Modica: Baroque excess and chocolate

Modica was one of many towns in the South-East of Sicily devastated by a huge earthquake in 1693. Although thousands died, the towns were rebuilt, in a style which became known as Sicilian Baroque. There are many elegant palazzi and churches, all featuring wonderful carvings, ironwork, and fanciful decorations. In the afternoon sun, or floodlit at night, they look especially impressive.

Mike and I are staying in the old town, Modica Alta, high up the hill, in a quarter where every street is only wide enough for one car plus one parked, so lots of one-way streets, and sometimes the “streets” are steep stairs (a bit tricky for navigation, when you are unfamiliar with the layout). See left for a picture of our apartment. I’ve yet to work out how to get a car to where we live, so our car is parked about 100 m away. We spent our first day just wandering the streets, exploring some of the old buildings and churches (and catching up on a small mountain of washing!). 

I’m not a great fan of Baroque usually, too much gilt and dark marble, but the facades of these buildings are quite beautiful and the interiors of the churches are very light and delicate, with whitewashed pillars and delicate designs picked out in gold. It being a Saturday, there were lots of weddings. We nearly gatecrashed two, and were almost in the official pictures of two more. BTW, they take weddings seriously here. Everyone dressed to the nines, shoes a mile high for the ladies and terribly shiny and pointed for the men.

	On Saturday afternoon there are weddings.  We counted five…

For a change of pace, I cruised the shops in the afternoon, sampling the varieties of Modican chocolate. This chocolate is unique.  It was introduced by the Spanish when they ruled Sicily, and they were taught by the Aztecs.  The chocolate contains only cocoa paste and sugar, plus flavours.  There are many different flavours, some featuring fruit, others spices such as cinnamon or chilli, or some just plain old 70% cocoa.  The chocolate shops are like winery tastings – a dozen little trays of different flavours to sample.  Of course, where there is chocolate, there is also chocolate liqueur. So we tasted some beverages as well. M tried the chilli chocolate and I sampled the pistachio liqueur.  And then we bought a lot of chocolate (all for presents of course).

  A very elegant balcony on the chocolate shop.

On the way home we also bought the makings for dinner – and tonight its STEAK – bought with great difficulty by me as I couldn’t remember the word for beef, though I had learnt a new word, griglia, meaning grill. Thank goodness the butcher spoke a bit of English.

At about 10:30, J suddenly said "I’m going to have a look at the town by night”.  Great decision – still about 20 degrees, the streets were nearly deserted and beautifully lit. A great end to the day.