Sicily's Chocolate Capital

The drive to Modica makes me feel as though I am in Willy Wonka.  I am Charlie and have just obtained that golden AST autobus ticket. Now I must prepare myself for the chocolate coated world just beyond the public eye. Only this world is hidden by rolling green hills and stacked Baroque buildings, no traditional factory in sight.

That’s not to say there are not factories here because there are. Only they don’t look like industrial buildings with adjacent pillars indicative of the chocolate factories in places like Hershey Park. Instead, Modica is the kind of city whose factories are hidden in hole-in-the-wall kinds of shops, where the shop owners greet you with “salve”s and smiles and let you try enough chocolate to justify the euros you’ll spend on bars that barely make it home. 

In Modica, I ducked into Bonajuto: Monica’s oldest and most famous chocolate shop with free samples of every type of chocolate imaginable. After tasting all sorts of flavors - grainy chocolate with cinnamon, with ginger, with lemon - I peeked my head behind the cash register where two chocolatiers worked methodically in the back, creating the confections that later head straight to the counters.

Chocolate, though my incentive for visiting the city, was not the only part of Modica worth tasting. Though I visited in late October, I found the town in a state of constant spring, flowers in full bloom, bright colors making neutral buildings pop beneath the sienna skyline.  The smell of lilacs and lemon trees made the steep climb to Modica Alta bearable, though I found the best views of the city at the Church of San Giorgio.