29 March, 2016

Agrigento to Piazza Amerina

There are lots of pictures and not as many words for this post, as I am falling behind in the journal.  Our days have been very busy and full, leaving little time at the end of the night to sort through the images and write about what we have done.  I’ve been trying to write a bit on the bus, and have notes about many things, but the pictures require a discipline that I just haven’t had the last few days.  I wanted to make this post this morning, but found that I hadn’t done any more than to just unload the camera onto the computer.  I took the computer on the bus and sorted through probably 450 pics of the last three days, so there should be two more entries following shortly.

The day was a total of nearly three hours on the bus as we moved from the west to the south-east of Sicily, a journey of around 150 km. The main point of the day was the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento. I found it fascinating to visit the site. Just the fact that these temples have been here for 2700 years is astounding. We had a guide to the site that quite reminded me of Dr. Zari Hawass, former head of antiquities in Egypt. He was very knowledgeable about the history of the site, both ancient and modern.

The temples sit on a flat hill to the south of the modern town that is naturally defended by cliffs and natural stone walls. In the 6^th century ce, the Christians of the era excavated tombs into the ancient walls. The Temples date to the 6^th century bce. There are four major temples here, as well as foundation ruins of Greek, and later Roman structures. The Temple of Concord is the largest and best preserved outside of the Acropolis in Athens.

Rather than try to recant everything that I learned  in some form of misremembered history lesson, I will refer you to the Wikipedia for a more thorough examination of the site.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valle_dei_Templi

Leaving Agrigento, we were on the bus for a half hour to our overnight stay at an agritourisme called Vecchio Amarina. Described as a farmhouse, and historically it once was the center of a large farm, the restored buildings and barns are a four star resort. We enjoyed a tremendous meal in the restaurant that many agreed was the best meal of the trip so far. It is so nice, in fact, that when we left the next morning, my coat decided to stay another two nights and will be joining me when the next OAT tour group reaches Ragusa tomorrow (Friday).

Arrivederci!