Modica: Chocolate City

Modica, a beautiful little town in southeastern Sicily, is renowned for the quality of its chocolate. The delicacy arrived on the island under the administration of the Spanish, who had discovered it in Mexico. Modica chocolate is very different from the products of the United States, Belgium or Switzerland. Instead of being smooth, sweet and moist, it is a coarse, dry chocolate with undissolved sugar crystals, commonly flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, pepper, sea salt and cardamom. This is connoisseur’s chocolate and similar to the way that the Aztecs originally prepared it. Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, founded in 1880, is the city’s best-known chocolate-maker.

Corso Umberto I 159, Modica. Tel. (39) 0932-941225.