Ragusa is a city of manageable size. Its 70,000 inhabitants place it on the scale of Spanish cities such as Ciudad Real, Ferrol or Mérida, which means everything is within reach and that you can forget the car while you’re there.
Divided into two –Ragusa Ibla, the Baroque historic center that clings to a promontory above the Irminio river valley, and the new town up on the hill–, it is the perfect base to discover the gastronomy of southeastern Sicily, a place that has long been a crossroads of cultures, hence its cuisine blends continental Italian influences, Arab, Spanish or even Greek and North African influences.
Ragusa Ibla
Rebuilt largely after an earthquake in the seventeenth century, the town is a delirium of palaces, churches and Baroque alleyways, with something surprising and beautiful waiting around every corner. A place that carries you from one surprise to the next, whether you stroll through the the tiny Ibla quarter, ascend the endless staircases of the Santa Maria dell’Itria neighborhood –the views are worth the effort, believe me– or explore a higher area that many travelers overlook, but which, with its museums, its shopping streets and its restaurants, also deserves a visit.
And if all this were not enough, the city hosts a surprising culinary scene, a showcase of valley cooking, but also of the seafaring repertoire from a coast that is a little over 15 kilometers away and from an inland, mountainous and rugged area that opens up behind it.
