Blogs from Agrigento, Sicily, Italy, Europe

Today was a fabulous day as we travelled to the small town of Sant'Angelo Muxaro to meet up with our local guide and discover more about this beautiful region. Sant'Angelo Muxaro is one of those villages you see perched up on top of a mountain, that from a distance it makes you wonder how you could possibily get up there! Sure enough the drive to the top did require a few nail biting moments! On arrival we met our local guide and we walked along the cobbled streets to the main square. There were a couple of little cafe's on the square so we chose one and had a coffee like a local. What was absolutely so special about this day is we were the only tourists in town - this is where Back Roads Tours ... read more

Wednesday March 28 2018 - I got up a little before 7am today and went through the usual morning routine, this time with yogurt and granola. I left around 8:15 to go to the Valley of the Temples, a large area with several ancient Greek temples. I checked the weather forecast yesterday and this morning, and both said it would be partly sunny in the morning, mostly cloudy in the afternoon, no rain. It was pretty wrong for most of the day. The morning was blue skies, no clouds anywhere. It started to warm up so that I had to take my fleece off as I walked around. I was able to get a teacher discount this time, and opted for the audio tour as well. There are three main temples - the Temple of Hercules, ... read more

A storm system moved into Sicily yesterday, bringing with it rain, chilly winds and generally miserable conditions. The visibility is so poor that the snow-capped peak of Mt. Etna, which is very prominent from our terrace, has been completely obscured from view. So the conditions for the tour we had scheduled for today--a visit of the Greek and Roman architectural treasures in and near the town of Agrigento--did not look at all promising. Most of the day's activities would necessarily take place outdoors, and it was raining cats and dogs when we embarked upon the 3-hour bus ride from Taormina at 7:00 this morning. Our tour group size today was slightly larger (14) than the Palermo trip we had made earlier in the week, so the tour operator decided to use a full-size bus, which provided ... read more

Today we say goodbye to our host and her son, Stefano. Our final chat was a mix of our English and their Italian but once you get past that barrier we were able to understand each other. It has been a delight coming back to the house each night after battling inner city traffic in these historic Sicilian cities. After yesterday’s late rain it is once again gloriously fine and likely to get hot. We tell Jane we want to visit Scicli before we travel north to Agrigento. She seems to cope best with short trips. It is less confusing. As we head downhill we realize we must have been quite high above the sea. Rounding a corner there beneath us is this incredible town, Scicli. It is Saturday and many streets are closed off because ... read more

Vandaag op tijd op, want om 9.30 moeten we aanwezig zijn bij de Valle Dei Templi. Om 8.30 zitten we dus weer heerlijk buiten aan het ontbijt, de temperatuur is nu nog prima, maar zal in de loop van de dag snel oplopen. Om 9.00 zitten we in de auto en we staan al snel op een ietwat onoverzichtelijke parkeerplaats bij de ingang van het Tempelcomplex. Het complex dateert uit de 5e eeuw voor Christus. Tot onze verbazing worden er bij de ingang entreebewijzen uitgedeeld. Bij navraag blijkt dat het op de eerste zondag van de maand, deze dus, altijd gratis entree is. Dat is een mooie verrassing voor ons, want we kregen ook al korting op de huur voor de elektrische stepjes. Er staat bij de stepverhuur een andere dame dan gisteren, maar ze is ... read more