For days I wondered why there was a town near here that was named after my favourite chocolate bar. So now we are standing at the gates of a city that is already very, very old. The big bang came in 1693: an earthquake destroyed Ragusa.
The city was rebuilt and only a little later, around 300 years, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site. And that is usually a sign of a beautiful old town. So: let's go. Ragusa Ibla is the historic centre of the city and is also called the city of bridges because of its three picturesque bridges spanning a green valley.
A walk from the Ponte Vecchio and the Ponte Nuovo to the Ponte Giovanni XXIII took us through the city and offered a breathtaking view of the Cava di Santa Domenica gorge with its hiking trails, historic houses and the stream running through the dense greenery. There is also supposed to be a beautiful city garden here, but somehow it didn't show itself to us (or we just weren't looking hard enough!).
The maze of stairs, the alleys, houses and palaces offer magical views. Again, we were almost alone. And besides, we always make the same mistake in Italy. We visit the cities in the early afternoon. That means: shops, cafés and restaurants are closed.
On the one hand, of course, we love quiet old towns and little to no visitors, but on the other hand, we would also like to have an espresso in the sun sometimes. But we are learning, we will definitely try it. So the learning.
The special advantage of travelling out of season is that we can park our Felix anywhere and at any time, this time on a bridge with the best view. We enjoy the peace and quiet here, drink our coffee "at home" and have a voracious appetite for this Swiss chocolate-nut-nougat speciality: Ragusa. But that will have to wait until spring, now we rather ask ourselves: What came first, the city name or the brand name and are - what would we be without the internet - more than surprised: The brand name of the chocolate refers to Ragusa, the old name of the Croatian city Dubrovnik, where Camille Bloch, the inventor, once spent his holidays. Moreover, the name is suitable for all four national languages of Switzerland.
So we were on the completely wrong track. But we are still hungry for chocolate.
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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