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Italy · Sicilia · Historic villages
the town of cold-worked chocolate, split between Alta and Bassa and stitched together by its stairways
Modica lies in two valleys that meet, and it is looked at from the bottom upwards. Down below is Modica Bassa, with Corso Umberto I, which until 1902 was the bed of two streams: after the flood of that year they were covered over, and on top grew the street of the palaces, the shops and the Duomo di San Pietro. On the ridge is Modica Alta, houses one above the other up to the bell tower of San Giovanni, and halfway up the climb, at the top of a stairway that never ends, the Duomo di San Giorgio, with its tower façade that is one of the masterpieces of Sicilian Baroque. In between, on the crag, the castle of the Counts with the clock tower. Between the two towns there is no lift: there are the steps, and they are climbed on foot. Everything you see was born after the earthquake of 1693, and that is why Modica is one of the eight late Baroque towns of the Val di Noto on the UNESCO World Heritage list. And then there is the chocolate, cold-worked as it used to be, which stays grainy because the sugar does not melt.
Sleeping
In Modica there is no municipal area for motorhomes: in town you sleep in a car park, and water and waste are done at the private area on the plateau, four kilometres away, or the next day at Noto.
Piazzale Falcone e Borsellino, Corso Umberto I, 97015 Modica
the car park beside Corso Umberto, behind the hotel Principe d'Aragona, on a slope. It is also the terminus of the town buses, the Terminal Borsellino, and the first bus of the day leaves at six in the morning. From here Bonajuto and the Duomo di San Pietro are less than a kilometre away on the flat, and for San Giorgio you climb the stairway, or take line 3
Viale Medaglie d'Oro 771, 97015 Modica
the fallback if the car park is full, in front of the fruit and vegetable market on the old road from Ragusa, lit at night. From the centre it is almost two kilometres on foot
a private area in the countryside, on the plateau between Modica and Ragusa, north of the town, with water filling and emptying, toilets, showers and electricity. It is the place to take on water and empty waste without going as far as Noto. For the centre you take the motorhome back to the car park on the Corso
Getting around
The motorhome stays parked at the car park, and the town is done on foot: on the flat along the Corso, uphill for everything else.
Seeing
A single walk, from the car park downwards along the Corso and then up the stairways to the Pizzo. It takes an unhurried afternoon, or a morning with good legs. Cava d'Ispica is the only point outside town. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
Walk · free entry · 36.86228, 14.75950
Corso Umberto I 207, 97015 Modica
the main street of Modica Bassa, with the noble palaces, the churches and the shops in a row. It runs where two streams used to flow, the Pozzo dei Pruni and the Janni Mauro, which met here: after the flood of 26 September 1902, which killed more than a hundred people, they were channelled and covered, and on top the Corso was born. Halfway along is the Teatro Garibaldi, built between 1815 and 1820 and enlarged in the mid nineteenth century, with boxes in three tiers; you get inside when there is a show, and the phone number is that of the box office.
Church · 36.86060, 14.76069
Corso Umberto I, 97015 Modica
the mother church of Modica Bassa, which already existed in 1396 and was rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake. It is recognised by its stairway with the twelve apostles on pedestals, which in Modica are called the santoni, carved by Salvatore Ammatuna and his pupil Pietro Petracolo. Inside there is a Madonna di Trapani attributed to Francesco Laurana and the group of Saint Peter and the paralytic by Benedetto Civiletti, from 1893. The tourist visit is paid, with the Cammino Mariano of the association La Via delle Collegiate, which also looks after Santa Maria di Betlem, the Carmine and San Paolo; the price is not published, and those who go in to pray do not pay. Since November 2025 the opening hours of the churches may change, and they are asked for at info@laviadellecollegiate.it.
Point of interest · 36.86025, 14.75991
Corso Umberto I 159, 97015 Modica
the oldest chocolate factory in Sicily. The "fattojo del ciccolatte" appears in the will of a Bonajuto from 1854, and the business on the Corso was opened by Francesco Bonajuto in 1880; it then passed to the Ruta family, and from 1992 Franco Ruta relaunched it when in town only three artisans still worked chocolate the old way. Modica chocolate does not go through conching: it is worked below fifty degrees, the sugar crystals stay whole and the bar crumbles in the mouth. In the shop you can taste it, and you can also buy 'mpanatigghi and cedrata. Next door is the workshop, which can be visited by appointment, public holidays excluded: half an hour with the tasting, at most twenty five people, in Italian or English, free up to five years. Booking is on visit.bonajuto.it. The shop's opening hours are not published on the website.
Museum · paid entry · 36.85987, 14.76006
Corso Umberto I 149, 97015 Modica
a palace on the Corso with two museums inside. The Museo del Cioccolato, opened in 2014 by the Consortium that protects the PGI, tells the story of Modica chocolate from the papers of the Grimaldi family, which record chocolate makers in town from 1746, to the reconstruction of an eighteenth century workshop, and has an Italy in chocolate bas-relief nine metres long; its opening hours and ticket are not published by any official source. The Museo Civico Franco Libero Belgiorno holds the finds of the area, and the piece worth the visit is the Eracle di Cafeo, a small bronze from the end of the third century BC.
Church · paid entry · 36.86007, 14.76072
Via Clemente Grimaldi 89, 97015 Modica
the oldest church in Modica, a single room carved into the rock a short walk from the Corso, about forty square metres. In the apse there is a cycle of Byzantine frescoes with Christ Pantocrator inside a mandorla, and in the floor the basin for baptism according to the Eastern rite. It remained hidden until 1987, when Duccio Belgiorno discovered it. Today's opening hours and price are published by no one, and are checked on the spot.
Church · 36.86063, 14.76253
Via Marchesa Tedeschi 1, 97015 Modica
a church born in the fourteenth century and made a collegiate church in 1645, with two things not found elsewhere. The Cappella Cabrera, or Palatina, late Gothic, built between 1474 and 1520 by the counts of Modica, survived the 1693 earthquake and is a national monument. And the permanent monumental nativity scene, from 1881-82, with sixty two terracotta figures from Caltagirone, commissioned by friar Benedetto Papale. Since 2019 the church has also had a small museum. The tourist visit is part of the Cammino Mariano, as at San Pietro.
Museum · 36.86056, 14.76165
Via Posterla 84, 97015 Modica
the house where Quasimodo was born on 20 August 1901, on an uphill street below the castle. The family left it early, following the father, a stationmaster, from one station to another in eastern Sicily. Inside are the original bedroom and the poet's Milan study, which the Region bought in 1996 and reassembled here, and you can listen to his voice, including the Nobel speech. The museum published its winter hours on 27 October 2026, and bookings are made at the same number. The website does not give the price.
Castle · paid entry · 36.86194, 14.76178
the crag that divides the two valleys, with the castle that already in 1272 appears among the fortresses of the kingdom. It was the seat of the Gran Corte of the County from 1361 and a prison until 1865, and inside remain the cells carved into the rock and the brigands' pit. At the top is the Torre dell'Orologio, the symbol of the town: the counterweight mechanism dates from 1725, and it is still wound by hand every day. From up there you see the whole of Modica. Today the castle can be visited only in part, and the Comune's page with the opening hours does not say what year it is from.
Church · free entry · 36.86409, 14.76166
Corso San Giorgio, 97015 Modica
the mother church of Modica Alta, and the reason for climbing. It was already mentioned in 1150, but what you see is the rebuilding after 1693: the tower façade, sixty two metres high, was begun in 1702 and completed only in 1842 with the spire; the design is attributed to Rosario Gagliardi, the architect of Noto, although some scholars give it to Paolo Labisi. In front the stairway descends, redesigned in the early nineteenth century, with gardens on either side: the sources do not agree on the number of steps, and it is best to count them on the way up. Inside, five naves, the polyptych by Bernardino Niger behind the altar, the silver Arca Santa with the relics of Saint George, the organ by Casimiro Allieri from 1888 and, on the floor, the meridian line traced by Armando Perini in 1895, where the sunlight passes at true noon. Buried here is Tommaso Campailla, the philosopher and physician from Modica who received a visit from Berkeley in 1718. It is not among the churches of the paid Cammino Mariano.
Viewpoint · free entry · 36.86656, 14.75975
the viewpoint at the top of Modica Alta, which the people of Modica call u Pizzu, from where you see the two valleys, the rooftops of Modica Bassa and San Giorgio from above. Just above is San Giovanni Evangelista, the highest church in town, with its stairway of 1839 and its neoclassical façade finished in 1901; the cross on the bell tower stands at 449 metres. You go up in the late afternoon, and come down as the town lights up.
Park · paid entry · 36.85021, 14.83967
Crocevia Cava Ispica, 97015 Modica
a gorge thirteen kilometres long between Modica and Ispica, cut into the limestone and inhabited from prehistory until the 1693 earthquake: tombs, catacombs, rock churches and houses in the rock, one above the other along the walls. In the Larderia catacomb there are more than four hundred tombs, and the Sicanian castle is a palace carved over five floors. It is about fifteen minutes by road from the centre, to the east, and parking is at the park's car park. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month and under eighteen; from the end of October you go in the morning.
When
the chocolate festival along the Corso, with the chocolate makers' stalls and tastings. The last one was held in December 2024; in 2026 it is not taking place, and the Consortium has announced an edition in 2027, still without a date
in the morning the two statues go round the Corso on shoulders looking for each other; at noon in piazza Monumento the Madonna finds the risen Christ, kisses him, lets her black mantle fall and the doves are released. In the evening, since 2016, a procession carries the statues to the sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie
the saint on horseback comes out of the Duomo and goes round Modica Alta, and the feast ends with fireworks
the procession of the saint along the Corso and fireworks at midnight. Since 2025 the santoni have also returned, after more than seventy years: they parade on an evening of their own, before the feast, from the Palazzo dei Mercedari
Remember
Modica · part two
and then?
What to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Chocolate is the thing you take home, but the sweet of Modica is another one, and it has meat inside.
The next stop, ordered by driving time.
Distances and times by road, measured with OSRM on OpenStreetMap data.
Looking
24 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.
