Day 9, April 11th, Part 1 – We spent the morning exploring Ragusa, which is a hilltop city in southeast Sicily, Italy. It is a UNESCO heritage city because of the Baroque architecture. There are about 70,000 people living here
Most of the city is composed of narrow passageways and steep stairs
This city can give Mazara a run for the money on the number of churches. Most are not active now, but were built by different trades (bakers, butchers, etc) to show their dedication to God. We walked past the Chiesa dell’Itria and was the home parish for the noble Knights of Malta. The insignia on the door to the church, with the eight pointed cross, is the Knights of Malta sign. See:https://www.orderofmalta.int/government/flags-emblems/
The Palazzo Cosentini (Cosentini Palace)has interesting sculptures under each balcony telling a story about life in those days. See:https://www.theworldofsicily.com/…/cosentini-palace/ Check out the close up of the balcony.
In Ragusa, and many places in Sicily when someone dies the notices pasted publicly outside the person’s house, and on the local public bulletin board.
The Duomo of St. George is the center piece of the city. There is a dome behind it that you can only see from certain angles. It was constructed between 1738 and 1775. Prior to that everything in the city was destroyed by the earthquake of 1693.
Inside of the Duomo of St. George all accents are in red because the Duomo was built by the nobles and red signified wealth.
In the Duomo looking back, one can see he columns are not round, and the bottom appears black. These are made of two different kinds of limestone, the black is not paint but black stone.
The Church of San Giuseppe, which is part of an active cloister with about eight nuns.
This screened balcony on the upper level allowed the nuns to pray without being seen.
This Gate of St. George and is the only item remaining after the earthquake of 1693. It was originally part of the Church of St. George.
There are three paintings by Pietro Novelli are in the church of St. Agata in the gardens of Ragusa. This Franciscan church is very plain and everything inside is wood because it was a built by the Capuchins. See: https://www.theworldofsicily.com/…/church-of-sant…/
This local man, Maestro Appiano, invited us to see his museum-like home where he has preserved items from his family, who he can trace by to the year 1,000. He was also a great musician!
His living room was jammed packed with treasures.
We took a hike to the top of the newest part of Ragusa and it was all stairs and narrow passages.
From the top, you can see the Duomo in the distance on the left. The rectangular building is military and now used for University classes.
In the afternoon we traveled about 30 minutes to Modica, a city in southeast Sicily, Italy. It’s known for…. you guessed it, Baroque buildings! We explored the city in tiny classic Fiat 500 cars with the local Fiat 500 car club.
Modica behind us in the background. The city has about 55,000 residents.
The Fiat 500 car club was ready and waiting for us. These cars are fast and tiny. Mary had to side sideways in the back seat and Peter’s knees were up to his chest. They had to pry both of us out of the car, but we had a blast.
The Duomo of San Giorgio is a Baroque church, and is the Mother Church of the city and it is included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO— in Modica.
This is a solar meridian line in the duomo that goes across the transept, with a small hole (‘gnomon’) high up to let in the required ray of sunlight. We have only seen this once before in Rome, Italy.
Back in the Fiat 500 our driver, Vincenzo, took us to the highest point in Modica to check out the view.
You can see from this shot how tiny our car was.
We happened to see Duomo Di San Pietro, with a monumental staircase with the statues of the twelve apostles leading you into the church.
Peter took some photos around 9:30 PM from the new part of Ragusa looking at the old town.