ITA LIA! Issue 183 February 2020 £4.99 www.italytravelandlife.com Issue 183 ITALIA! TRAVEL CULTURE PROPERTY FOOD WINE PEOPLE February 2020 DISCOVER CAPRI • OFF-GRID IN ABRUZZO PHOTOGRAPHING VENICE F DISCOVER THE Italia!Taste 20 pages of the best Italian food ART OF CAPRI & drink Explore the island’s cultural heritage SLOW TRAVEL ITALY Visit Modica, OFF-GRID IN ABRUZZO the chocolate OUR TAKES ON CHOCOLATE • JAMES BOND COCKTAILS Enjoy hikes, local cuisine capital of Italy and friendly hospitality Venice through a lens How to get the perfect shot of La Serenissima www.italytravelandlife.com SOUTHERN BELLE ESCAPE TO TUSCANY’S L’ANDANA RESORT Make James Bond-style Italian cocktails 02 02 £4.99 February Issue 183 THE UK’S AWARD-WINNING MAGAZINE ABOUT ITALY 9 771744 796085 2020 9 771744 796085 IT183.Cover.sg9.indd 1 18/12/2019 11:48am DISCOVER ITALIA! Sicily’s SWEET SPOT Mary Novakovich explores eastern Sicily’s Val di Noto – where the fi rst stop is Modica, Italy’s capital of chocolate… 56 ITALIA! February 2020 IT183.EastSicilyAndChocolate.sg5.indd 56 19/12/2019 09:35am y first sighting of confusing maze of stepped alleyways Clockwise from Modica made me that zigzag their way down to right: The Modica stop in my tracks. Corso Umberto. And then they chocolate museum I had to get out of go up again, just as confusingly, features all manner of unusual exhibits; the car and take in through Modica Alta by way of its view of Modica from Mthe view properly – a narrow valley spectacular Duomo di San Giorgio. Modica Alta; Modica stacked tightly with baroque houses Unless you’re a StairMaster fanatic, from Casa Talía; that somehow managed to cling to the pace here always has to be a the city at night; the steep surfaces without tumbling leisurely one. four more exhibits down. What was once a river is from the chocolate museum; a relief Corso Umberto I, the principal SPANISH RULE map of Italy at the thoroughfare that glides past the All those steps certainly keep you chocolate museum; palazzi, shops, grand civic buildings fit, which is just as well considering Ignazio Iacono in the and the considerably grander church one of Modica’s claims to fame. It’s Caffè dell’Arte mini of San Pietro. Italy’s capital of chocolate, a legacy museum; (below) Not that I could make out those from the days of 17th-century Duomo San Giorgio; details from my viewpoint above. Spanish rule when conquistadors Modica from the Casa Talía gardens I was on my way to Casa Talía, a imported the Aztecs’ method of boutique B&B that commands a making chocolate. Modica chocolate comes pretty much as pure as chocolate can get superb position overlooking Modica Modica chocolate is unlike any Alta, the larger, denser side of the other in Italy – it’s just ground cocoa valley. From the terrace of our room, paste and sugar, along with whatever I had one of the best views of the flavourings are added. There’s no city. I could see why the architect sign of cocoa butter or milk, and you owners, Marco Giunta and Viviana won’t find preservatives, vegetable Haddad, turned their backs on oils or emulsifiers either. Modica Milan in 2001 and decided to turn a chocolate comes pretty much as pure series of derelict stone houses one by as chocolate can get. one into this exquisite place. Although production methods Casa Talía’s slogan, aptly, have moved on, until very recently is “slowliving”. It’s hard to do the chocolate was made by grinding anything at speed in Modica, at cocoa beans on a metate. This ridged least in the historic part of it. All stone board in a concave shape is of these houses stacked nearly on then heated over coals before sugar is top of each other are connected by a added. Because the sugar doesn’t Images by Adam Batterbee February 2020 ITALIA! 57 IT183.EastSicilyAndChocolate.sg5.indd 57 19/12/2019 09:35am DISCOVER ITALIA! WHERE TO EAT FICHERA 7117 DABBANNA Piazza Principe di Napoli 8/9 97015 Modica www.fichera7117.it Seasonal menu cooked Slow Food-style fully melt, the chocolate’s texture is di Parma and Modena vinegar. in this family-run restaurant, with dishes a bit gritty. For some it’s an acquired “It’s in the chromosomes of the including pasta with guanciale, pistachio taste. For me, it was an instant hit. Modicani,” said Nino, grinning. and confit tomato. When typically Sicilian flavours After a tantalising tasting in the are added – pistachio, orange, museum, it was time to do a little RISTORANTE LOCANDA DON SERAFINO fennel, lemon, nutmeg, chilli or tour of the chocolate producers – Via Avvocato Giovanni Ottaviano 13 97100 Ragusa Ibla cinnamon – the result is a richness all conveniently located on Corso www.locandadonserafino.it that’s utterly satisfying. Umberto. At Caffè dell’Arte, I met Two-Michelin-starred chef Vincenzo Ignazio Iacono, who took me to a Candiano offers a six-course tasting menu This page, clockwise CIOCCOLATO MODICA cave-like laboratory behind the café that changes with the seasons and balances from top left: Wall I was discovering its history at where they used to make chocolate between meat and seafood. display at the the Modica Chocolate Museum, until about ten years ago. It’s now Modica chocolate which features such oddities as an set up like a little museum, with CAFFÈ DELL’ARTE museum; Modica Corso Umberto I 114, 97015 Modica enormous relief map of Italy made a metate and a rolling pin (made fennel-flavoured from chocolate as well as chocolate from Mount Etna lava stone, no www.caffedellarte.it chocolate from Here, and along this the road, notably at Pasticceria di portraits of Pink Floyd. less) set up over coals. Pasticceria di Lorenzo, you will have the Lorenzo; Locanda It’s also the office of the At Pasticceria di Lorenzo, chance to try Modica chocolate at its best. Don Serafino, Ragusa chocolate consortium Cioccolato I chatted to Carmelo di Lorenzo, In 2018, cioccolato di Modica became the first chocolate in Italy to be given IGP status Modica. Its director, Nino a chocolate-maker since the age Scivoletto, told me that when the of 14 and following in the family consortium was set up in 2010, footsteps. He came up with the there were only 14 producers. Now idea of adding fennel to chocolate, there are 43, and the production has whose flavour I found immediately similarly shot up from €400,000 addictive. The atmosphere was to €13m. (That’s only among the lively, helped by the jolly chatter consortium’s producers.) And in between Carmelo and his staff – 2018, cioccolato di Modica became mostly family members. the first chocolate in Italy to be As Modica’s reputation for given IGP status, joining Prosciutto chocolate grows, so does its tourist 58 ITALIA! February 2020 IT183.EastSicilyAndChocolate.sg5.indd 58 19/12/2019 09:35am numbers – also fuelled by coach tours of Inspector Montalbano filming locations in the city. Nino Scivoletto estimated that tourism has shot up by about 200 per cent in the past five years. One of the most popular chocolate shops on the tourist trail is Modica’s oldest, Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, which opened in 1880. It’s not in the consortium, but its steady stream of visitors showed business was booming. In search of something a little more savoury, I turned off Corso Umberto into Via Marchesa Tedeschi. I was drawn by the cheerful terrace of Dabbanna, a family-run restaurant that handled Sicilian cuisine with a delicate touch. In its white, fresh interior, a mixed starter of mini arancini, caponata, salumi and cheese whetted the appetite for the main course – a beautifully roasted rabbit. SLOW EXPLORATION As an introduction to the baroque towns of eastern Sicily’s Val di Noto, Modica set the bar high. I was heading towards the coast to Relais Torre Marabino, my base for a slow exploration of this region of UNESCO-listed towns and olive-studded landscapes. stops in this region of towns tonnara, a tuna-fishing village whose Resembling a Saracen tower, but that had to be rebuilt after the brick columns had the air of ancient infinitely more comfortable, Torre devastating earthquake of 1693. Greek ruins. A low wall overlooking Marabino is surrounded by acres of It seems you can’t have too much a small sandy beach was a lovely spot Clockwise from top farmland whose organic products right: Street scene of this particular good thing – ie, for my arancini picnic lunch. – olives, vegetables, honey, jams, in Noto; exploring Sicilian Baroque. Nero d’Avola wine – end up on the the Vendicari Walking past the tree-shaded DOUBLE THE BAROQUE plate in the restaurant. Relaxed yet nature reserve; the market stalls along Corso Vittorio After my little bucolic interlude, convivial, the hotel had a laid-back swimming pool at Emanuele, I entered through the I felt I was ready to be swept away by ambience that was enhanced by lazy Torre Marabino; the imposing Porta Reale and carried yet more baroque opulence. Hilltop swims in the pool and strolls round tonnara of Vendicari; on along this immensely attractive Ragusa was just the place for this: signpost in the landscaped gardens. Vendicari nature thoroughfare. Its centrepiece is a two-part town with double the From here it was a short drive reserve; the Duomo Piazza del Municipio, with the baroque. Ragusa Ibla, the original, to Noto, one of the most appealing of Noto twin-towered 18th-century Duomo lower town, is the more picturesque vying for attention with the town of the two parts: a jumble of narrow hall, the Palazzo Ducezio.