Windmills & Countryside - Lost in the Dust

Europe » Italy » Sicily » Agrigento
May 16th 2012

Published: July 22nd 2017

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Itchyfeetbc

Windmills

Geo: 37.3111, 13.5767

Our GPS turned out to be a boon or bust situation today. For some reason it routed us away from the main motorway and we spent hours in the countryside which although very interesting was also frustrating. The area is very agricultural with many vineyards, fruit trees, vegetables, etc. We also found ourselves in small towns. It seems that even the larger roads end up being routed through the small towns with the exception of the autostrades. There is a lot of road work going on and no detour signs. The GPS did not know of the changes even though I loaded new maps just before leaving. It took us at least twice as long to get to our destination which is Agrigentio. We were so lost at one point that a kindly utility van driver had us follow him until we got to the correct road. However, trying to negotiate without a GPS would be impossible. The helpful person had a GPS larger than an iPad and it was part of the vehicle. We noticed several people stopped trying to figure out what their respective GPS units weer trying to tell them. Only in Italy can you find

Windmills

a roundabout with one road in and one road out - the same road!!!

Agrigento is another older city and we are staying a few blocks from the old city core. The city is much larger though. We walked through the main shopping streets and saw the cathedral which was visited bu the \ope which was obviously a main event in the town. There is also an old monastery buildings.

Tomorrow on our way to the opposite coast we plan to visit the Valley of the Temples on our way to the opposite coast where we have decided to take a breather for a couple of days.

One thing which is apparent in Italy is there use of alternative energies. We have seen large banks of solar panels and windmills in our travels.

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