18 October Agrigento - Sciacca

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'

 

17 October - Valley of the Temples, Agrigento

Today was all about the Valley of the Temples. This is justifiably considered one of the jewels of Sicily, and is one of the most outstanding examples of ancient Greek art and the architecture of Magna Graecia, the wider Grecian empire.

Breakfast was provided this morning, and was good. There was a plate of strange orange fruit which looked dried or preserved, but wasn't. It turned out to be fichi d'India, the local name for cactus fruit. I don't think we've had them before, but they were tasty if a little pippy.

Cactus fruit

It took 90 minutes to drive to the site from Piazza Armerina. A piece of cobbled road leaving Piazza Armerina is the single roughest bit of road we've ever travelled. I'm sure the poor wee car was shaken within an inch of its life. Overall though the roads are better than we expected, and we've seen no evidence of the wild Sicilian driving that articles and websites often mention.

Sicily is clearly the poor cousin of mainland Italy and doesn't appear to receive much support. The temple site was in very tired condition. Most of the concrete paths are rough and crumbling, the entry booths were totally undermanned and the facilities at the entry were very crude - little wooden cabins of cheap souvenirs.

Despite the name, the Valley of the Temples is in fact a ridge, with 7 golden limestone Greek Doric temples spread over its 1.5 kilometre length, various other constructions, and a now invisible city below the ridge. Several of the temples are in particularly good shape considering they all date from the 5th century BC, but the second largest Greek temple in the western Mediterranean, the Temple of Zeus, had largely been looted for its stone. The city of Akragas once held 200,000 people, yet it now just fields and trees, almost entirely invisible now, with the modern town of Agrigento above it on another ridge.

Valley of the Temples, Agrigento

Looking back along the ridge

Temple of Zeus - giant karytid, one of many once propping up the roof

The Temple of Zeus' platform

The Temple of Concordia

The weather for once was a little cooler and quite overcast, which was a mercy as the site is pretty bare and shadeless. We enjoyed nearly 3 hours wandering from one end to the other, looking at the ruins, reading the very good descriptions, and trying to imagine what it once might have been like. In its heyday it must have been spectacular - the Vatican or Rome of the Greek world. Again we were so glad to be off season. 

It was only a 10 minute drive to get up into Agrigento town and find a park. We had arancini again for a late lunch, walked 80m to our rooms and self checked in. A number of places have been or will be like that, with either a code or a lockbox. It certainly makes arrival easier.

A walk through Agrigento showed it be be another town struggling to survive. We walked down the main street, then back through some alleyways which were probably the worst we have ever seen, and that includes back streets of Asia and Morocco. Months' or years' worth of filth and rubbish piled up against walls, pigeon droppings everywhere, and dozens of empty and abandoned buildings. There is little ethic of being tidy here. Along the larger roads there are frequent safety bays where the road widens a little. Each and every one of them is full of rubbish where drivers have deliberately pulled over, dragged bags of rubbish from the boot, dumped them and driven off.

Agrigento has a particularly mellow-coloured stone

Agrigento in the evening

On the flip side, the people have all been super helpful and friendly. Every service has been given with a smile. Being understood or understanding sometimes takes a few moments and several tries, but hasn't been a problem. There's always Mr Google to fall back on, though we haven't need his help much at all.  We've been enjoying the spoken Italian, and I'm picking up more each day as I get used to the speed and intonations. Karen is picking up some too which is pleasing her greatly.

What John didn't mention, was that I understood a question that our Italian host was asking us this morning before he did. Woohoo!

As is typical in other parts of Italy, Sicilians emerge after their siesta and socialise in the streets and bars in the early evening. It's always fun to watch the interactions. Usually, it's a time for the old men to gather on the park benches and have a good old yarn. I guess their wives are back home making dinner! I took the photo below because it was such a laugh seeing all these guys on their mobile phones, just like the younger generation.

Post-siesta socialising

We had a simple dinner of a panini from a local joint. The favourite here is clearly something called milza. It is very thinly sliced spleen, forked out of a giant bubbling vat, layered thickly on half a panini, squashed to remove excess fluid, drizzled with lemon juice and then topped with the second half of the panini. Looks rather good. We chose something else though!

16 October - Ortigia to Piazza Armerina, Villa Romana del Casale

We were on the move again today. We climbed aboard the Interbus at Syracuse railway station at 9am, bound for Catania Airport. The latter was the best place to pick up our hire-car, and Centauro gave a really good rate for a one-way 4-day hire to Palermo. It was pretty easy to find the hire place. We'd booked a Fiat 500 or similar. John was hoping to get the Fiat but we got a Hyundai I10. It's a good little nippy car, and we definitely wanted a small one knowing what the roads will be like around the island.

By 11am we were underway, and the 1.25hr drive to Piazza Armerina went by very easily. The roads were very good, by and large, and there wasn't much traffic. Driving the 110km odd to get there represented perhaps a quarter of the total driving we will be doing. We's decided that it would be much easier to hire a car than try and negotiate the logistics of trains, inter-city buses and local buses to get to the places we wanted to go. Many of the historic sites we are planning to visit are a number of kilometres out of the nearest town.

We had a reasonable view of Mt Etna as we arrived at Catania Airport on the bus, and then great views of the dry interior of the island. Much of the landscape looked barren, though the area surrounding Catania itself was intensively developed in orange and lemon orchards. Further inland some of the brown 'paddocks' were being churned over by bulldozers pulling ploughs, but we don't know what their intended use was. There were no animals to be seen. After a while the land became more favourable for olives. 

Inland from Catania

Piazza Armerina

Closer to Piazza Armerina the land greened up again. The purpose of deviating inland to this part of the island was to visit Villa Romana del Casale. It is considered to be one of the most prestigious Roman relics in the Mediterranean, It was built in 350-320AD, probably for a Roman senator. It is world-renowned for its spectacular mosaics, all 3500 sqm of them, many in superb condition. The mosaics are not just pretty geometric patterns; in most of the rooms they tell a story or give some sort of description of life at the time, e.g. tools using in fishing, massive hunting scenes showing different techniques of hunting, captured animals being loaded onto vessels on various continents and then unloaded in Italy destined for the wildlife sports in the various arenas. 

Villa Romana del Casale - the heated baths

A hunting scene

Collection of wild animals for gladiatorial combat

The mosaics were simply stunning, and are apparently the richest, largest and most varied collection in the world. One was 66m x 5m. We were blown away. Thankfully they were all under cover, because the temperature outside in the sun was 31 deg and it was blazing hot walking between the different buildings. Being there in the middle of the day was great in terms of the limited number of tourists and it was possible to read the interpretation signs beside every room without having to look over shoulders. It would have been better if the mosaics were not so dusty; they could have done with a wipe down. By 2pm we were expiring. We drove the 10km to Piazza Armerina, found a carpark right outside our apartment, and found a cafe to have an ice-cold almond granita to cool us down. When we walked through the main street into the town centre the place was so unbelievably quiet we wondered if it might be a public holiday. In fact, though Google describes it as one of the most attractive medieval towns in Sicily, we were very underwhelmed. I think the vast deposits of pigeon shit on the buildings, footpaths and roads had something to do with it! It reeked, and there were feathers floating everywhere. Not pleasant. Many buildings for sale, it's not a town that is thriving despite being the jump-off point for the Villa.

The main drag into Piazza Armerina, probably the only cleanish street

We managed to get hold of our host and he turned up to let us into his apartment. He was an older Italian, very friendly and chatty. John managed to pick up much of what he said, the rest was translated by gestures. The room was very nice, and after a shower and rest we ventured out to find a bite to eat. The town was so much more attractive in the evening. The few shops were now open. There were people about, and the light showed the town at its best. Street-lights lit up the buildings and dispersed the gloom so that the whole place took on a totally different persona. We walked some of the alleyways, deemed to be excellent examples of medieval architecture, and really enjoyed the feel of the place. What a difference to how we found it mid-afternoon! 

Piazza Armerina at night (still pretty quiet)

Our host suggested two small restaurants nearby for dinner (actually there were only two choices and one was closed because it was Monday). It was a lovely meal. John chose the antipasto plate for an entree. When it arrived it looked beg enough for an entire meal.

John's antipasto

The town looked lovely at night from our room.

15th October - Syracuse Archaeological Park, Boat Trip and a Swim

As it was going to be a hot day yet again we headed off to breakfast at an earlyish hour, then walked through Ortigia and some of Syracuse to get to the archaeological park. Ortigia is very old, dense and historical. Syracuse is much more modern and with far less to recommend it. The park wasn't far away, so we got there by 10am before the day heated up in earnest. 

The area was initially Greek, morphing into Roman over the centuries before being abandoned and used as a source of easy building stones. First up on our visit was a Roman amphitheatre, cut directly out of the natural rock on three sides. It's the 2nd biggest Roman amphitheatre anywhere after the Colosseum in Rome. The fourth side was missing as it was was plundered by the Spanish for the fort we visited yesterday!

Roman amphitheatre

Next up were the quarries where the rock had been cut from for the entire site and no doubt much of Ortigia and Syracuse. They were fascinating, and enormous. At one place, the rock had been cut back in a spiral like a human ear interior, but at 23m high and 65m deep, on a rather larger scale. It had very strange acoustics.

Quarried area now a garden

The quarries also reached back very deep into the hillside in places

The third site was the Greek theatre built from the 5th to 3rd centuries BC, and capable of holding 14,000 spectators. At the back of this was a lovely gushing fountain spouting water carried by an aqueduct from miles away. Fresh abundant water like that must have been a marvel in a climate like Sicily's.

Greek theatre

Finally was the Altar of Hieron, at 21m wide and 196m long, being the largest known altar of the ancient world. Unfortunately the Spanish had looted so much stone that there is very little left, and not enough to give an idea of what it might once have been.

On returning from the park we booked a 1-hour boat trip out to some caves off Syracuse and then around the island of Ortigia. We thought we'd leave lunch until after the boat trip, just in case! After half an hour's rest we were off on the boat trip with an Italian family, 4 Italian lads and a Bulgarian couple. The trip took us past a rather controversial but powerful sculpture commissioned by Mussolini pre-WWII to commemorate the Italian fallen in their Ethiopian campaign. 

Mussolini's memorial sculpture

Caves and rock stacks along the coast

We then went into some natural caves cut by the sea into the cliffs of Syracuse before heading back and around the island's point. There was an option to jump in and swim, but only the Italian lads did so - we intended to swim later. The views back onto Ortigia were lovely, and the trip emphasised how important the fort must have been to protect Syracuse.

Fort on the extreme end of the peninsula at Ortigia

Ortigia waterfront

Lunch was another arancini as we thought yesterday's was both delicious and ideal as a lunch snack. Back out on foot for our swim which was almost too late, as the sun was getting low and the town was beginning to shade our chosen spot. Nevertheless the swim was delicious. The water was warm to get into, though not quite so warm further out.

Our swim spot

Back home for a shower to wash the salt off, and out again to the square to people-watch with our Aperol and treats.

It's so different to where we are in France. There were huge numbers of people just out strolling, talking and generally seeing and being seen. Youths, families, couples, oldies, kids and dogs. Spain does much the same. There's a casualness in Italy that we don't see in France, and we like it. We also thought about New Zealand, and how foreign this is to the NZ lifestyle (and probably all UK-based colonies too). It's a pity. We all go home to our little separated boxes, turn on the TV and close the doors and windows. I wonder how the mental health of Italians compares to New Zealanders. All that socialising must be very good for people.

Piazza de Archimedes - people out strolling and socialising

14th October - Walking around Ortigia

Our little apartment is comfortable and in the perfect location, though to be honest Ortigia is very small and it would be hard to be located anywhere distant from the historic quarter. Our accommodation included breakfast, which turned out to be available from a cafe just down the road in the central Piazza de Archimede. There were three options including coffee, juice, granita, a sweet or savoury pastry or a brioche. We opted for the option with the granita, which our host explained is a traditional Sicilian breakfast!

Our granita/brioche/coffee option for breakfast

In one word, the granita was sublime. We both chose a almond one and I'm now very keen to try and make some during summer when we get back to Nelson. The flavour was so almondy, which we both like. So breakfast was great, if rather on the lightweight sweet side. 

Our B&B is housed in a building dated 1696. Plazas are tucked within the maze, as are a number of sites of Greek ruins, churches and large public buildings. We spent a very enjoyable few hours wandering around about and soaking up the atmosphere and trying to learn a little about the history of the place. Ortigia is the historical centre of Syracuse. It's on an island which could hold a large population in ancient times and includes the refurbished remains on a large fort on its eastern peninsula. Civilisation here dates back 2700 years. It started life as Greek but was later taken over by the Romans, Vandals, Goths, Arabs, Normans and Byzantines! Evidence of these cultures are everywhere. 

Lintel of our building, showing it to be constructed in 1696

A highlight of the morning was visiting the Jewish baths (mikveh). The Jews dug 18m down to capture spring water and sculpt out small individual baths in which to ritually purify themselves. The last Jews were forced to leave by the Spanish in 1492, and there are still none living in Syracuse. The baths had been concealed at the time, in the hope they would return one day, but they never did. They were only found by accident in 1986 when a woman began converting the old building into a hotel above the baths. 156 truckloads of spoil had to be removed! A long staircase hewn out of rock leads below to the bathing room.

The large fort, Castello Maniace, was constructed in 1232 on the end of the island. We did a quick tour but it was very hot so we bailed relatively quickly and set off again to see the Arethusa Pool, a very old freshwater spring full of fish, ducks and papyrus.

Next priority was a search for somewhere to have a bite for lunch in the shade. Walking the streets here is very obvious that the Ortigians, and probably Sicilians in general, have a very sweet tooth. The offers of sweet food abound, be it in the form of a wide range of pastries, cannolis (filled with sweetened ricotta cheese and all its variations), and marzipan. We tried a different traditional food for lunch - arancini. These are balls made from rice, filled with a savoury of choice, rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried. They can be filled with spinach, pistachio, tomato, ragu, mozzarella and so on. They cost just a few euros and are very tasty to munch on. 

Shop window displaying all manner of candies and sweet treats

The hot sun was testing our limits so we retreated to our room for a few hours R&R, and a wee nana nap to make sure we didn't fall asleep during the World Rugby Cup quarter final.

We'd been following a bit of a tour around the island to see everything and had missed out on the main cathedral and square, so headed that way as the sun was getting low around 5:30pm. The square was beautiful in the low sun, and there was a cannoli shop at the far end of it that seems to be a favourite. Indeed they were good, but not as good as my memory of one in 2011 in Taormina!

Cannoli - candied fruit, and pistacchio

We tend to avoid churches, as we have seen more than enough over the years, and also find the opulence of most to be excessive. However the one here had a fascinating history. It was once the 6th C BC Greek temple of Athena. The exterior Doric columns can be seen on both sides of the exterior walls.

Greek temple columns inside the Ortigia cathedral

By now it was passeggiata time, so we stopped off at our breakfast cafe-bar for an hour to watch the world go by. We ordered a couple of Aperol sodas, and they came with not half a dozen potato chips, but half a meal's worth of free food. A lovely surprise and very pleasant at the end of a hot day.

Dinner was at a similar place, with similar food and again very good.