Day 10 - Baroque Italy

Ragusa

If you go to almost any town of significant size in southern Sicily, you will notice that they all have a similar appearance. That's because there was a major earthquake in 1693 which leveled most towns and when they were rebuilt, they were all built in the architecture in fashion at the time which was Baroque. This is especially true of the three major towns in southwestern Sicily - Noto, Modica and Ragusa but also smaller towns like Scicli.

Today we drove to Scicli and Ragusa to see the architecture but also to follow the trail of Montalbano. It is hard to underestimate the impact that the show has had on the local economy as most of the tourists who come to this corner of Sicily have come to see to see the sights that were popularized by the show. As proof in point, while we were having breakfast on the B&B balcony, a tour bus stopped by and maybe 50 people stopped and took our photographs. I felt like I should signed some autographs.

Montalbano's Police Station in Scicli

Many of the filmed scenes talk place in Scicli which is used as the fictional town of Vigata where the series is set and were the police station is located. The building in reality is the town hall of Scicli and they offer a Montalbano tour which we took. I didn't think there would be much to see but fortunately for us they had just finished filming an episode and they still had the set on site. We were able to walk through the set (mostly behind glass) but they let us have our pictures taken behind the desk where the TV inspector does his work.

The tour was a lot of fun for me because I was able to joke around with the tour guide who spoke some English so I promised to correct his English if he corrected my Italian. I'm a curiosity here because I speak just enough Italian to converse with people and they always want to know where I'm from, were my parents from Italy, where did I learn to speak, etc. (and probably why I don't speak better but are too polite to say it).

Train with Church of Saint George in the background

After Scicli, we drove to Ragusa Ibla for a walk through town. Ibla is the older section of town. The newer part of Ragusa was built upon the hill overlooking Ibla but today they have grown together to form one contiguous town. There is a beautiful Baroque church (Il Duomo di San Giorgio) located on the main piazza but it was unfortunately closed when we were there. We took the "Barocco" train for a tour around the city. We would have liked to have had just a little bit more time in town but the rain started just as we were headed back to our car so that ended the tour.

Montalbano's desk

As we're waiting for dinner time here, I'll add a few observations. This part seems more of what I think of as "Sicilian" than the other areas we have been to. Maybe it's because it is more isolated. The people are darker in complexion and they greet you with a "Salve" instead of a "Buon giorno" as you hear in the rest of Italy. The landscape seems more ancient as it is very rocky and you see miles of fences constructed with rocks simply laid on top of each other.

For dinner we walked to a restaurant near our B&B called Enzo al Mare, which of course is seen on the Montalbano series as his favorite restaurant. I had the Orata (Sea Bream) and Jeanne wasn't interested in seafood so she had Insalata Caprese and grilled vegetables.

Montalbano?

Finally, I'll include a photo for the people that I know who are familiar with Montalbano.