The salita commendatore, a winding pass made up of stairs and narrow archways linking the new town with the old, leads past the Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Scale, a 13th-century Gothic church restyled and extended in the baroque style after the devastating earthquake of 1693. The church offers a good viewing point across the town and surrounding countryside.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
0.47 MILES
Ragusa Ibla is a joy to wander, its labyrinthine lanes weaving through rock-grey palazzi to open onto beautiful, sun-drenched piazzas. It's easy to get…
Scalinata di Santa Maria del Monte
24.87 MILES
Caltagirone's most evocative sight is this monumental staircase, which rises from Piazza Municipio to Chiesa di Santa Maria del Monte. Built in the early…
28.07 MILES
This splendid archaeological museum offers insight into Gela's great artistic past. It contains artefacts from the city's ancient acropolis and is famed…
9.24 MILES
Never judge a book by its cover, or a palazzo by its facade. Take the 19th-century Palazzo Bonelli Patanè, its demure neoclassical facade tight-lipped…
18.56 MILES
Abandoned for decades, this 18th-century palazzo found its saviour in French journalist and documentary filmmaker Jean-Louis Remilleux, who purchased the…
Basilica Cattedrale di San Nicolò
18.74 MILES
Pride of place in Noto goes to San Nicolò Cathedral, a baroque beauty that had to undergo extensive renovation after its dome collapsed during a 1996…
9.93 MILES
Located 18km southwest of Ragusa, this sumptuous neo-Gothic palace houses the Collezione Gabriele Arezzo di Trifiletti, an extraordinary fashion and…
4.47 MILES
The high point of a trip to Modica – quite literally as it's up in Modica Alta – is the Duomo di San Giorgio, one of Sicily's most extraordinary baroque…
Nearby Ragusa attractions
1. Chiesa delle Santissime Anime del Purgatorio
0.12 MILES
Consecrated in 1658, the Chiesa del Purgatorio miraculously survived the earthquake of 1693 before being tweaked and expanded the following century. These…
0.34 MILES
Channelling the classical iconography of Charity, this powerful depiction of a Sicilian mother tending to two infants was executed by Australian street…
3. Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista
0.37 MILES
The centrepiece of Ragusa Superiore, and a symbol of its urban renewal, is the enormous Duomo di San Giovanni Battista, built between 1718 and 1778. An…
0.37 MILES
One of the best reasons for heading up to Ragusa's modern and less-attractive half is to walk down again. It takes about half an hour to descend the…
0.39 MILES
At the top end of the sloping Piazza Duomo is the town's pride and joy, the mid-18th-century cathedral with a magnificent neoclassical dome and stained…
0.46 MILES
South of the cathedral, off Via Roma, is the Museo Archeologico Ibleo, an important if somewhat forlorn archaeological museum housing finds from…
0.47 MILES
Ragusa Ibla is a joy to wander, its labyrinthine lanes weaving through rock-grey palazzi to open onto beautiful, sun-drenched piazzas. It's easy to get…
8. Palazzo Arezzo di Trifiletti
0.51 MILES
If you fancy snooping around the private digs of an aristocratic family, Domenico Arezzo offers guided tours of his family's palazzo, built between the…