Ragusa, Sicily, Italy

ragusa is the brand name of a swiss chocolate line from the family company "chocolats camille bloch". a long time ago this family bought a nice city in sicily and named it after this brand... hmmm well no... but i had to try... but better back to the truth... ragusa is one of the late baroque towns of the val di noto, which was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 2002. later on i will tell you more about the chocolate ;-)... the city ragusa is located in the sicilian mountains near the south coast, more precisely in the monti iblei at an altitude of 520m and is 92km from syrakusa and 248km from palermo. the city center consists of two parts that are separated by a gorge. in the east, on the site of the old town, lies the lower town of ragusa ibla with magnificent buildings in the style of the sicilian baroque from the 18th century. a large number of baroque churches and palaces are located here. on a hill in the west lies the upper town of ragusa superiore, which was also laid out in the 18th century rather soberly and geometrically. most of the city's residents live here. the cathedral of san giovanni battista stands here next to the city's administrative buildings. the two parts of the city, which are separated by a ravine, are connected by three bridges. we walked from the piazza libertà in the upper town through many small alleys, stairs, up and down over the duomo di san giorgio to the giardino ibleo in the lower town. an espresso here, a sicilian ice cream there - the sicilians make really delicious ice cream ... at the giardino ibleo you ideally take the small city bus back, which not only saves you having to climb the stairs on the way back, but it is also a lot of fun to whiz along the small roads with the small bus. incidentally, you also get a short city tour, as the bus drives along the other side of the gorge. as the bus also goes to piazza libertà on sundays, this is an ideal starting point.
now coming back to family bloch... the name of the ragusa chocolat refers to ragusa, the old name of the croatian city of dubrovnik, where camille bloch once spent his vacation.Read more