3rd Weekend trip: Part 2

(June 14th) After Caltagirone, all of us loaded up into our Fiat Puntos and made the rest of the drive across the island to Agrigento to visit the Valley of the Temples. This is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world and a Unesco world heritage site. We got there fairly late in the day, only 2 hours before closing time. There is also some drama associated with this visit, between both of our program directors (Pietro and Dr. Tykot), which eventually reached a climax the following morning. End result is that they will not be working together again next year on our site. Long, complicated, and actually very confusing story short, it was a lack of communication between an Italy and an American. Besides that, we got to walk around and see all the temples here, which are fantastic! Myself and my small cohort of friends (yeah, I did actually make friends here...for as weird as I can be) walked around together. What we have noticed about many of the places we have been visiting on the weekends, is that there are a lot of stray dogs and cats (or even if they are "pets", they are usually not well taken care of). Reese being a dog lover, of course had to pick the most pathetic looking dog around and pet it, resulting in the dog following us around. Reese was one of the better friends I made at the field school, besides Cait. Cait was my roommate through the duration of the field school at our apartment, and Reese shared the apartment with us (2 bedroom apartment). Reese: Goes to University of South Florida, wants to eventually go into conservation and education of the public in archaeology, and is actually the lesbian I was referring to in the picture I posted in the last entry. She plays rugby for USF as well. Cait: Goes to Boston University for archaeology, actually wants to be a cook and go to culinary school after she graduates and run a bakery (go figure!). Those two and I had a great time together and I would definitely travel with them again if the opportunity arises. I also earned a nickname while at this field school...given upon request, along with explanation(s).
After visiting Agrigento, we were driven to our hotel to check in (hotel was owned by a friend of Pietro's, so we got a good deal). We were actually staying in a city called Sciacca, about 40 minutes away from Agrigento. After unpacking, we walked to the bay/harbor area on our way to a surprise location which ended up being one of Pietro's very good friend and mentor. This guy had a personal collection ranging from original sketches from the Sistine Chapel, to whole pots from the Bronze Age! He did not speak English, so Pietro was translating as this man was telling us all about how he got his collection, what he was going to do with it (donating it all to a museum), and showed us some amazing things! This was the highlight of our visit, and made all the BS that had happened that day be worth it (well, almost). I didn't want to post the pictures I took from his place on the internet, but I would send them upon request. After this, we all went to the bar right outside his place, and he bought us a round of drinks and kept his tab open for us if we wanted more! Of course, we all only had one drink and politely left, as it was late. Oh, we hadn't eaten yet either, so most of us went off to forage for food. Myself and a few others walked towards the harbor where we had seen a pizzeria earlier. There was also a huge gathering of people here for a festival and open market. So, we went there first to see what everyone was selling and we bought a few things. After eating our very good pizza, we decided it probably wasn't a good idea to stay out late (as it was already 1am) since we had to get up at 7 the next morning.

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