Can there possibly be a more Italian activity than this? The steep streets of Modica in southeastern Sicily are too narrow for most cars to pass. But not these. I’m in the fourth car of an eight car convoy touring the hilly old city, bouncing along with mere inches of room on either side as we round some corners. Our vehicles? The venerable Fiat 500, the old ones, complete with rollback tops allowing the breeze to come through.

My group are the guests of the Modican Club, part of an Italian consortium of Fiat 500 owners. Mine is a baby blue beauty, a 1965 edition seemingly in impeccable condition, although the lack of seatbelts is a bit unnerving. But that gives way shortly to a wide smile as onlookers wave at us, snap pictures as the line of pocket-sized cars goes past, and marvel at the storied vehicles. What a way to see a town!

Modica itself is lovely, as is nearby Ragusa, a slightly larger city (and the regional capital) that is my home base for this portion of my Sicilian adventure. And while my time in Ragusa is sadly Fiat-less, between it and Modica, there is a lot to see. The specialty? Baroque architecture.

Civilization in this part of Sicily predates even the Greeks, and these sites have hosted settlements for millennia thanks to their hillside defensive locations. However, what is here now only dates to the eighteenth century. Why? In 1693, an earthquake estimated at a 7.4 magnitude hit Sicily. Pretty much everything on the eastern side of the island was destroyed. More than 60,000 people died, a significant portion of the population at the time. Over the next several decades, cities were rebuilt, but they were reconstructed in the style of the time: baroque.

Baroque architecture is characterized by ornate, highly decorated, almost theatrical adornments. Likewise, a baroque style uses curves in place of straight lines when possible from an engineering standpoint. In Ragusa, the two best places to see this fanciful style is on the facades of churches, and surprisingly, on the underside of balconies.

Ragusa is a city divided into two levels. The upper town is more modern, while Ragusa Ibla (the lower and older city, though still on a hilltop overlooking deep valleys) contains the winding streets and narrow staircases that one more closely associates with Italian hillside towns. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its baroque architecture, and a few sights stand out.

St. George (San Giorgio in Italian) seems to be the guy around here, with both the cathedral in Modica and the one in Ragusa Ibla named for him. A look at the front facade of the Ragusa version shows baroque at its core. Extra decorative columns and curved adornments make for a crowded and ornate front, although the neoclassical dome behind (neoclassical was just coming into being in the early eighteenth century, hence the addition of that feature) seems more plain.

The interior is not as ornate, as money ran out before it could be fully decorated, though it is still pretty.

Likewise, the facade of the church of St. Joseph (San Giuseppe) contains those same elements, but on a slightly smaller scale.

Balconies offer an interesting perspective on the theatrical side of baroque architecture. Ornate wrought iron grates sit atop stone supports intricately carved to resemble people, or other objects.

The best example of baroque balconies is the Palazzo Cosentini, just on the lower end of the stairs connecting Ragusa Ibla with the upper city (about 350 of them).

Modica may not have the UNESCO label for the entire city, but it is no less beautiful than Ragusa. My Fiat tour takes me to a couple of notable sights. We stop at Belvedere Pizzo, known as the balcony of Modica, to see the city from above, hearing how it used to have a river and canals running through it, though post-earthquake those were covered up.

The highlight of Modica is its version of St. George. It is a pure baroque masterpiece, a fanciful tower with extra adornments all over.

And, unlike its cousin in Ragusa, the interior is stunning. I barely get a couple photos snapped before a wedding begins, but you get the idea.

Though off the heavily-traveled tourist path of Sicily, Ragusa and Modica are lovely places to visit if one has the ability. Beautiful hillside towns with impressive baroque architecture are always exciting, but if you can see them from a Fiat 500, you’ll never forget the experience!

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