Palermo and Agrigento pride themselves on their pistachio harvest. You can buy jars of pistachio crème (like Nutella only made with pistachios); pasta has pistachio sauce and desserts are pistachio mousse with ground pistachios sprinkled over. But Modica is all about chocolate. No milk or sugar in their chocolate (except of course the white chocolate);  the Aztec method for making chocolate came to the town with the Conquistadors and in Modica they made it their own.  Somehow, the South American origins make it slightly less “authentic” for me but apparently, I am the only one who cares.  There is chocolate with chile, chocolate with cinnamin, chocolate with vanilla, pralines of all sorts.  We stopped in Modica for a couple of hours on the way to Siracusa  and we visited a shop making chocolate for more than a century to sample and purchase some.

We had lunch there too and speaking of lunch I have to mention the fried balls of pizza dough on which my salad rested.  No wonder the waitress gave me an odd look when I ordered it.  They were good but I had not expected a huge bowl of balls supporting the cheese, ham and tomato salad I had ordered.

The town and much of Sicily was destroyed by an earthquake in 1693 but under Spanish rule there was money to rebuild in what is called Italian Baroque style – which is baroque style but not quite so fussy.  The Cathedral was quite moving –I am getting a bit more into Cathedrals after seeing this one.   Quiet, soft music, fairly empty. 

And Modica is the only place I have ever seen a prickly pear cactus actually growing prickly pears.