South Coast to Valle dei Templi

Port of Marzameni - south coast of Sicily
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Tuesday, 9th December

Set off westwards to explore the southern part of Sicily visiting lovely little tuna fishing villages of Marzemeni and Porto Palo. After a few hours followed signs to a “Sosta” (an overnight stopping place esp for campervans) and found the best one in all of Italy and Sicily, brand new with HOT showers, miracle and only 11 Euros per night! A short walk down into the village of Marina di Ragusso which was the cleanest spot we have found in Sicily. Ended up staying 2 nights mostly due to the hot showers and the rain!

Mud, Zeus and Yuletide times

Pretty little fishing boat in Marzameni
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Thursday, 11th December

This was a BAD day! When we woke and it was still raining we should have stayed another night! We drove thru flooded roads and eventually found this camp site which, from all accounts should have been good called Eurocamping Due Rocce in Falconara which its only claim to fame is a castle standing on the headland! We drove in, couldn’t see a soul and drove up the back of the site to find a good spot….already deciding we weren’t going to stay, we got STUCK in the mud or rather clay soil which seem to lie just below the stony stuff on top! Try as we may for about 2 hours, we just couldn’t get out so after divesting ourselves of loads of wet and muddy gear we sat tight for about 4 hrs waiting for the rain to stop. Finally at about 10pm we tried again, more black smoke from the engine and more spinning tyres but then Teresa decided to get behind the vehicle and push – ha ha all 3.5 tons of it! And bugger me if it didn’t start moving! Having extricated ourselves from the mud we wondered what harm we had done our dear trusty van…..but we slept on it.

Day visit to Eraclea Minor - nr Sciacca, SW Sicily
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Friday, 12th December

In the morning the rain had temporarily eased so we tried to have showers and they were cold. Pissed off at the whole thing we just drove off waiting for the caribineri to chase but they didn’t!

The landscape changed a lot revealing millions of plastic covered shed like structures housing in the main tomatoes and also capsicums. Miles and miles of them over the undulating slopes between us and the sea. Finally making up for yesterday we found a great place further west after battling through the most terrible flooded roads in the most horrifying of industrial towns in Sicily we’ve come across called Gela

Relaxing at San Leone campsite nr Agrigento
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So now we found ourselves in a lovely area called Agrigento famous for the archaeological area known as the Val di Templi. The campsite turned out to be small but all the sites were sodden and muddy….so we found a spot near the back gate on the hard road surface and THAT’S WHERE WE INTENDED TO STAY!!! They also had internet that we could plug into with our laptop and the showers were HOT HOT HOT! My God, we decided we’d stay for weeks!!!! We explored the beach area down the road thru the village and it all seemed really nice especially when the guy in the Tabacchi spoke in English to us in a Manchester accent!

Check out the expert wiring in the city of Agrigento!
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Sunday, 14th December

The rain just didn’t want to go away yesterday so we spent the day cleaning all the from the inside and outside of the van.

The Germans in the site said that there would be rain today and who would argue with Germans! So, we decided to catch the bus up to the archaeological site. Turned out to be a very interesting site called Akragas (the original town name for Agrigento) founded in 581 BC and described at the time as “the fairest city inhabited by mortals”….as usual its mainly the temples that have survived including the Temple of Concord with 34 best preserved Doric pillars makes it one of the finest in the world. Other partly surviving buildings were the Temples of Heracules and Hera. By the Temple of Zeus was a virtually complete statue of a “Talamon” (statue) which would have originally stood 10m high “holding” up a building along with many other similar ones, it currently lies down. To the west was an ancient garden which is still serviced by the Greek aquaduct for its citrus orchards. First day we’d seen the sun for a while. Returned quite tired having topped the above with a long walk by the beach, the wind getting up again!

Christmas in Agrigento
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Thursday, 18th December

After a couple of days of more rain and a morning having the van serviced today we drove to Sciacca to try to visit the hot baths but as usual they were closed. The book says that the “mud” is the most therapeutic in all of Europe, that’s if you get to immerse yourself in it!

Visited the remains at Eraclea Minoa founded during the Mycenaean age and developed by Spartan colonists 6th Century . It juts out over the sea with the theatre well preserved although the overall impression is marred somewhat by the plastic used to protect it. Rained on and off all day but managed to see quite a lot. Bought some speakers for the computer for watching films.

Valle dei Templi site, Agrigento , SW Sicily
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Friday, 19th December

Had a good walk up towards Porto Empldocle, nice views, usual rubbish lying around. Walked back up thru a private road looking at nice villas. Have found a great place to stay in southern Crete, a small villa which we’ve managed to get for 15 Euros a night so booking it from 23 Jan for about 5-6 weeks. Free wifi internet too, we’re happy!

Saturday, 20th December

Caught the bus to Agrigento (at last!) only a short distance away but uphill all the way! Very Christmassy and by 6pm the streets were packed with Christmas shoppers. Before that managed to walk up the Arabic laid out streets up about 1000 stairs where the north wind was biting! Lovely little winding streets and old churches – the cathedral being founded in the 12th century (that’s modern!!!). Very much liked this small city on the hill and may visit again before we leave. On yes, caught a lovely group of 4 “peasants” singing away dressed in local garb, the first such group we have seen in Sicily, in short supply in winter!

View from Valle dei Templi
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Monday, 22nd December

After yesterday’s 8 kms walk to Nettuno and back needed a more relaxed day today! It had been warm enough yesterday to sit on the beach! After asking a million times finally got the site to agree to let us have half a month for 200 Euros, a really good discount based on the daily price so we’re HAPPY about that. Did some shopping in anticipation of an exciting Xmas day lunch all on our own, getting a bit depressed at not seeing any family this year.

Wednesday, 24th December

Valle dei Templi, nr Agrigento - best preserved ancient Greek site in Europe
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Bought our last minute food for our lonely Christmas lunch tomorrow. Got some very expensive slices of Turkey breast and a slice of spinach, ham and ricotta roll which looked really nice, from the bakers.

As we hadn’t really got the Christmas spirit this year and felt very sad being away from family and friends we caught the bus up to Agrigento late pm and went on the little Xmas toy train really meant for families with kids but what the hell. It played Italian Christmas songs and that was lovely. Sat and had glasses of Amaro (a mix between port and masala but more alcohol) and coffees sitting in the square. It was freezing! At long last we felt it was Christmas! Got back to the campsite and the Germans had put up lights on the verandah of one of the camping cottages so we joined in accepting German Xmas titbits….and sharing a bottle of champers we had bought, that was nice.

Mike savouring the view from the Valle dei Templi
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Thursday, 25th December

At 1 ish drove down to the beach and found a spot overlooking the ocean and spread out our goodies and consumed them! The turkey was lovely, should’ve been it was quite expensive. In fact all the bits we bought were delicious. Returned to the campsite and invited one of the German couples (we called them the “nice” Germans) to have a coffee in our van. He collects “words” from countries he visits eg: in Finland “poiltoil” think it means diesel without tax….he was funny.