From Agrigento we traveled to Noto, a hill town in the southeast corner of Sicily. Along with Modica and Ragusa, these towns were all essentially destroyed by a late-17th century earthquake and then rebuilt in the early 18th century giving them a stunning, uniform Baroque beauty. And while officially we oppose natural disasters, this is another example where centuries later the effects can be remarkable. Think Pompeii – a disaster, but pretty cool anyway.
![We spent one day hiking five mostly bucolic miles to the neighboring town of Avola](https://i0.wp.com/www.markandjim.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_0967.jpg?resize=627%2C470)
We spent one day hiking five mostly bucolic miles to the neighboring town of Avola. We’re the only people you’ll know who leave a rental car parked so we can walk to the next town and see what’s there. The walk took us through countless lemon groves, lots of late-season blackberries along the road, and probably quite literally millions of olives.