There's a land that I dreamed of......so I traveled there and you can too: Sicilian Adventure

Tuesday, June 2 - we travel to Ragusa Ilba

one of the two beds in our room

While the drive to Ragusa was not as pretty as our previous drives because we were more inland and had to drive through some industrial looking areas, getting to Ragusa was no problem. Finding our hotel was a whole different story! After a couple of phone calls, we finally hooked up with Claudia at Hotel Dell'Orologio. You can't get there by car! (thus our confusion). You can get within two blocks of it, unload your luggage, roll your luggage up to the hotel and then Claudia will show you where to park your car!

Our room at Hotel Dell'Orologio

Susan & Cathy Selfie

Claudia & I heading back from the car park,
Cathy took this photo from our balcony

First let me say, it was worth the effort! What a charming hotel!! The room they gave us was huge! The hotel is not like a typical hotel - the rooms are all different and it is like a small housing or apartment complex. The owner has been fixing up each room one at a time and is currently working on a restaurant as part of the complex, which he hopes to have open by next year. The breakfast here was fantastic and Claudia an amazing hostess. She was very helpful with our questions and spoke english very well.

Ragusa is actually two towns - Ragusa Ilba, the old town where we stayed, and Ragusa, the new town where many of the people who work in Ragusa live. Although we were told that many young couples are buying the old buildings and flats in Ragusa Ilba and fixing them up to live there. I can see why, it is a charming town.

After getting settled in Hotel Dell'Orologio, we took a little walk around town and rewarded ourselves with a Grantia. A Granita is a semi-frozen dessert/beverage (sort of like a slushy).

enjoying a Lemon Granita

They come in many flavors but the most common is lemon. You also see coffee & almond frequently and when in season - Berry Grantia's. And in Tamorna I had one that was Orange that was fantastic! But I digress! We fell in love with Ragusa Ilba. It is a charming Baroque town that dates from 1693. It was in this year that Ragusa, Modica, Scicli, Noto & Catania were hit with a terrible Earthquake and were completely destroyed. When the rebuilding began, the citizens were divided on where to build, thus we ended up with Ragusa Ilba, built on the original site, and Ragusa Superiore built on a separate site not far away.

Our first full day in Ragusa we took the tram/train around town to get the lay of the land.

train & main drag Ragusa

We explored the town, had a lovely lunch, gelato for dessert of course. Cathy took some wonderful pictures so I will let them do the talking and you will see what a lovely town Ragusa Ilba is!

one of Cathy's fav pictures
she took in Ragusa. Typical Sicilian Life

Our second day we took a short road trip to Modica - the chocolate city! There are many beautiful things to see in Monica, including the Church of San Giorgio, but we went there for the chocolate -- just being honest here! I had read about this place, which is the only place that you can find chocolate made in this traditional way (cold-worked) that was brought to Italy by the Spaniards, and they got the recipe from the Aztecs. This is not the 'smooth chocolate' texture that you are used to here in the US. The only ingredients in a bar of chocolate from Mondica are hand ground cocoa beans & sugar, + usually one ingredient to flavor. Which can be anything: pistachio nut, almonds, cinnamon, orange, lemon, mini jasmine, chill peppers... pretty much anything the Chocolatier wants to add. The finished product has a grainy consistency and rich flavor. I did buy some chocolate to bring home, thinking I might give out as gifts.... sorry, it was too delicious and we started nibbling on it before we left Sicily!

After 2 short days in Ragusa, we were off to Ortigia/Siragusa.

Arrivederci Ragusa!

We had figured out our route, wanting to take a coastal route so we could stop at a beach or two along the way as well as the town of Noto. We hit our first major driving challenge of the trip when the main road leading out of town towards Noto was closed for tree trimming. The workers doing the trimming did not speak english but tried to tell us through hand gestures how to find a different route. We reprogramed out GPS, but 'LuLu' was confused and took us in a giant circle. It took us about an hour, but we finally got headed in the right direction.

Our first stop was a look out point that was the closest point to Africa from Sicily. I never realized how close Africa was before this.

By the time we made it this far it was past lunch time & we were hot and starting to get hungry, so we drove down the road until we saw a beach resort type community.

There were several places that had beach chairs & umbrellas for rent as well as places to get a light lunch. After lunch and a relaxing couple hours on the beautiful beach, we were off again to find our hotel.

Cathy had tomato & rice salad for lunch
They asked if she wanted Mozzarella with
that, and this is what she got!
Giant Mozzarella ball!

Beautiful clear water, very refreshing

Isis di Ortigia is an Island and a province of Siracusa (Syracuse) Sicily. You get to it by crossing a small bridge from Siracussa. Again we were staying in a hotel that you can't really drive up to, but we had less trouble finding our hotel this time around, La Via della Giudecca. What a great find this place was! 22 rooms and the room we got was like a small apartment and we had a small courtyard outside our room. We arrived a bit late in the day so after getting settled in at the hotel, we headed out to look around and find a place for dinner. We found a fantastic restaurant and ended up eating dinner there twice! Il Nuovo Fermento. See the pictures for the beautiful food & atmosphere!

On our second day after a great nights sleep and fantastic breakfast, we headed out for a stroll. There is a walkway that goes along the water almost completely around the island. We enjoyed the walk next to the water and the sunshine.

Piazza Dumo in Ortigia

We came across an open air market that sold everything from clothing to fresh fruit & veggies to fish. We walked through the market at a leisurely pace - it is quite large. The vendors are colorful and happy to have you sample their wares. The fish is straight from the sea and they will cut up a whole fish for you right there.