Friday 23rd September

After a slow start, we decided to venture to first Ragusa and then on to Syracuse.We drove to Ragusa with little incident but marveled at the large number of ‘roundabouts’ which seemed to come every 500 meters. When we arrived at Ragusa we parked in a large underground car park and walked through a deserted part of the city, over a large ravine which was quite redolent of Ronda in Spain. This part of the city was very quiet with no one about and all the shops closed for the afternoon. At the rear of the duomo we found a rather strange café and had a lunch of arancini, salad and a panini. Then bathroom in this establishment was up some dark stairs and through what seemed to be a nightclub!! A little unconventional. We walked on and toured the cathedral where there was an exhibit of Caravaggio’s painting but this did not seem to be open. The cathedral was large but not especially ornate.

From Wikipedia:

"The origins of Ragusa can be traced back to the 2nd millennium BC, when there were several Sicel settlements in the area. The current district of Ragusa Ibla has been identified as Hybla Heraea.

The ancient city, located on a 300 metres (980 ft) hill, came into contact with nearby Greek colonies, and grew thanks to the nearby port of Camerina. After a short period of Carthaginian rule, it fell into the hands of the ancient Romans and the Byzantines, who fortified the city and built a large castle. Ragusa was occupied by the Arabs in 848 AD and remained under their rule until the 11th century, when the Normans conquered it. Ragusa was selected as a county seat, and its first count was Geoffrey, son of Count Ruggero of Sicily.

Thereafter, Ragusa's history followed the events of the Kingdom of Sicily, created in the first half of the twelfth century. A Chiaramonte family fief, it remained the county capital after it has been unified with Modica in 1296, a status that it lost in the 15th century after a popular revolt.

In 1693, Ragusa was devastated by a huge earthquake, which killed some 5,000 inhabitants. After the catastrophe, the city was largely rebuilt, and many Baroque buildings from that time remain in the city. Most of the population moved to a new settlement in the former district of Patro. The new municipality was called "Ragusa Superiore" (Upper Ragusa) and the ancient city "Ragusa Inferiore" (Lower Ragusa). Both cities remained separated until 1926, when they were merged to become a provincial capital in 1927 at the expense of Modica, which had been the former capital and the most populous and important city in the region since 1296.

In 1838, an asphalt deposit was discovered, which is still being worked.

In 1848, together with the cities of Modica and Scicli, it rebelled against the Bourbon government to obtain the island's freedom and independence. In 1860, armed volunteers were immediately sent to help Garibaldi, who had just landed in Marsala. It became part of the Kingdom of Italy under the guidance of Senator Corrado Arezzo de Spuches di Donnafugata. In 1889, the Banca Popolare Cooperativa di Ragusa was founded, the first embryo of the current Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa. The bank thrived thanks to the huge wealth and prosperous agriculture that belonged to the now ex-county, and it immediately became an important point of reference for the whole Ibla economy.

In the early 20th century, socialist ideas spread particularly strongly in the Ragusa area compared to rest of the region, according to many fascist historians. Ragusa was described as a "fief of the reds", like that of Bologna. A strong political dialectic caused fascism to impose itself on Ragusa, which provoked a violent response similar to that in the Po Valley. On 29 January 1921, a group of fascists destroyed the socialist circle of Vittoria, killed a man and injured four others. Two months later in Ragusa, four people were killed and sixty were injured. The main promoter of fascist ideology in Ragusa was Totò Giurato, the grandfather of the television presenter Luca Giurato."

Ragusa and its Duomo.

We then walked back to the car and took off for Syracuse. On the way out of Ragusa we saw what must be the ‘old town’ which looked far more interesting than the part we had explored. So, it seems we may have missed the more attractive parts of Ragusa, maybe for another day.

From Wikipedia:

"Syracuse (/ˈsɪrəkjuːs, -kjuːz/ SIRR-ə-kewss, -⁠kewz; Italian: Siracusa [siraˈkuːza] (listen); Sicilian: Sarausa [saɾaˈuːsa])^[a] is a historic city on the Italian island of Sicily, the capital of the Italian province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek and Roman history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the pre-eminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes.^[8] This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world. Syracuse is located in the southeast corner of the island of Sicily, next to the Gulf of Syracuse beside the Ionian Sea. It is situated in a drastic rise of land with 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) depths being close to the city offshore although the city itself is generally not so hilly in comparison.

The city was founded by Ancient Greek Corinthians and Teneans and became a very powerful city-state. Syracuse was allied with Sparta and Corinth and exerted influence over the entirety of Magna Graecia, of which it was the most important city. Described by Cicero as "the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all",^[10] it equaled Athens in size during the fifth century BC. It later became part of the Roman Republic and the Byzantine Empire. Under Emperor Constans II, it served as the capital of the Byzantine Empire (663–669). Palermo later overtook it in importance, as the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily. Eventually the kingdom would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.

In the modern day, the city is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the Necropolis of Pantalica. In the central area, the city itself has a population of around 125,000 people. Syracuse is mentioned in the Bible in the Acts of the Apostles book at 28:12 as Paul stayed there. The patron saint of the city is Saint Lucy; she was born in Syracuse and her feast day, Saint Lucy's Day, is celebrated on 13 December."

Then drive to Syracuse was uneventful except for a diversion to a ‘restaurant’ which turned out not to be a restaurant and was, in fact, an ecological site!! We found a place to park in the marina area, right outside a pet store where we bought some food for the cats at home. Across the street, a resident of one of the buildings had built a small cat colony with small boxes for the cats to sleep in and we added some food for them. Then we had dinner at a nearby restaurant which served mainly fish. Then it was back to Catania. When we arrived there was no parking place and after a while a guy came over and undertook to find us a place which he did for a small tip. Probably not our most exciting day in Sicily.