( The Times of Malta - 2011 - by Caroline Crutchley )

Modica is famed for its annual chocolate festival, when Italian chocolate-makers converge on the town with their products for allto taste.

Modica’s ties with chocolate date back to events which took place in another century, on another continent. In 1590, Montezuma, the King of the Aztecs, welcomed the Spanish Conquistadors to his shores, and Conquistador leader Hernán Cortés was offered a very bitter beverage made with toasted cocoa seeds, maize flour and hot pepper at a ritual ceremony.

( The Times of Malta - 2011 - by Duncan Barry )

Considered the chocolate hub of Sicily, Modica hosts the Chocobarocco festival, possibly the largest show in Sicily completely dedicated to chocolate.

In its third year, the four-day festival brought together the finest of chocolate companies that presented a diverse array of chocolate-inspired products that definitely tantalised the senses of those present.

( Saveur - 2011 - By Dana Bowen )

There was a reason we came to Sicily for Easter last year: during the week leading up to the holiday—settimanasanta, as it's called—there's a special energy in the air. You feel it in the markets, where butchers are busy trimming baby lambs for all the family feasts; at bakeries, where shoppers stock up on colorful breads adorned with eggs; and in the streets, where at any given moment you might catch a chord of distant music from one of the many processions moving through town.

( The New York Times - 2010 - by Joshua Hammer )

The confiscated homes of Mafia bosses in Sicily have been turned into bed-and-breakfasts.

It could have been the rural retreat of a hedge-fund magnate or an Italian prince: a two-story villa of beige stucco and stone, perched in isolation on a rise overlooking the Jato Valley in northern Sicily. The front doors opened onto a refurbished dining room with high ceilings, terra-cotta tile floors and a row of stone arches that suggested a Roman amphitheater. Soft light filtered through the windows.