closer than I thought - just over 30 minutes to get there. We had to drive over a few huge bridges. This area is steep rocky hillsides with deep gorges. Both Modica and Scicli are built at the bottom of a valley, almost in a bowl surrounded by hills. But modern Ragusa is built on the top of a hill, with the old part tumbling down a steep hillside and out on another cliff top.
We both liked Ragusa. We drove through the modern part (very busy) and followed signs to Ragusa Ibla, the historic part. We found a parking lot (a parking lot!! for us tourists!!), did not have to pay because the ticket office was closed (it is still early in the tourist season here), found the tourist office (closed), found a sign with a map but no indication of "you are here", so winging it and, as we do about 80% of the time, went the wrong way.
We found Via Scala, Street of Steps, and climbed and climbed almost straight up to the modern part. The tourist office at the Duomo was open and we had the most helpful tourist office person we have ever had in Italy. She commiserated with us for having gone the wrong way, showed us the interesting things we could see here, gave us a map and marked exactly how to get to Ragusa Ibla and even phoned Ville Romana del Casale (I may have that name wrong) where we are going to see the famous Roman mosaics on Monday to be sure they will be open (many things are closed Sunday and Monday here).
We walked back down Via Scale and realized we had missed the incredible views. I remember seeing this view in one of the old Montalbano TV shows.
This steep middle area, between the modern town and the old, is very interesting but many of the buildings are abandoned.
Then we walked up into the historic part of town. This part has mostly renovated houses, several hotels and B&Bs, restaurants and a few tourist shops. It is a beautiful area. We walked and walked and then stopped for a very good lunch (grilled vegetables, pasta with porcini).
Now it was 3:30pm so we headed out and stopped in Modica on our way home. We actually went to the chocolate place and showed them the hunk of plastic that was inside the chocolate bar we bought from them. The woman at the counter apologized, made us wait while she called the owner who was too busy to talk to us, and gave us a replacement chocolate bar. I should have asked for our money back instead.
Walked around Modica and then back to Scicli, which was surprisingly busy. Now we have to get packed up and leave tomorrow. Big day ahead. The GPS says it is a 3hr 15min drive to Valley of the Temples at Agrigento. Then another 1hr 45min from there to Sciacca, our next stop.
The weather was lovely today - sunny and warm. We talked to some other Brits in Ragusa about how lovely this sun is and how wretched our winter was.
I am reading Tim Parks latest book about the Italian trains - "Italian Ways" - and it is very good. I have read most of his books and like all of them, but this is now my favorite. He is a Brit about my age (late 50s) who has lived and worked in Italy for 30 years. He loves it here, but sees and understands things that a visitor does not. The perfect book to read while traveling in Italy.
Photo of the view to Ragusa Ibla from the top of Via Scale.
