CHOCOLATE HEAVEN

Enter the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto - the "oldest chocolate factory in Sicily", as the sign above the door proudly proclaims - and if you are a chocolate lover, you will truly think you have found paradise. You are amazed, comforted and bewitched all at the same time by scents of cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate, candied citrus peel, sugar and just a hint of chilli pepper, all mingling with the aroma of fresh baking wafting from the workroom, which you can view, behind the shop. Chunks of different kinds of chocolate are laid out in little bowls for you to taste and around the walls are display cupboards showing the implements used during chocolate making's long history. Real, dark Modican chocolate is still made by the Aztec method, which the Modicani learnt from the Spaniards who lived here during the sixteenth century.

At Bonajuto you really can try everything before you buy, so you will be very content with your purchases, if you can ever tear yourself away from there.

In the pictures on the next post you can see their tiny, marzipan cakes covered with coloured chocolate - what a feast for the eyes as well as your taste buds! - and a tray of their chocolates with chilli pepper: when you first try one of these, initially you get just the very strong taste of pure, unadulterated chocolate [which takes some getting used to for British and American visitors] and then, oh, then, the after-taste of the chilli pepper kicks in and it lasts; what a satisfying sensation that is!

If I haven't convinced you to come to Modica now, I never will!