After nearly four months of lockdown because of the Covid Pandemic, I am turning to my diaries and photo library for comfort and inspiration.  There is a lot of goodness to be found there.  Perhaps an interesting pursuit would be to look back on what was happening on any given day in the past and bring those thoughts and feelings back…..just for fun.

so………today is the 6th of July and four years ago on this date we decided to take a day trip to Ragusa.

Ragusa, Sicily

We were spending the month of July in the small southern town of Scicli and we did not have a car so we hopped on the local one-car train and headed out.

One-Car Train to Ragusa

About an hour later we found ourselves hiking up one narrow street after another as we headed for the summit of this magnificent fortress of a hilltown.  We had a destination in mind…..we even had a reservation……but the sights we passed along the way were enough to make us forget everything else.

Ragusa Garden

Palm trees and shocking pink cascading bushes exploded in every possible garden space and

St. George Cathedral, Ragusa

as we neared the uppermost layers of the town, church steeples just kept on going higher and higher….each of them seeming to be trying to out-baroque each other!.

Rusticana Restaurant, Ragusa

Just as we realized we could not go one step further without fainting from hunger, we found our destination…..A Rusticana……a restaurant we have been wanting to visit for a long time now.  It’s been included in a number of episodes of one of our favorite italian TV series….Commissario Montalbano, the sicilian police chief who is a foodie in his spare time.

Rusticana Style, Ragusa

The place is a wonder……smartly and carefully decorated, calmly run, staffed by family who have been at this for a long time and know what they’re doing, and the aromas wafting out of the place just make you weep.  Perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit…..but not much.

Rusticana Lunch, Ragusa

It was blazing hot outside and we wanted to eat simply.  We ordered some breaded chops with an orange salad and a bottle of good wine…..we did have some pistachio cream for dessert but I lost my head and we ate it all before I could take a photo.

Rusticana Summer Salad

Instead of a pistachio cream photo, I’m featuring what I considered to be the highlight of the lunch……a perfectly ripe orange, a bit of excellent olive oil, some red pepper flakes and some parsley……who knew that simple combination could send you on your way singing?   The folks at Rusticana knew, that’s who.