Basilica dells Collegiata - like every church it is baroque and impressive.

We very much enjoyed the castle, Castello Ursino. Built in 13th century it used to be in a strategic position on a rocky cliff but the massive lava spill from Mt Etna erupting in 1669 pushed back the sea, creating a new coastline, and making it ineffective as a defensive strategic castle.

We couldn’t work out why there were holes in the roof of the main hall. A regular pattern of drilled holes. Very odd.

Inside were lots of statues and paintings.

Then we went to the Roman amphitheatre. It was so high I got quite nervous coming down to the stage.

I loved the Teatro Massimo Bellini. I also loved the ice cream and canoli we ate in the cafe opposite it 😀

Away from the beautiful buildings the town was covered in graffiti and rubbish and parts were really quite rundown and dirty.

I hope it’s a bit warmer for cycling as we only bought a t-shirt and shorts.

San Michele Church

We saw loads of signs for the archaeological park and the Greek theatre, but couldn’t find it. It was too hilly and too cold to spend much time looking for it. Particularly seeing as every town here has an archeological park, so we’ll see more ruins later.

The day starts off lovely. None of our days are long or hard. This is very much meant to be a holiday full of sightseeing and food, not just cycling.

The countryside was lovely, but it did contain a few wrinkly bits (or hills as Sue calls them)

First town we arrived at was Giarratana. \240It was a fair size town but all the old men just gathered on the street corners to talk. Not sure why they didn’t go to a cafe. They all just stood there, in their winter coats, passing the time of day.

Managed to find a Spa food shop to buy coke and crisps and biscuits. It was all very different from an English Spa shop. None of the international brands were there - besides Coke.

Then the heavens opened. Thunder and lightning and rain. Lots of rain. We got very wet. We didn’t have good coats with us.

The Italian word for river is torrente, which isn’t very reassuring to see a sign for in the pouring rain.

We were meant to go to Ragusa next, but it was so wet and we were so cold, that we had to just cycle past and not stop.

Sicily is very much a ‘yet another baroque church’ kind of a place. This region was all destroyed by an earthquake in 1693. So all the churches were rebuilt then in the gorgeous over the top baroque style. And they’re all stunning. Yet after seeing half a dozen I don’t feel I’m missing out by not seeing every church in Ragusa.

Then the sun came out and we dried out enough to take the detour to the ‘panorama’ (view point) above Modica.

I’m very glad we did because we got to see its finest baroque church, without having to walk up 250 steps.

Modica is apparently the city of a hundred churches. We certainly lost count.

There was a very odd clock tower at the top of a hill. I don’t think it was attached to a church or anything, it just tells the town the time.

One of the churches seemed to be holding a Fiat 500 club night 😀

After all the wet cycling I was really craving carbs, so we decided to have pizza for dinner. I’m not a huge pizza fan, so this was our first pizza of the trip. There were none of the toppings you get in England. So I got \240aubergine and egg. I expected the egg to cooked on the pizza and the yolk to be soft, but no, it was a hard boiled egg.

Sue got a red wine made from local grapes, which made her happy. Then for dessert I got a tiramisu and Sue got a pistachio canoli.

Modica is famous for its chocolate, we bought some but haven’t tried it yet. However I feel we did a fairly good job of trying local food 😀

I think this church is my favourite so far.

Then we cycled through quiet country lanes filled with olive trees and carob trees and cows before getting to the beach at Sampieri for ice cream and a bit of sun.

Before getting to Pozallo for the night.

The finance police!

Flamingos. Even though they’re white

Most southern point of Italy

Marzamemi is a very cute fishing town.

Noto is lovely. Very enchanting. Full of cathedrals and churches and palaces.

The cathedral

The town hall

Main cathedral

Norman mosaic In cathedral

Roman Stadium

Greek theatre