After working our way out of Palermo (not an easy thing), we headed across Sicily to the southern coast. The interior is very California-like with rolling hills and green, green spring grass. Almost all of it is under cultivation. There are also some monster jutting up mountains which really make this a unique landscape. Except where there are people and their ugly buildings and trash, it is really a beautiful place.
We arrived at our hotel, Demetra Resort, around 11 AM but they were nice enough to let us have our room. It is a new place and our room is clean and modern. We decide to head down to the beach and have some lunch before starting our sightseeing. We find a place call Il Pescatore and had, you guessed it, fish. John had spaghetti with clams and a mixed salad and I had calamari fritte e insalata mista which I ordered in Italian myself. John usually does the ordering for both of us since I am Italian challenged.
Then we went to the Valley of the Temples on the outskirts of Agrigento. Actually most of the temples are on the hilltop so I am not sure why it is called a valley. Anyway, here are these temples built by the Greeks in the 5th and 6th century BC and modified by the Romans and then the early Christians. As you can see in the picture, the Temple of Concordia and one other are still standing. It was really amazing to see. Later we went to the museum associated with the site and took an audio tour of the many, many pieces of pottery and other items found in the area. Then we were exhausted and went back to the hotel.
We had dinner in the dining room at the hotel. This is the first hotel that we’ve stayed in that has had had its dining room open. For a modern hotel, the restaurant was funereale. There were these really large tables with a six candled candelabra on each table. There were very few people in the restaurant maybe four tables altogether. I had risotto with Mediterrean treats and clouds of grouper. (Their description) John had straciatella alla Romana and frittatina di Caprese. John’s main was an frittata with cheese and tomatoes. Really good. I wish I had gotten it instead of my fish clouds. We also had a bottle of Fiano from Sicily, very good.
After two straight days of tromping up and down hills on uneven pavements, we were so tired and headed off to take some ibuprofen and sleep.