Modica, located about 12 miles from the city of Ragusa is where we were headed for our afternoon adventure, which I dubbed “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” when it concluded.  My best friend, Laura, will know exactly what I mean by that.  We grew up 30 minutes by car away from Disneyland and used up our left over “A” tickets on that ride and laughed ourselves silly. (I’m dating myself here, because ticket books for rides were discontinued in 1982.)  She would have loved this!

The Modican Club’s version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is a drive through the streets of Modica in a vintage Fiat 500, a tiny little thing that is perfect for maneuvering through the narrow streets and lanes.  Since the club isn’t a licensed tour company and are only permitted by Italian law to give rides to other club members, we were required to join the club to catch a ride.  So, all sixteen of us (Uh, make that 17, because there was no way Francesco, our tour leader, was going to sit this one out!) became club members and received our official membership card.

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

The club has been in existence since 2013 when a group of Fiat 500 enthusiast friends thought it would be a great idea to form a community of owners, collectors and Fiat fans.  The original group of eight has grown to 100, and they are having a blast in their 1957 – 1972 era 500’s!

We had a blast, too, in our follow-the-leader caravan as we made our way through the windy streets of Modica.

Halfway through our ride (which wasn’t necessarily fast, just windy on VERY narrow streets), we stopped at a beautiful viewpoint overlooking the city of Modica below.

After that, our ride got a whole lot more fun:

Next up: SICILY & AMALFI COAST #15: CIOCCOLATO DI MODICA / CHOCOLATE OF MODICA