Grande Albergo Maugeri. Ragusa & Modica

RAGUSA

Ragusa is also called "the city of the bridges" for the presence of three picturesque bridges ("Ponte Vecchio or Cappuccini", "Ponte Nuovo" and "Ponte Giovanni XXIII") that connect the two halves of the city, the lower and older town of Ragusa Ibla, and the higher Ragusa Superiore. A part from some 17th century buildings and Saint John the Baptist Cathedral, a wonderful church dating back to the 17th century with its low and wide façade, most of the heritage is in Ibla. Here there are more than 50 Baroque churches, whose best example is Saint George Cathedral with its columned façade.
Visit also
Saint Mary dell'Idria, built by the Knights of Malta in the seventeenth century, has a bell tower with ceramics from Caltagirone.
San Giorgio Vecchio has a re-entrant façade with a notable Gothic-Catalan portal, with a high relief on the lunetta portraying St. George Killing the Dragon.
The Hyblean Garden offers a view on the three churches of the Cappuccini Vecchi, 14th century St. James and San Domenico.

EVENTS
25th April Saint George Festival
27th-29th August Saint John the Baptist Feast
In September "National Race-meeting"

MODICA

Modica, UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a wonderful city. Admiring it in the night with all its lights on you think of looking at a nativity.
Visit
Saint John Church, built on stairs, in Modica Alta.
Fine 18th and 19th centuries buildings
Castle of Conti and its clock tower, offering a wonderful view
Saint George Cathedral, built in the 12th century and rebuilt in the 18th century in Baroque style, reminding Ragusa's Saint George.

Don't miss to taste the extraordinary and unique chocolate of Modica, produced with an ancient and original Aztec recipe, thanking to which Modica obtained the name of "City of chocolate and sweets". The preparation is special. Cocoa is heated until it becomes a fliud mass, and then mixed with sugar and spices like cinnamon, vanilla or chili, or with lemon and orange peel. If handworked, the compound was deposited on a heated lava stone and then mixed with a rolling pin of different sizes according to different phases. The temperature is always held on 35-40 degrees so as not to dissolve the sugar. They are poured into tin moulds, both to make the mass taking the form of container and to let the air bubbles rise to the surface. The secret of Modican chocolate is in the simplicity and in the absence of butter or other foreign substances. You must taste it!