Ragusa Ibla, Sicily a Baroque City with an Ancient Heart

On the morning we planned to go to Ragusa, a hard rain beat against the windows of our Ortigia hotel. We ached all over from the prior day’s walk through Villa Romana del Casale, a late Roman Empire UNESCO World Site. It was temping to stay perched on the tall chairs place beside the wide windows of our hotel to watch fishermen haul in fresh catch, nosh on Sicilian Breakfast ‘Cookies,’ and sip cappuccino until the waiters swept us out with the crumbs. Although little was written about Ragusa in our guidebooks, it’s history as a cave town for the Sicels (2000-1000 BC ancient Sicilians) piqued our curiosity. We charged up the cameras, packed rain gear into our backpacks and waited for the Renault, il “beeg Sha-neek-wa,” in the hotel lobby. As we navigated “S” turns on the steep climb to the hill town, our jaws dropped when we finally arrived at the city, that tenuously hugged a limestone hill between two deep valleys. “What is this place?” we said in disbelief at the sight of Baroque on top of Baroque, tossed across the edge of the rocky precipice like a jumble of miniature houses in a diorama.