Sicily's baroque secret — split-level hill towns, arancini, and chocolate from Modica
Ragusa is a UNESCO World Heritage city in southeastern Sicily, dramatically split between two hilltops: the rebuilt upper town (Ragusa Superiore) and the older, lower Ragusa Ibla — a perfectly preserved 18th-century Baroque quarter whose steep lanes, sculptured church facades, and cathedral piazzas look much as they did after reconstruction following the 1693 earthquake. The Val di Noto Baroque trail connects Ragusa to nearby Noto, Modica, and Scicli — four of the most beautiful small towns in southern Europe. The food is distinctly Sicilian: arancini, caponata, ricotta-filled cassata, and th…
A settlement of Hyblaean Sicels dating to the 9th century BC, Ragusa was later a Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, and Norman town before the 1693 Val di Noto earthquake levelled virtually every building. The nobility chose to rebuild on the original Ibla hilltop in exuberant Baroque style; the common people started a new town on the adjacent higher ridge. The two towns remained legally separate until 1926 when Mussolini unified them as a single municipality. The Val di Noto Baroque sites were collectively inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.