Project Description
Modica, chocolate and focaccia cooking class
From Ragusa | Full Day
Modica, chocolate and focaccia cooking class
Modica is a lovely baroque town famous for its chocolate, whose tradition dates back to Spanish domination when it was imported from the Aztech and the Americas. Here you will wear your apron and their experienced chocolatier will teach you the secrets of this magic powder, which can be flavoured using more than 20 aromas. Among the different flavoured chocolates, the classic is the red hot chili pepper. An interactive demonstration followed by a sample testing will be the first step of your multi sensorial experience. Later on, we move to “Cava d’Ispica”, a long and narrow canyon with plenty of trekking paths and small streams, prehistorical necropolis and caves that have always been inhabited from the prehistoric times till the beginning of the past century.
By a river, there is a windmill dating back to the Arabic time and still working, where a lovely family will show you their ancestors traditions and how they used to live, explaining all the different farming tools, ancient kitchenware, family traditions and especially taking you into the mill room. Here a big stone mill will grind for you the grain to produce the flour you will use to make “focacce ragusane”. At lunch time we will move to a farmhouse in the countryside, where another family will host us, allowing us to prepare our own food with the golden treasure we got from the mill: the flour. We will make soft bread rolls filled with different ingredients: chopped onions and tomato, ricotta cheese and sausage, eggplant and tomato sauce, ham and cheese, caciocavallo cheese, parsley and sun-dried tomatoes. In the afternoon we will visit the town of Modica with its splendid churches of Saint Peter and Saint George, the Jewish quarter of “Cartellone” and finish with a relaxing stroll along the main street to taste a gelato or do some shopping.
Modica
The town has more than 3000 years of history. The three hills and the lower part with two rivers were a good place to live since the prehistoric times; later on the Sikelians lived here, finding shelter in the many caves on the hill.
Greek, Romans, Byzantine and Arabs left important trace. With the Byzantyne it was an important stronghold, while the Arabs slightly changed the old greek name Motyca into Mohac and the hilly territory around organized in sloping cultivated terraces.
After the Arab time, Normans, Angevins and Jews made this place an important trade route and commerce was quite flourishing.
Modica had one of the largest and most vital Jewish communities in Sicily at that time.
The Chiaramonte family started in 1300 the golden era of the County of Modica. After the Chiaramonte, another family, the Henriquez – Cabrera ruled here; the dinasty had Spanish origins and run the power for a long time, until 1700.
During this period, the county of Modica and the family had a huge prestige and power throughout Sicily since they could mint coin and the territory was extended as far as the outskirts of Palermo. The prosperity of the town was expressed by beautiful churches like San Giorgio and Saint Peter as well as monasteries and convents financed by the noble families. The sisma in 1693 destroyed the town and the medieval traces. Only a tower of the “Castello dei Conti” remained of a massive complex of wall surrounding the central hill of the town.
A new impulse was given to the town that had a fast economic rebirth with the building of beautiful Palaces in Liberty style and the theatre along the main street.
In 1900 Modica was a vibrant town and the good quality of the food and culinary tradition inspired the local people to rediscover the ancient recipies of the chocolate dating back to the Spanyards.
Chocolate is today an important resource which attracts tourists ready to go for a tasting of the red pepper spicy chocolate or the many other flavours which the local creativity has developed.
The Duomo of San Giorgio is one of the best examples of baroque churches in Sicily, since it is located on top of 250 steps on a hill.
Saint Peter and Santa Maria di Betlemme are other churches, a bit lower located and will certainly surprise you with their interesting hidden gems.
Today Modica lives of farming; tourism has been developing well in the last twenty years, especially after the town and its monuments were listed as Unesco site.
- Private Sedan car or Mercedes Viano up to seven seats
- Private driver speaking your language
- Fuel, motorway toll and parking fee
- Half day service with private driver and car UP TO 4 HOURS
- Full day service with private car and driver UP TO 8 HOURS
- Water bottle onboard
- Visits, stops and panoramic driving tours described on the itinerary
NOT INCLUDED:
- Archeological sites, monuments and churches entrance fees
- Local products and wine tasting or culinary experiences unless included
- Driver and local guides gratuities (we suggest 10% if services meets or exceeds your expectations)
- Local Sicilian regional licensed guide
- Meals, wine tasting or culinary experiences if not already included in the itinerary
- Yachts, helicopter or private plane rental linked to our ground transportation service
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or send us a message requesting information, our team will respond as soon as possible.
