Experience Sicily

Tag: ragusa

  • 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,…

  • Uptown Ragusa

    Ragusa Ibla photographed with the Piazza del Duomo and the Baroque facade of the Basilica di San Giorgio in the distance. Ragusa Ibla is the high-town of Ragusa, a city that after the earthquake of 1693 was rebuilt into two parts–Ragusa, the lower town with a more modern layout and Ragusa Ibla, the smaller, quieter…

  • Another Flower in the Stone Garden

    The off-the-beaten-path town of Scicli is a jewel among the “Stone Garden,” Baroque, UNESCO-designated-area of south-eastern Sicily. Like Modica, Ragusa, and Noto, Scicli suffered from the great earthquake of 1693 and much of it was rebuilt in the following century in the Sicilian Baroque style.  (Photo Credit: Experience Sicily’s Filippo Buttitta)

  • Even the Roofs are Art

    Roofs from the Late-Baroque Era reconstructed town of Ragusa Ibla, Sicily. Ragusa Ibla is part of the Val di Noto, multi-town-group UNESCO World Heritage Site. (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.…

  • It’s a Symbiotic Relationship

    In the beginning of October, Ragusa celebrated the 20th annual “Ibla Buskers Festa di Artisti di Strada.” The Baroque city’s piazzas were full of musicians, circus performers, artists, and–probably most important, spectators. The Associazione Culturale Edrisi and ibla Buskers aims to illustrate the symbiotic relationship between performers and audience and the best street art in…

  • Into the (Really Big) Frying Pan

    The feasts and “sagras” that take place this week and next make Ferragosto (August 15) season very special. For example, this week in Pozzallo (Ragusa province), they are holding their annual Sagra del Pesce, a seafood and music/entertainment festival. Since 1967, during the Sagra, the town shows off its riches of bountiful, excellent seafood and…

  • Summer Terrace in Ragusa Ibla

    Terrace, Ragusa Ibla.

  • Even the Fence is a Work of Art

    The iron fence along the staircase leading to Ragusa Ibla’s duomo is itself a work of art.