All posts tagged: Sicily

Modica, Sicily

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Modica, as a city, was built in 1360BC. It was a Roman and Greek City back then, and it is a UNESCO Baroque towns in Sicily now. The town is famous for its chocolate and its mixture architectural styles of Sicilian Baroque and Medieval. The way the town was situated is very special. It was built around steep valley. The Upper Modica, the older part of town, is on top of the Monti Iblei. The Lower Modica is built along the valley bottom, which is also the newly built part after earthquake. Two parts of the town are connected with heaps of steps. We so much wanted to spend more time there. Unfortunately, we only had time for a quick visit at the Chiesa di San Pietro (Cathedral of San Pietro). However, the church itself is certainly worth checking out. It’s at the lower Modica. It was restored after the earthquake in 1963. Therefore, the church is a baroque style church. The outside is simply beautiful with 12 statues of Apostles. Inside, it has the frescoes made …

Agrigento, Sicily – Day 4

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If you travel to Sicily and you are interested in history, Agrigento is a must-go. It’s one of oldest town in Sicily. For us, we really wanted to see the Valley of the Temples. We travelled from Ortigia to Agrigento with our rental car. I probably mentioned this in my previous posts. If you consider to drive in Sicily, it’s not a problem at all. The roads are fantastic. The most difficult part probably is driving in the little towns on their tiny narrow stone streets. 🙂 Anyway, the Valley of the Temples is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Of course, it has to be! The Archaeological park is big, full of Greek temples and ruins. It took us more than half a day to walk around it. They do have a shuttle bus you can take in the park if you don’t want to walk that much. Although it was such a hot day, we enjoyed every minute. Temple of Juno is the first temple we saw in the park. It’s the closest one to the entrance. It …

Syracuse, Sicily – Day 3

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After mucking around in Ortigia for two days, we finally got us a sim card and a rental car. We were all set for a road trip. Since we needed to get use to drive on the right side of the road, we decided to go to some places not too far away. First stop was the Archaeological Park of the Neapolis. Both Syracuse Greek Theatre and Roman amphitheatre are part of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Syracuse Greek Theatre was built in the 5th century BC. It is one of the largest in the world with nearly 140m diameter. All the seats were cut out from rocks. The theatre overlooks Syracuse, so the view is spectacular. Roman amphitheatre is a small disappointment for me. I guess it just looked very abandoned. The amphitheatre was primarily used for Gladiator contests and fights. However, seeing both sites in the same park was a bonus. We got to see how different the theatres were built for different purpose. Another interesting place in the park is a ear shaped huge cave called “Ear …

Syracuse, Sicily – Day 2

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After a good night sleep, we were ready to go and explore. Syracuse has plenty to offer, places to see, things to do, shops to shop, and yummy food to eat. Since we wanted to be based in Syracuse when we were in Sicily, it’s always a good idea to get familiar with the place.  🙂 After breakfast, we walked to Castello Maniace which was built in the 13th century by Frederick II. It is at the far end of the Ortygia. The castle was a royal residence initially.  After Frederick II, it was used as a prison for half century. Later on, it was turned to be a fortress and restructured for military use to defend the harbour. The castle was named after General George Maniakes who conquered Sicily from Arabs in 1038.  Unfortunately, some parts of the castle were under construction during our visit. We couldn’t see the whole thing. However, we still can see its marble portal entrance and baroque style architecture, and the beautiful view from the castle. If you stay at Syracuse, …

Syracuse, Sicily – Day 1

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Finally, I have to talk about Syracuse. Somehow it holds such a special place in my heart. Maybe I had had so many different versions of it in my imaginary world. Maybe I had been looking forward to it for too long …We arrived in Syracuse, Sicily, in an afternoon. The taxi driver dropped us off at the back of the building where we rented our apartment. “Here we are.” I told myself. “Finally!” The apartment we booked was in Ortigia. It was right at the water front with a tiny little balcony. The little balcony was just big enough for two chairs. Still, we appreciated it so much that we enjoyed every sunset there with a glass of Sicily wine. It was such a magical place. The famous Fonte Aretusa was very close to our apartment. The myth behind it is beautiful Nymph Arethusa was trying to escape from the love of Alpheus. Goddess Diana turned her into a spring. Then, Alpheus transformed himself into t a river to join together with the spring forever with Arethusa. The …

Taormina, Sicily

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Taromina is breathtakingly beautiful. It’s one of the places that can offer pretty much everything you want for a holiday, view, beach, food, entertainment, nice accommodation and shopping experiences. No wonder Taormina is such a popular travel destination in Sicily. We only planned to spend one night in Taormina. We drove from Syracuse to Taormina. On a side note, we were so impressed by the motorways in Sicily. They are fantastic to drive on. We were a bit worried when we were planning the trip. If you want to travel from one place to another in Sicily, the roads are good. If you want to drive in the old town, that’s a completely different story. To me, it’s nerve-racking because of the extremely narrow streets. There are so much to do in Taormina, beaches, food, shopping and sightseeing. I think I will just talk about two highlights during our visit, the Greek Threatre and Castelmola. Teatro Greco (Greek Threatre) One must-see in Taromina is Teatro Greco (Greek Theatre) from 2nd century A.D., the second largest Greek …

Travel Bucket List Destinations- Southern Italy

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It’s almost the time to plan and organise our trip of the year. We are going to Europe for sure. Apart from visiting my mother in law, we wouldn’t miss the opportunity to see some new places. When we were discussing our destinations, southern Italy came up many times. We both have been thinking about to travel in southern Italy for a while. Somehow, that part of the country is more appealing to us. Maybe we watched too many TV shows about southern Italy. Maybe it’s the culture. Maybe it’s the food! However, as usual, there is so much to see and so little time we have. Part of the trip organisation is to screen out the places we cannot go and concentrate to places we want to go the most. Making a bucket list for the destinations would serve the purpose. Here is mine! Sicily  Visiting southern Italy would be incomplete if we leave Sicily out of the plan. It’s the largest island in Italy.  Its rich history is fascinating enough. All the historic sites …