Experience Sicily

Tag: modica

  • Modica Bassa in the Morning Sun

    The city of Modica is divided into two parts: Modica Alta and Modica Bassa (pictured here). Modica Bassa is a shorter hillside division than Modica Alta (i.e., a taller hillside). These opposite hills, once dotted with cave dwellings, are now seas of ivory-colored, Baroque buildings. Outfitted with pedestrian staircases and alleyways, Modica is not automobile-friendly.…

  • Modica’s Duomo di San Giorgio

    The Cathedral of San Giorgio in Modica is a magnificent example of the late Baroque architecture that has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, “Late Baroque Towns of Val di Noto.” The construction of the original church in this form started in 1643, however, After the devastating 1693 earthquake, during which the roof…

  • White Shoulders

    Jasmine flower, photographed in Modica.

  • Modica’s Saint Peter’s

    Modica’s Duomo di San Pietro was built in the 18th century. We arrived here this evening in time for dinner and to enjoy the town’s baroque beauties such as this one lit up at night.

  • Modica Chocolate: Enchanting Sicily, Day 5

    Since 1880, Modica’s Antica Dolceria Bonajuto has prepared chocolate after a process the Spanish brought to Sicily from the Aztecs. Based on “xocoatl,” an ancient form of cocoa drink, today’s dark delacacy is produced by hand throughout the Baroque city’s competing sweet shops. I am going to be in Modica in a couple of weeks,…

  • Passeggiata in Modica

    Passeggiata in Modica. (Photo Credit: Experience Sicily’s Filippo Buttitta)

  • The Cherub is in the Details

    Baroque detail of a cherub, over the right doorway of Modica’s San Giorgio Cathedral. (Photo Credit: Experience Sicily’s Filippo Buttitta)

  • View of Modica

    View of Modica, one of eight towns that make up Sicily’s UNESCO Heritage Site, “The Late Baroque Towns of Val di Noto.” (Photo credit: Experience Sicily’s Filippo Buttitta)

  • Sicily’s Chocolate of Modica

    Chocolate lovers, Sicily has not forgotten you! You may know that chocolate came from the Aztecs, a great civilization that dominated what is modern-day Mexico for centuries before the end of 15th century. When the Spanish colonized Latin America, they brought the cocoa bean and an ancient form of chocolate (called Xocoatl) back to Europe.…