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Published: August 6th 2007
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We zigzagged back down the mountain from Erice back over to A29 and drove southeast towards Agrigento via SS118. We ate our salami and cheese panini (prepared in Erice), fresh almonds, and cherries . Along the way we watched the cars passing on blind curves (with many near collisions) and many more wildfires. The countryside was similiar to California, golden hills with patches of small farms that included vineyards, olive orchards and a host of other fruit/nut crops. It reminded me of the old California Central Valley i.e. long before the strip malls, roadside motels and surburban sprawl.
We traveled out of the Trapani district into the Agrigento region and reached Raffadali in about two hours. From there, we wound our way north into the countryside first passing the small town of Sant'Elisabetta as we headed towards Sant'Angelo Muraxo. A few miles outside of S. Elisabetta the dramatic hilltown of Sant'Angelo Muraxo came into view. Sant'Angelo Muraxo sits at very the top of a tabletop mountain towering over the Platani River valley. At the base of the mountain we could see a large cave above which was a honeycomb of openings. We had reached
Val Di Kam, home of the ancient Sicans
and we were looking at a complex of 3000+ year old Sicani tombs, or tholos.
We made contact with our guide Piero (Pierfillipo Spotto, info@valdikam.it), checked into our diffuse hotel and jumped into his Range Rover to explore the archaelogical area. The diffuse hotel approach may turn out to be a great solution for smaller interior towns who lack major hotels. Rooms (or flats) are made available by local townspeople who may be living abroad or that have unused space for let. Our spatious rooms had a spectacular view of the Platani Valley and the nearby town of San Biagio Platani from our balcony.
The archaelogical area located at the base of Sant'Angelo Muraxos hill was adjacent to a small farm where pistacchios and wild capers were blooming and an ecological area (which included a large cave). The primary tomb is Tomba del Principe (Tomb of the Prince) was accessible via a short steep trail. The 8th century BC tomb consists of two domed chambers; a circular room antechamber and, next to it, the sepulchral room. Two signet rings (7th-6th century BC; Archeological Museum Siracusa) and golden cups,were found in the tomb. The egional name Val di Kam
is based on the belief that the tomb is evidence that Sant'Angelo Muraxos is the site of the mythical city of Kamikos, founded by the Sican king Kokalos.
The next morning we headed down to the piazza, joined up with Piero and headed up the street to Angelos bakery to prepare and bake traditional pane in a wood fired oven. The dough was mixed, kneaded and weighed out by hand. Next, the dough was formed into loaves and left to rise on long wooden planks (which also served as paddles to move the dough into the oven). As we waited for the bread to bake we sampled their raw honey (from the comb) with a brioche that they had just pulled from the oven. Wow...When our own bread was pulled from the oven Angelo cut the warm loaves in half, added some homemade olive oil and sprinkled some fresh oregano (which was drying by the oven). All of the ingredients were fresh, local and the result was absolutely delicious. While we were feasting, a continuous stream of townspeople stopped in to purchase the fresh bread. Later that afternoon Angelo was going to make the rounds around town delivering
fresh bread to his customers (some probably lowered a basket to the street to be hauled up to their balcony). It's good to know that the old world ways have not completely disappeared.
After part one of our breakfast we walked around the corner to observe local ricotta cheese making. A different Angelo and two elders were stirring a large cauldron of goats milk (the raw rennin had already been added). The goats were raised in a nearby medieval stone barn and pasture that we had visited the day before. As the whey rose to the surface it was scooped and put into porous baskets and placed on a sloped table to drain. Angelo added some to bowls which he gave to us to eat. I must admit at first Monica and I looked at each other and nonverbally communicated a certain amount doubt as to whether we could eat this warm curdled proto-cheese. However, it was amazingly delicious, particularly when added to the fresh bread we had just baked!
By now we were more than full and incredibly thirsty since both the bakery and cheese making area were very warm from the cooking process. We asked if
it would be possible to have some water or juice. Angelos father smiled and returned from the street with a 2 liter container of juice. He poured us both a large cup.....and you guessed it....it was his strongly fortified homemade wine which was well north of 25 % proof! After a couple of glasses of his hooch Piero, Monica and I staggered down to the square at about 9AM to get some aqua minerale and head off to San Biagio Platani and later to some nearby tombs carved in stone. We observed some of the elaborate the decorations from the Easter festa that took months to prepare: San Biagio Platani Archi dei PasquaThat evening we drove the 20 Km into nearby Agrigento to spend the night.
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