We tried  the frittata for breakfast. I again loved the homemade bread with butter, while Nick preferred the pastries.

Today’s first stop in Modica was at Sicily’s oldest chocolate factory, Antica Dolceria Bonajuto. At one time, this was the last chocolate shop in town, but thanks to a lot of PR, there are  now more than 40.

We watched the process of the chocolate being tempered, and we  sampled a variety of chocolate with different added ingredients including vanilla, cinnamon, and my favorite, ginger. While exploring the shop, I noticed a bag of nucatoli. They were made on site and were the same in shape as the ones in Chiaramonte Gubli. While Nick was buying chocolate bars, I was buying bags of nucatoli.

Back on the bus, we went to the town of Scicli. We learned that this is the town in which many of the scenes of the Italian TV series Inspector Montalbano are shot. I haven’t mentioned Montalbano before. He is a fictional  Sicilian detective who excels at solving crime and at enjoying Sicilian food.

The books about him by Andrea Camilleri, as well as the TV show, are immensely popular. Both may be available at local libraries, the books in English and the TV show in Italian  with English subtitles. Susanna  told us about him much earlier in our tour, and she lent several of the books to our fellow travelers. I didn’t accept her offer because I needed  time to write notes about our daily activities for the blog.  Anyway, the Town Hall of Scicli is used in the TV series.

The town was very quiet. Our excellent local tour guide took us into three Sicilian Baroque buildings in town, including the Chiesa di Santa Teresa. We found a restaurant that was serving lunch, and we decided to share a salad of lettuce, arugula, buffalo mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano, and a plate of  pasta with broccoli, tomatoes and nuts.

Then we went on to Siracusa. The rain during our orientation tour, didn’t dampen our spirits. We had been told in advance to pack a rain jacket and to take an umbrella, so we were prepared.  We all scattered in search of a place to have dinner. Six of us arrived at the same restaurant. We all enjoyed Prosecco, after which Nick and I shared a plate of pasta with pistachio nuts. Well satisfied, we wandered back to our hotel in the rain.

We walked 12,216 steps and the equivalent of 20 flights of stairs.