With an evening flight home (sob), we made the very most of our last day and hit the road early for one last explore of Sicily. The destination of choice: the historic & charming town of Ragusa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a gorgeous day and my heart broke as we sat down to our last indulgent breakfast spread:

Having said goodbye to our beautiful farmhouse, and Fausta (our wonderful host), we shoved our over-sized belongings, and selves, into the rental car & began our journey. Thankfully the name game never tires!

However, we didn’t think it would be right to leave Sicily without at least catching a glimpse of its famous beaches (despite our luxury pool). So, en route to Ragusa, we stopped by Playa del (Beach of) Ragusa. I’ve personally always found that people either love or hate the beach – I myself love the beach, i.e. walking in the surf at sunset, drinking cocktails at a beautiful beach bar and, sometimes, am even partial to a dunk in the sea (mostly for wavy hair), but I HATE the beach for sunbathing, i.e. sand everywhere, in everything, for days. Thoughts on this? Thankfully we were all on the same page in this regard, so the beach was visited fully clothed for a long walk and ice-cream pit stop. Plus, to be fair, it was way too windy to be sunbathing; it would have been a true sticky sand nightmare.

We walked the entire length of the beach-front, where we discovered the marina.

I couldn’t believe how blue & inviting the colour of the sea was; had it been a warmer day (and not en route to the airport), I would have ventured in for a dip.

Having admired the boats lining the ocean, rocking in the sea breeze for one last time,

we took the obligatory holiday group selfie, which, naturally, Rory had to ruin! (I will get him one day).

We strolled amiably back along the beach, stopping at a cute beach bar for a round of DC’s, Maxibon’s and a final game of Perudo (practically the 5^th person on this holiday). Suitably refreshed & having had our fill of the seaside, we all squeezed back into the car and continued on our journey. We arrived in the beautiful ancient city of Ragusa a half hour later.

We wandered through the main town square, stopping to appreciate the enormous, stunning church in the centre of it,

and the children gleefully playing football in front of it.

Having worked up a fair appetite from all the days walking, we set out in search of the last supper. We struggled to find open restaurants, since it was 5pm and Sicilian restaurants typically shut from 4pm – 8pm, but thankfully the stunning up-market pizza restaurant, Antares, took pity on us and agreed to feed us regardless!

^ The smiles of two hungry people about to get pizza.

The divine doughy dreams all arrived pronto and, after some spicing up, barely touched the sides washed down with a lovely bottle of white.

I’m usually pretty boring with my pizza toppings (unless I’m eating at Homeslice 1 & 2), knowing that pepperoni and la Reine will never fail to hit the spot (as you can see from my review of Franco Manca), but I was feeling adventurous, so I ordered a spruced up version of my classic favourite, with prosciutto, porcini mushrooms, black olives, oregano & an egg.

I must admit that I had pictured a fried egg with a runny yolk, rather than a hard-boiled rock, in the middle of my pizza, but it was fairly easy to peel off, allowing me to enjoy all of the surrounding pure deliciousness. We left VERY satisfied & impressed with the incredibly reasonable bill (€57 for 4 great pizzas, a bottle of wine, and 2 bottles of water, in a really gorgeous restaurant with excellent service, i.e. a tenner a head – what more can you ask for?!)

We walked off the carbload through the picturesque backstreets, soaking up the last of our holiday’s blissful rays.

Spying yet another charming church at the top of a hill, we started up the incline for a closer peek.

Not too shabby, if you ask me:

I requested a few final group pics, to which Rory begrudgingly obliged.

But the boys got their own back by throwing a few poses of their own – this (apparently) being women’s famous ‘head tilt’ and ‘shoulders back & boobs out’, with an intriguing leg move thrown in.

I think we do it better girls. Since all that was left of our wonderful Sicilian adventure was to get ourselves to the airport, I insisted on one final gelato (despite the earlier ice-cream… holiday is holiday! Right?). Ragusa is home to one particular renowned gelateria, Gelati Di Vini, with some even proclaiming that it serves the best gelato in Italy.

I’m not sure whether it’s the best I’ve ever had, but it was damn good.

And with that, savouring my last taste of Sicily in the back of the car, we began the hour’s drive to the airport. For your information, Ragusa is located on a hill 300 metres high. As one might imagine (but we didn’t), this doesn’t exactly lend itself to great infrastructure, and the winding roads & sharp corners all the way down the hill-side had Josie and I turned positively blue by the time we arrived at the airport. However, it does lend itself to spectacular panoramic views:

There’s always a silver lining, eh?

So long Sicily!