From Agrigento we traveled to Noto, a hill town in the southeast corner of Sicily. Along with Modica and Ragusa, these towns were all essentially destroyed by a late-17th century earthquake and then rebuilt in the early 18th century giving them a stunning, uniform Baroque beauty. And while officially we oppose natural disasters, this is another example where centuries later the effects can be remarkable. Think Pompeii – a disaster, but pretty cool anyway.
Noto skyline
Town Hall
The Cathedral in early morning sun
A very traditional place
We spent one day hiking five mostly bucolic miles to the neighboring town of Avola. We’re the only people you’ll know who leave a rental car parked so we can walk to the next town and see what’s there. The walk took us through countless lemon groves, lots of late-season blackberries along the road, and probably quite literally millions of olives.
Turns out there wasn’t much in Avola. We did find this trattoria for lunch where a half liter of the house wine in this lovely carafe was about $2.70. You can’t afford not to drink it…
For dinner our outdoor table was at the top of these candle-lit stairs
Swordfish Sicilian style – lots of tomatoes, olives, and capers. What’s not to like?