Modica (February 21)

After some lunch in Ragusa, we loaded the kids back on the bus and traveled to a neighboring town along the Iblea mountain range called Módica.  Francesca and Barbara followed us over there and continued with their thoughtful guidance through the town.  Like Ragusa, Módica also was flattened by the earthquake of 1693 and rebuilt thereafter in Baroque-style fashion.

Our first attraction was the duomo of Módica, called San Giorgio-Mater Ecclesiae.  It is situated at the top of the town which, like Ragusa, is carved out of the hills of mountains of Iblea.  So we had a bit of hike upwards from the bus to get there.  The church was closed but the one of the priests let us in for about 10 minutes to view the inside.  Again, the interior was gorgeous, especially the altar, comprised of 10 panels depicting scenes of the Holy Family from the birth of Jesus through to his ascension into Heaven.

Módica is also known for being the home of Salvatore Quasimodo, one of Italy’s four Nobel Prize winners for literature (1959).  The plaque is located just outside his childhood home. Quasimodo was a poet and wrote such works as "Day After Day", "Life is Not a Dream", and "The Incomparable Land," which have a satirical slant on the post World War II world.

 ciocolate perperoncino, a spicy chocolate.  While many of these original chocolate recipes did not survive in America, they thrived and were perfected in Sicily.  In fact, many Italians admit that Italy was not the inventors of much over the centuries.  “We take inventions and perfect them,” as many of the Viterbese folk I’ve spoken to declare proudly.

Módica

Módica is also known for its contributions to the making and spreading of the chocolate phenomenon over the centuries.  For a time, Sicily was under Spanish rule.  Often Spanish explorers would bring back material goods from the New World but they also would bring back recipes of foods they had experienced from the natives. One such recipe was

While in Módica, we were privy to experience the chocolate of Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, both a chocolate store and factory.  We enjoyed tasting different kinds of chocolate ranging from 100% pure dark chocolate (no sweetners of any kind…very bitter) to sweeten chocolate with cinnamon, perperoncino, lemon, salt, and bits of orange.  Afterwards, we were directed toward the factory and given a demonstration of how the chocolate is made.  In the picture you see what looks like small licorice-like orange pieces, which they either insert into the chocolate or form into small orange rings.  As you can see, we had to dress in white smocks from head to toe in order to enter the factory.  I felt like Mike-TV on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory! 

In the end the chocolate got the best of me and I ordered several bars of the cinnamon chocolate.  Unbelievably good!  Now that we were all in choco-comma, we waddled our way back onto the bus and headed back to our hotel in Taormina for dinner (really??) and then some much-needed rest!