It’s official. A week isn’t long enough to appreciate Sicily but it’s enough time to fall in love with it and dream of returning.
We’ve spent the last 3 days wandering the necklace of baroque cities in this south east corner of the island:
Ortigia in Siracusa, drifting through its narrow tangle of alleyways and streets to its elegant Piazza del Duomo and out again to catch the breeze off the sea;
Noto with a hint of the sea always on the breeze, the taste of gelati and granite in Corrado Costanzo and Caffe Sicilia, its gorgeous Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the discovery of great restaurants in Noto Alta and Lido di Noto;
Modica with its long trek up winding steps to Modica Alta with gorgeous churches and belvedere over the old city;
not to mention the best chocolate in Sicily, if not in Italy, at Antica Dolceria Bonajuto;
And then there was Ragusa Ibla and one of the most sublimely beautiful piazzas I have ever seen sloping up to the steps of the Cattedrale Di San Giorgio;
Where better in the world to savour a wine- flavoured icecream at Gelati Di Vini.
After all that there was still time to wend our way along winding, hairpin roads across the glorious terraced landscape, until the sea came into view again and to have one last swim at Lido di Noto
and to get back to our base at La Corte Del Sole to watch the evening draw to a close.
There’s just one last meal to be had here before the trek back to Ireland tomorrow. The toss up for the best meal so far is between Trattoria del Crocifisso in Noto Alta and last night’s discovery Baglieri in Lido di Noto. Both are worth a separate blog post in their own right but I can now confirm that there’s excellent food and wine to be had in these parts once you seek it out.
Now wouldn’t it be lovely to have another week to enjoy it all…