Day 369: Val di Noto

Next world heritage site time! Hopped in the car and headed out of Syracuse, heading westwards and inland. As I mentioned yesterday, a devastating earthquake struck this area in 1693 and during the rebuilding over the next century, most of it was done in baroque style unique to this area. There are a bunch of towns on the world heritage list for this reason, so we picked out a few interesting ones and headed over.

The first stop was Noto itself, which turned out to be quite lovely. Nice quiet streets, picturesque buildings and lots to see. It was all very charming - a little touristy but that didn't really bother us. We wandered around for a couple of hours, ducking in and out of churches and other buildings and just enjoying the atmosphere. It was also warm and sunny which helped!

Drove to the next town of Modica, where it was a little quieter and a bit cloudier. Not as impressive, and nowhere seemed to be open for lunch which was a bit distressing! Eventually we found a place selling fish and chips, which turned out to actually mean fried anchovies and chips which was also a bit distressing! But at least the buildings were nice.

We headed over to the final town of Ragusa, though by now we were both a bit over it and wishing we'd stayed in Noto. Ragusa was more of the same, though just as quiet as Modica had been - at least we weren't trying to find lunch though! Looked at a handful of buildings since we felt obliged, then drove the couple of hours back home to Syracuse. Felt very lazy and went to the pizza shop nearby for dinner. Not the greatest pizzas we've ever had, but still good enough!Read more