The province of Ragusa in south-eastern sicily, has a very attractive area, disseminated with towns and villages of great historical and artistic interest, related mainly to the presence of an excellent Baroque art. In the center of a territory mainly hilly there’s the Ibleo plateau. Special features are caves created by the rivers that run through the hills sloping down towards the sea. The coastline alternates very long sandy stretches at times interrupted by small rocky beaches.
On the Ragusa coast there are several coastal villages, which attract many summer vacationers, along with several Sicilian who settled their second homes right here. These are all hamlets of cities lying a little farer from the sea.
One of them is Santa Croce Camerina, 5 km far from the sea. It is located south west of Ragusa, which is 26 km far. The coastal villages that are part of the town are: Caucana, which houses a large Roman archaeological park; Casuzze, named for the houses of fishermen, Punta Secca, where there is a nice Norman tower and a lighthouse, Torre di Mezzo where there are the ruins of a coastal tower and finally Punta Braccetto, which contains the remains of a Norman tower.
These towns are now devoted to tourism and particularly related to fishing activities. They are ideal for simple and relaxing holiday with a large number of leisure facilities, and for those on holiday they offer Santa Croce Camerina Sicily holiday houses , suitable for families of for a group of friends. The recent fame they have gained is due to RAI television series “Il Commissario Montalbano”, from the novels of Andrea Camilleri. The house at the beach of the Commissioner is in fact situated precisely in one of these villages, Punta Secca.
In the vicinity of Santa Croce Camerina, just near the village of Scoglitti and at the mouth of Ippari river, there are the remains of the ancient and powerful colony of Syracuse Kamarina, founded in 598 BC. Nowadays the ruins, of great archaeological interest, are too small to illustrate the past greatness of the city to the visitor. You can still see some archaic tombs (seventh century BC) and the insignificant ruins of a temple dedicated to Minerva. Along the Ippari you can recognize the outline of the ancient harbour. The city is still recognizable in its original area by the remains of houses and pavements. In the nearby forest of Passo Marinaro can still be found the graves of a cemetery of the V – IV century BC.
For a trip a few miles away from the coast, in the ibleo inland lies one of the most prominent examples of Sicilian aristocratic residence, the Castle of Donnafugata, rebuilt in Gothic -Venician style – in the second half of the 800 on an original group probably of the fourteenth century. Around the castle there is one of the last remaining pieces of historical gardens in Sicily.
Tags: holiday houses, holidays, Ragusa, Santa Croce Camerina, sea, Sicily
