Left Syracusa on our little tour bus heading to Piazza Armerina, today's eventual destination. The first stop was Noto, a little town from the 9th century set among olive groves and almond trees. Noto had been occupied by the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Aragoneses, and Spanish cultures. But it was destroyed in 1692 by an earthquake. Sicily has worked hard to rebuild Noto which is primarily built of lovely tufa stone, a golden brown color, and we just ambled around for a while.

Ragusa was not a "must see" place for us - just a lunch spot. A word about lunches: the group would typically spread out and either find a small restaurant/fast lunch spot for pasta, pizza or sandwiches; or go into a little shop and buy whatever looked good. Freshly-baked bread, fresh tomatoes that actually tasted like a ripe tomato, fruit, olives, lunch meats, Buffalo Mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes in oil - made a wonderful lunch. My mouth is watering just remembering!

Ragusa is two towns combined into one in 1926. Lower Ragusa, the ancient city, was rebuilt after suffering heavy damages during an earthquake. (Sicily has had its share of earthquakes.)