Sicily-Modica

Modica, Sicily 24/May/2015 – 30/May/2015
 

I still hold such vivid memories when I reflect back on our time in Modica.    

There was something remarkable there even though at the time of visiting I wasn't quite sure what it really was.    

Beautiful Baroque architecture, another way of life, another sense of time, gelato and chocolate?    

Our arrival into Modica was one of our most memorable -disastrous, blind faith in the cars GPS which failed.    

After winding down multiple steep blind narrow cobbled lanes we started to feel very unconfident, especially once we noticed that the few other cars around were only bambina sized.  We finally stopped, I ran ahead to confirm our suspicions, we would not fit any further, the lane was too narrow. Somehow Chris managed to turn the car around on the tight steep incline with no visibility out the back of our over packed car. We just escaped being blocked in by another car. We turned off the GPS, like the good old days when we managed better navigation without them, and approached Modica from the main roads.    
 

At the suggested meeting point I called Giorgio (the property manager) to meet us.

Ten minutes later he pulled up beside me on his scooter looking what I imagined as very Sicilian indeed.  We followed him to a parking space near the house, Giorgio confirmed that we could not have reached the house by car through the lanes we had tried, he looked quite bewildered that we had thought it possible.    
He pointed to the steep hill beside us and the buildings that were the 'palatial' remnants of a once fortified castle. I noticed many windows and doors into the rock and asked if many were still habited. "Some", Giorgio responded.    

The 1600s earthquakes devastated the entire city and surrounds with a huge loss of life, all that survived were the people and the caves that they lived in.    

After the 1693 earthquake most of the city was rebuilt in the exuberant final stage of Baroque architecture, "representing the culmination and final flowering of Baroque art in Europe" as inscribed by UNESCO.    
Then came the floods of 1833 and 1902, but despite these, Modica has retained some of the most beautiful architecture in Sicily.    
Along with Nato, Ragusa and Scicli, Modica forms part of the 'Val di Noto'.    

Giorgio lead us to our accommodation for the next week, a stylish restored traditional stone terrace house located centrally down a dead-end lane.    

This area was still lived in by local people, families and older people alike.    
The house where we were to stay was owned by an American women who had fallen in love with Modica and visited regularly. We opened the doors to a save peaceful haven.    
We could unpack for the next week without the perils of driving, well so we thought - navigating Ragusa was to come in the next few days.    



Outside our accommodation

We unloaded and I rushed to find some food supplies before everything shut. The small food store I found didn't stock too much. It certainly didn't stock much in the way of fruit and veges or meat, these you were meant to buy from the market or butcher.    

I returned with two disappointing loaves of 'Modica' bread, made from a special 'croquant' only used in Modica. It had been recommended to me but I understand why it isn't eaten elsewhere.    

The following morning, with promises of Modica's famous chocolate, we managed to encourage three tired boys to wander down to the main street.    

Produced by an ancient Aztec recipe, chocolate came to Modica from South America via Spain  in the 16th century.    
Its recipe has remained largely unaltered. Sampling this became our first easily accomplishable mission.    

We were the only people in the little store on Corso Umberto I, Modica's main street.

Firstly seeming a little reluctant, the owner offered up a few samples to five very keen customers. I wasn't quite sure what really to make of it. Dark, dry and very crumby, quite biscuit like. Lachlan disapproved, Jarvis hung in there for the next round of tasting, Ollie, Chris and I were eager to continue. With discussions of purchases the owner offered us many more samples of differing flavours, vanilla, cinnamon, chilli pepper, salt ...
We came away with half a dozen of the small square chocolate slabs each packaged in individual square boxes.    

Right next door to the chocolate the lure of gelato proved too much and so once again we enjoyed the sweet temptations of Sicily. The Etna - dark  chocolate with orange and pistachio was probably the richest gelato I have had, but delicious and obviously memorable.    
 



Gelato again!


 

Finally we located the tourist office and picked up a map to help orient ourselves and find out what we should see.    
Modica is built amongst the intersection of steep valleys. The main street on which we stood, Corso Umberto I, used to be a river, but was now covered over after the flood in 1902.  Here in Modica Bassa, Lower Modica , life looked busy with lots of traffic, cafes and shops. Up on the steep slope in front of us was Modica Alta, the upper town, the old medieval quarter.      

Modica is known for its many impressive churches. On the Corso Umberto I was one of its two grand Baroque cathedrals, the Duomo di San Pietro.    

We climbed the flight of steps, embellished with 12 apostles along the sides, to the church of San Pietro.    
Originally it was built in the fourteenth century but was destroyed by the earthquakes of 1613 and again in 1693.    
During the rebuild of Modica after the 1693 earthquake the upper and lower town competed in the creation of their new cathedrals.    
Both are now UNESCO world heritage sites.    




Duomo di San Pietro



Steps of San Pietro.







Interior of San Pietro.

Three hundred flower-adorned steps, partially in a twin staircase, led upwards from Modica Bassa  to the Duomo di San Giorgio (St George).    

We visited this a few days later. Its grand façade rises up into a central curved bell tower. Its interior was elaborate and highly painted.  Jarvis walked the solar meridian line across its transept, a small hole high up let in the required ray of sunshine.    
St George is Modica's most remarkable building but St Peters below won the race to be constructed first.  It is also recognized as a backdrop for Inspector Montalbano, the famous fictional Sicilian detective series.    


 


Duomo di San Giorgio

Another walk on another day took me exploring the other hillside of Modica, equally as steep and with the promise of a great viewpoint to look over Modica.    

Before I had even begun I distracted myself with another chocolate shop Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, Modicas most famous chocolate maker. This was a serious place, with barely enough space to stand I gazed at all the choices and people who seemed to know what to buy, all squashed into this small wood panelled room. The mpanatigghie was popular, a biscuit stuffed with minced beef and chocolate, an unappealing option to me.    
Once again I came out with square boxes of various dark crumbly chocolate. They were later to suffer the fate of extreme heat, summer in Italy. 
http://www.bonajuto.it/   

My climb failed to find the viewpoint, but on my own I had the pleasure to dreamily wandering the lanes, fantasizing about restoring the houses with 'vendi' (sale) signs outside and living 'under the Sicilian Sun'. I never did figure out why this side of Modica seemed so abandoned, what had happened here? The buildings here were quite derelict and empty, but beautiful and with amazing views. Time here seemed to stand still, it was strangely magical.    

 



Views back over Modica.

 



 

Returning back to our accommodation, I was just in time to purchase bread and biscuits from the man in a van who was managing to squeeze down the small cobbled road at the end of the lane our house was in.  I greeted the 'old lady' that I had meet the day before who was standing patiently (as I think she did every day at 12:45pm), to purchase her fresh bread.  She had warmly approached us previously but the lack of a common language led to us showing her a map of New Zealand on our phone. This still bought no comprehension to her as to where we were from. The 'bread' man explained with great enthusiasm his breads and biscuits to me, mainly in unintelligible Italian. There was a mutual curiosity between us.

I always enjoyed the time and interest the Sicilian people had for us, a good lesson in slowing down and taking time for one another.    

Walking to the supermarket I could overhear women standing on their small balconies talking back and forth to each other, a wonderful social space - balcony to balcony across the lanes. The balcony here seemed to take on multiple functions. Firstly they were quite beautiful in the flamboyant Baroque style. I looked up and observed them, all varied and 'full' of curiosities. Washing hanging from the lines of some, washing draping over the balustrades of others, planter pots hanging over full of colourful flowers (mostly pink and purple).  People observing seated or standing if they were too narrow to accommodate the width of a chair.  

With hopes for a swim we drove the 25 minute drive to Marina di Modica, actually more like 40 minutes due to our poor navigational skills.  I think the boys enjoyed a swim, not Lachlan who was still suffering with his injured foot, but it didn't rate too well in comparison with NZ beaches.    

Chris and Ollie went for a run up the hill of Modica Alta, a great father-son adventure.

The discovery of a rusted out Bambina proved an irresistible photo opportunity as did the magnificent views from the top.    

A visit to Ragusa was a 'must' on my list. Northwest of Modica, Ragusa was comprised of an upper Ragusa Superior, a modern working town and lower Ragusa Ibla, the historic centre full of tangled alleys, churches and grey stone houses.    

Like Modica, Ragusa Ibla (the old town) was rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake. The new town, Ragusa Superior, was built on the high plateau above.    

Ragusa.

Dome of San Giorgio.

 

We entered Piazza del Duomo at the highest end where the church of San Giorgio, built between 1738 -1775, stood majestically at the top of some 200 wide steps. Designed by Rosario Gagliardi, it is said to be one of his finest works, but sadly it was closed. From below we could admire the convex central section of its façade and gaze upwards at the sculptured bell tower soaring to the sky. Behind this it was topped by a large neoclassical dome built in 1820.    



San Giorgio



Piazza Duomo

We made our way down through the Piazza Duomo, stopping for recommended gelato. Many of the scenes from the series Inspector Montalbano were filmed in and around this Piazza. A little further onwards we entered Polas square. Here stood the Chiesa di San Giuseppe, its façade was very similar to San Giorgios, its size much smaller. Inside its oval plan, topped by an oval dome provided a small, quiet and inviting space.    




At the bottom of Ragusa Ibla was a small park where the boys broke the silence, park-deprivation.  Even at its lowest point of Ragusa still had a huge elevation over the valley, the views were fascinating, as Chris said "like looking over a miniature railway set."    

The following day back in Modica we took up the repeated recommendation and enjoyed an indulgent afternoon tea at Caffe dell'Arte. This family-run café on Corso Umberto sold its own chocolate. We sampled citrus flavours, lemon was particularly good.  I decided it was now or never for a cannoli experience, especially considering we were where they were 'supposedly' the best. It was a challenging food experience even considering I was now well practised in excessive food consumption. I had no backup help from the boys.    

Due to its local popularity I also ordered coffee granite and the brioche which you dunk into it. This is a common Sicilian breakfast but not one that I would regularly recommend, very strong coffee and very sweet brioche.  Lachlan had lemon granite, sweet and sour - definitely his favourite.    
The 'evils of sugar' didn't apply here in Sicily.   



www.caffedellarte.it 

For our final afternoon we managed to locate Chiesa di San Nicolo Inferiore.

Tucked away in a lane just behind the main street, this hidden treasure had been discovered in the 1980s by children chasing a ball. We rang the bell to be let in by a lovely lady with the keys. Hidden inside was a 12th century church in a grotto, cold, damp and atmospheric. Frescos where still preserved on the cave walls.    
What a contrast to the grand baroque churches we had seen.    

The little lane outside the cave church was were we enjoyed our final dinner. Ristorante Pizzeria La Contea was recommended as having the best pizza in Modica, it was good.  I experimented by ordering the fish selection which was a little more than I expected, many varieties of unidentifiable small whole fish. The boys bounced their newly purchased flashing balls along the lane, probably annoying the few pedestrians, one car and restaurant staff. The night-time atmosphere of the lane was magical as was our week long stay in Modica.    
 

Tomorrow it was onwards to Agrigento.