Modica, Modica, Modica. How we love thee. This town is so charming that if you sketched the perfect little Sicilian Baroque village, this is what you would come up with.

In an effort to make everyone happy on this trip, we decided to balance the touring around with trips to the beach. The kids can only handle so many churches or museums in one day, so we figured if we wanted to make the most of seeing the sights then we better give them some beach time.

Driving out of Modica, we were headed in the direction of Marina di Ragusa but decided to try and find a more quiet beach. So we drove a few extra kilometers towards Donnalucata. (Sidenote: worth seeing is the Castello di Donnafugata) We drove through town and then turned down a tiny little street on the edge of town where we could see the beach. Easy parking and a short walk to this perfect little spot.

We arrived around 12:30 or so. Nice little crowd. Thatched umbrellas with people’s chairs leaned against the base. Kind of reminded me of when it used to snow back east and once you shoveled out your spot on the street, you would put some piece of furniture like a folding chair or something to claim your spot. So these leaning chairs didn’t necessarily mean that there were people using these umbrellas, but that they were “reserved”.

Lunch hour arrived – and every Italian on the beach made a quick exit. We figured out quickly that once 1pm rolled around, every town shuts down and people enjoy lunch for a few hours. So we now had the beach to ourselves. Since we had just arrived, we enjoyed the quiet beach and even snuck some shade from one of these umbrellas. We made up our own story line of the mafioso who was going to come question us about sitting under “his” umbrella. Needless to say, the beach stayed empty besides one little boy throwing his bright colored bocci balls around the beach.

Back in Modica we caught up on some laundry. I haven’t used a clothes line since I was a kid. But truthfully, living in Phoenix, I need to reconsider. The laundry would dry in minutes. Gabby liked to sit on the balcony and look over at the family of cats that lived down below. She had names for every stray in the neighborhood. And I don’t need to tell anyone who knows her well enough that if she could have she would have packed up every single kitty in her suitcase and brought them home with her. There were points where she was like the pied piper with a little kitty following behind her. Love this kid.

The perfect way to spend the day.