For the first time on this trip our B&B accommodation didn't come with breakfast, so we wandered the 30m down the street to the nearest cafe. There is normally not a vast choice choice on offer, and it's pretty much what is served for breakfast at your lodgings anyway. It's essentially a plain croissant or similar pastry, or one filled with almond, pistachio or nutella cream. Pretty much everything is sweet. We accepted our fate and John chose nutella while I had pistachio!
Underway by 10am, it was just a 1-hour drive to Sciacca, our next destination. For most of the way the road was very good, often by way of viaduct. There must have been a fair amount of money thrown around some stage because huge engineered viaducts over long stretches of rural land are definitely a theme here. Also, the new roads are typically two-laned in each direction yet the speed limit, signposted at regular intervals on each side of the two lanes, is set at 50km/hr. Needless to say, most drivers travel at around 100km/hr. It seems very odd that these seeming 'expressways' are restricted to 50km/hr yet other local roads are typically 90km/hr. A recurrent theme is terrible pounding expansion joints on all the bridges and viaducts.
The landscape was pretty dry to start with, but soon gave way to fairly intensive olive orchards and, where there was irrigation, citrus orchards. We have been surprised by how lightly populated the country has been as we've driven through. Certainly there are few inhabitants in the middle of the island, around Enna, where the land is probably too poor to make a living. But nearer the coast, there are more hilltop towns, no doubt originally located up high for defensive purposes, but now their outskirts are crowded with 5-10 story high-rise buildings. To me, building upwards makes good sense. The equivalent in NZ is to spread outwards in an unsightly sprawl, take over high quality productive land and make public transport or walking unviable.
 |
| Raw landscape and abandoned buildings |
 |
| Very densely settled towns with hard urban boundaries |
Today was going to be a cruisy day, without 15km of walking or a lesson in history or culture. We planned to relax a bit, perhaps have a swim in the sea and spend a bit of time reading. We arrived in Sciacca at midday, well before the scheduled 4pm check-in time for our accommodation. We found a parking spot on the outskirts of the historic centre relatively easily, something we've been very lucky with all through the trip. It was a short walk into town with the initial intention of buying yet another granita. We are hooked on them given the heat. However, this time our request was slightly lost in translation and the waiter brought out two cups of granita and two bread rolls. An option in Sicily can be to split open a bread roll and spoon the iced granita (often lemon-flavoured) into the roll. It's actually really nice, and certainly more filling if it's lunchtime than just eating ice. The array of sweet delights on offer at the counter was greater than we could resist so we bought a little toasted almond and chocolate treat. It was delicious. When John went to pay the guy behind the counter he gave us two more cookies for free. He was very cheery and it was a lovely generous gesture. We have found almost everyone to be so helpful and friendly, it's been really nice.
 |
| Sciacca is known for its majolica ceramics |
The forecast today was for a high of 26 deg, and we were hanging out for our coolest day so far. Unfortunately we fell it had climbed to around 30 deg by 1pm. The original idea of going for a swim didn't look a realistic one because the water seemed rather churned up from an onshore wind plus the beaches looked a little too close to the port for our liking. So, flagging, and having wandered around the inner area, viewed enough old buildings and realising that everything was closing up for the afternoon, we retreated to a cafe and ordered a coffee, soon followed by an Aperol. I had the e-readers in our backpack so we whiled away a few hours reading under the trees while sipping a drink. It was very pleasant except for all the young men in the town who seemed to consider it necessary to hoon past on their noisy alcohol-fueled scooters at regular intervals. It's the first time we've encountered it being so noisy in the middle of these old towns, as many have very limited traffic allowed or have pedestrian only areas. We realise how lucky we are that Ceret has very limited through-traffic, and even that has been further restricted over the last two years.
 |
| One of the original gates (with old wooden doors) into the historic quarter |
 |
| Old convent |
 |
| Current council chambers |
 |
| Quirky Art Deco 'Old Kiosk' |
