Sicily Day 4 - Ragusa 5/15/17

Pictures HERE 

4:00pm - back at the gorgeous b&b in Ragusa for a break because nothing in town is open. Took it easy this morning, even had a second cappuccino at breakfast, and then went to the train station. As with the train to and from Noto, this was a tiny two-car thing that was hot and full until most people got off in Noto. Then it was delayed a bit but by about 1pm I was in Ragusa. My hotel had booked me a car and he was holding a sign with my name at the station. I felt so fancy! Then he took me to a parking lot and told me to wait.... then a little golf cart thing with my hotel on the side showed up. See pictures for a video. The streets are too narrow for a regular car, he said. What an adventure!

When I got to the b&b, two people were fawning over me like I am royalty. They gave me a glass of water and a donut and wrote some restaurant recommendations on a map. I think if I had told them I needed the moon, they would have tried to get it. Anyway, this place is so cool. My bathroom is literally carved into a cave. It is a bit further out of the center than I typically like but I have a view and a cave room so I will take it. 

Then I went to the main part of town to wander. I got a bread roll up tomato thing and of course a gelato for lunch. The gelato was chocolate with chili and something called "carruba" that everyone was getting. I found out later that it was carob, which is apparently common in this area. Continued walking around town and looked at some of the menus of the recommended places, and could not do anything else because it was basically all closed til at least 4pm so I figured I might as well come back and have a quick rest before exploring again.

10:15pm - back at the b&b for the night. After I set out again earlier, I wandered around the town for a while. It is pretty small and rather sleepy. This is the historic part of town - there is another part of town as well that is more modern I guess. I bought a couple magnets from a store full of over 200 kinds of locally-made magnets (you can imagine I was in there for a while making my mind up) and a necklace with local ceramic beads made by the wife of the guy who was in the shop.  

After a while, I sat down at Al Borgo in the main square and had a glass of wine, which came with olives and other snacks and looked onto the Duomo. Sat there for a bit and enjoyed the atmosphere and people-watching. Wandered a bit more and decide on Monsu for dinner which was recommended by the b&b and had a more interesting menu than some other options. It was also mostly empty, even when I left. It is a pretty upscale place and I almost got the 38 euro tasting menu before realizing i really did not need that much food. I got a pasta with potatoes (yes carb on carb) that I think was homemade, and it was in smoked cheese with some other stuff maybe? Then I got a pork Tagine, which came with couscous topped with cinnamon and almonds. Very interesting and delicious. Considering it was an upscale kind of thing, I didn't think 28 Euros was too bad. I actually said no to the bread - four different carbs at one meal would have been significant overkill, even for me. I stopped at the best gelato shop in town again for a little cup of chocolate and cinnamon.

I need to wash some clothes but I think I will save that for the morning. Tomorrow I plan on day tripping to Modica and was going to get an early start, but it is kind of a pain to get to the train/bus stations here so I am thinking a relaxed morning and 10:30 bus sounds good! I'm on vacation after  all, and this is probably going to be the "slowest" stop of the trip, so might as well take advantage.

Not as many steps today but not as many desserts either? 16,867 and 6.71 miles