Springtime in Sicily Part 2: Noto, Ragusa and Caltegirone
I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of my Sicily Travelogue. If you haven’t read part 1, you can read it here. Based on some of the feedback a few of you provided, I went back and changed the way the photos were laid out and made them easier for you to go through at your own pace. I have done the same again in this one. I really appreciate that kind of feedback so please keep it coming.
In the first article, I focused on the three coastal cities that we visited, while in this one I focus on three inland cities. All of these cities are in what is called the Val di Noto. Despite the name, it is not one single valley, but more of a unified plateau. Despite the name of the area, the city of Noto was where we spent the least of our time in the area as we visited it as a day trip from Siracusa. For both Ragusa and Caltegirone, we spent a fair bit more time and had accommodations in both places.
Noto
Noto is just a short 45 minute train ride from Siracusa and as it is on the smaller side, we decided it would be okay to visit it as a day trip. Noto is known for its baroque architecture, but really the entire Val di Noto is known that way. For a little pertinent history, in 1693 there was a huge earthquake that basically leveled the entire southeast portion of Sicily. At that time Sicily was under the control of Spain and the King of Spain decided to rebuild the cities of the area in a baroque style. As such you don’t see too many really old medieval buildings in this area. What you do see is really beautiful though.
The train station in Noto is at the bottom of a hill while the old part of the city is at the top so there is a bit of a hike. Like Taormina, you go through an old city gate through the city walls to enter the main part of the old city. The main street is called Corso Vittorio Emanuele and we walked along its entire length. We stopped and ate a picnic lunch in the Piazza del Duomo and watched the numerous school groups being lead around the sights by their teachers. After eating we checked out the cathedral and then walked around as much of the town we could before stopping at a streetside cafe for an Aperol Spritz. One thing that Noto is more recently known for are a couple of large sets of stairs that have had art added to them. You can see one of them here. This seems like a great way to liven up a relatively more quiet part of the city and made me think of a couple of places in Victoria that could use that kind of art. We spent quite a few hours in Noto and would definitely say that it was worth the day trip.
Ragusa
We stayed in Ragusa for what was the second longest stretch on our trip. I didn’t know much about Ragusa before going, but it would turn out to be one of my favourite places we visited. The train ride from Siracusa takes about two hours and it passes through some absolutely stunning landscapes, first by the sea and then hills and farms as you move inland. One of the seaside towns you pass by is Pozzallo which is where you can catch a ferry to Malta (and it only takes an hour and forty-five minutes). If we had more time, that would have been an amazing side journey. When you do finally get to Ragusa, the station is in the newest part of town, and even then not really close to the centre of it. We needed to go to Ragusa Ibla which is the oldest part of town and sort of built on the top of a hill. Luckily, one of the owners of the place we were staying at came to pick us up in their car. This was actually the first time being in a car in Sicily and got us to the bed and breakfast in minutes.
Ragusa Ibla is beautiful. With all of the buildings pack in along long spiraling roads that loop higher and higher on the rock that they are built on and the roads are like 6 or 7 metres wide in wide spots and less in many. It makes for a town with actually very little traffic. We spent a lot of time just walking around Ragusa Ibla, enjoying the quiet roads and getting lost. There is a beautiful park at one end of the town called Giardino Ibleo which was absolutely lovely and had a great playground for our 5 year old to burn off energy in. Ragusa Ibla is the touristy part of Ragusa and there were a fair amount of tourists, but not nearly as many as we had seen in Siracusa. One of the days we were here we walked into Ragusa Superiore and looked around the main part of the city and it was absolutely lovely, it was also quite quiet and almost completely bereft of tourists. To be honest this day was one of my favourites of the whole trip as we happened upon a great cafe and sat and enjoyed our coffees as locals walked by, explored the city which was quite quiet as it was Good Friday and then luckily found a little bistro for lunch that had absolutely amazing food. I would highly recommend a trip to Ragusa if you want to enjoy some authentic Sicilian life and also see some beautiful places. While we stayed in Ragusa we also did a day trip to a winery out in the countryside, Agricola Occhipinti, which was a very worthwhile experience.
Caltegirone
The last place stayed before heading back to Catania was Caltegirone. This is another originally medieval city that was mostly rebuilt in the 1700’s following the big earthquake. There was no train between Ragusa and Caltegirone and the buses that were running on Easter Sunday would have had us travelling for 4 hours back the way we came, we opted to hire a car for the trip, though it was less expensive than I would have thought it would have been it is still not as pleasurable as taking a train. We were going to be in Caltegirone over two of the most holy days of the Catholic year and so we knew that it would be quieter than most places we had visited. The driver dropped us off in the main square of the old part of Caltegirone, where we sat and had a coffee knowing that our bed and breakfast wouldn’t be quite ready yet. I remember the moment quite well as the coffee was really good and the square seemed busy as people were preparing for a big celebration later in the day. There are two big draws to Caltegirone, one is for its amazing pottery, as it is home to a major industry in creating decorative pottery. The other big draw is the Scalinata di Santa Maria del Monte, which is an insanely long set of stairs (142) that climbs up the side of a hill in the middle of the old town. The place we were staying was about 3/4’s of the way up the stairs which definitely made you plan out your excursions (though this also meant we had an absolutely stunning view of the city).
We had chosen Caltegirone specifically because we knew there was an Easter procession on the Sunday we would arrive there and we were not disappointed in the experience. We sat on the stairs looking down at the square (along with a few thousand Caltagironesi) to watch the statues of Mary, Jesus and St. Peter perform a ritual. The crowd all knew the choreography and yelled out at certain specific parts. It was really an amazing experience. We managed to find a great pizzeria for dinner on the Easter Sunday, however the following day, Easter Monday there was very little open, which meant we just kind of wandered around for the day checking out the little alleyways and admiring the houses (Caltegirone is one of the participating cities in the Italian 1 Euro homes project, though I am not moving). I would recommend a visit to Caltegirone though, as it is really not on the tourist track, think about what days you are there and maybe avoid high holidays unless you are really prepared for some quiet wandering.
We took the bus from Caltegirone to Catania and stayed for another night there before flying back to Victoria. I have to say that Sicily was truly one of the most amazing places I have ever visited. The people were warm and friendly; the food was diverse and delicious; and the places we visited were truly beautiful. We had made a plan for what we wanted to see and it might be one of the few vacations I have been on where we were able to accomplish all of it without any issues. It helped that we had great weather the entire time as well.
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about the places we visited or if you have been to any of the same cities and I missed pointing out something important. I will be writing some more traditional Sidewalking Victoria articles over the next few weeks so stay tuned if you have been missing that.