The OAT Sicily tour uses Ragusa Ibla as a home base; the hotel our group stayed in was my favorite of the trip, Il Barocco
OAT spices things up with an afternoon in Modica where you join the Fiat 500 driving club and go for a wild ride through the narrow bumpy alleys of the town -- it is just like being in your own Jason Bourne movie chase scene!
The ride is two guests per tiny car, so usually eight cars; I was in the fifth and our driver joked that his Fiat (custom leather interior in blue and black) stays in the bedroom while his wife sleeps in the garage. They are classic car fanatics who jump at the chance to rattle around the steep medieval lanes, and the neighbors are used to squeezing out of the way at this time of day.
The ride includes a couple of stops overlooking the city, plus a few minutes to scale the steps of the cathedral and gawk at how huge the interior is for a town that nowadays has a population of about 50K. Afterwards, the group has a visit to a chocolate shop to learn about the special local chocolate production that toes the line between artisanal and industrial output. The original Aztec ways of chocolate were adopted and adapted here and make Modican baking and drinking chocolate enviable. It has all of the official national and EU labels -- DOP, PGI, PAT, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cioccolato_di_Modica
But a Fiat ride and a chocolate tasting are damning Modica with faint praise.
Modica was the regional capital of Ragusa until the 19th century. All the stories you hear from your guides about how the 1693 earthquake led to the perpetual rivalry between Ragusa Ibla and Ragusa Superiore, which are indeed great stories, were in fact the B-side of the region's tale. Modica remained the district capital until 1926, sixty-some years after being incorporated into the modern Italian state.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, when southern Sicily was a semi-independent feudal estate within the Kingdom of Sicily, it was overseen from Modica by powerful Medici-like families called the Chiaramontes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_Modica
The third and probably least favorite of the Fredericks/Federicos who ruled the Kingdom from perches in Aragon conceded the territory to the local families and stayed closer to Palermo when he knew what was good for him. (Get the Federicos/Fredericks straight and you'll have a pretty good grasp of Sicilian history.)
The Spanish aristocrat Carlos Fitz-James Stuart y Martínez de Irujo, 19th Duke of Alba, technically holds title to the district to this day. He has quite a telenovela / soap opera story himself, including an affair with the richest woman in Spain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Fitz-James_Stuart,_19th_Duke_of_Alba
So much more to know, not even touching on Modica's two hundred years under Arab rule:
• On August 15, 1474, a violent attack took place against the Jewish population living in the Cartellone neighborhood, an area inhabited almost exclusively by Jews. A group of armed individuals entered the quarter, shouting "Long Live Mary and Death to the Jews". The attack resulted in the deaths of approximately 360 Jews.
https://www.modica.it/itinerario_quartieri.htm
• The unit of measurement for gemstones and gold purity, the carat/karat, comes from the use of carob seeds as a standard weight, and carob is a principal crop of this region.
I took an extra private guided walk through Ragusa during our free time there (helpfully arranged by OAT trip leader Raffaella) and was sure beforehand that I would want to return to learn more, but now I am putting Modica on top of my list for a future visit to see the region, including Scicli and Vittoria, much of the Val di Noto.