Advertisement
Scenery from the road
Some early morning fog One ancient tomb, several ancient temples, one ancient fortress and one not so ancient ghost town
This blog entry covers most of the places I visited in the second half of this trip in Sicily. When I look through the pictures I see that there are a lot of historical (ancient) places there. But there is some other stuff in there too so hopefully there is something for people who are not history buffs as well.
Scala dei Turchi Scala dei Turchi is a cliff face that is unusual as it is white. The rock is sedimentary and the white colour comes from it being made up mainly of shells from a certain kind of plankton.
Sant'Angelo Muxaro Sant'Angelo Muxaro is one of many small hill towns in Sicily. The towns were built on hilltops mainly to make them easier to defend if they were attacked. I went there mainly to see an ancient tomb. The tomb is a manmade hollow in the rock.
Valle dei Templi Valle dei Templi is a site where there are remains of seven more or less well preserved Greek Doric temples.
=> The best preserved
Scala dei Turchi
Scala dei Turchi is an unusually white cliff face. The rock is sedimentary and the white colour comes from it being made up mainly of shells from a certain kind of plankton. temple at the site is the
Temple of Concordia. It is just as well preserved as
Segesta, a temple I wrote about in
the previous blog entry.
=>
Temple of Juno was built in the 5th BCE. The outlines of the temple are clearly visible but the roof is missing and several of the columns are damaged.
=>
Temple of Heracles is even more damaged than Temple of Juno.
Erice Erice is a fortified town with a well preserved historical city centre. Erice is yet another Sicilian hill town. The main street in Erice reminded me a little about the main street in the old town in Stockholm. Too many people and all commerce was directed towards visitors/tourists.
Selinunte Selinunte is another site with ancient ruins. The experience at Selinunte became quite different from the visit at Valle dei Templi thanks to the site being covered in fog when I was there.
The best preserved structure at Selinunte is the Temple of Hera. The two other major structures at the site are in ruins. Even calling them "ruins" is generous actually. "A heap of stones" is a more fitting description.
Caltagirone The town
Caltagirone has
View from Sant'Angelo Muxaro
View from Sant'Angelo Muxaro over the surrounding area long been a production centre of pottery. What made me decide to visit Caltagirone was the
Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte, an over 130 meter long staircase where every step is decorated with ceramic tiles.
Villa Palagonia Villa Palagonia, in the town Bagheria, is an early 18th century patrician villa. When I read about it in my guidebook it said that the waIl around the villa was decorated with a large number of more or less grotesque statues. Unfortunately it wasn’t as interesting as it sounded to me. The number a statues turned out to be far lower than I thought there would be and they were also less grotesque than I expected. The villa wasn't very spectacular either. It was a bit run down and quite barren. No furniture and no paintings for example. It wasn't exactly a waste of time to go there. It was OK, but not more than that.
Corleone When I went to Sicily I felt that I just had to visit the town
Corleone only to be able to be there and say "I am going to give him an offer he can't refuse". Other than having a legendary name
The tomb entrance
I went to Sant'Angelo Muxaro mainly to see an ancient tomb. there isn't very much to see in Corleone. When I asked the tourist information they first recommended me to see one or two churches. When I turned that suggestion down they mentioned
a waterfall which is popular to visit. The waterfall is on the edge of town and it was a bit of a walk to get there. I actually got to see most of the town going to and from the waterfall.
Borgo Schiro The dictator Mussolini believed that the right way to develop the countryside was to build small planned villages, complete with school, pharmacy, church and other useful institutions. Several of these planned villages were built and Borgo Schiro is one of them.
But the idea of planned villages failed. Borgo Schiro is today a ghost town. It was very interesting to visit it. It felt a bit like a time capsule.
After my visit to Borgo Schiro I returned the rental car to the rental agency. It is nice to have the freedom a rental car gives me but it also feels very good to return it.
Cefalù On the last day of my trip in
The tomb
The tomb is a manmade hollow in the rock. Sicily I visited the town Cefalù, which is about an hour by train from Palermo.
Cefalù is a pretty town with a pretty historical city centre. But to me the highlight of the visit to Cefalú was to climb up to the top of the mountain towering over the town and see the remains of the old castle and the remains of the 2,500 year old Temple of Diana.
Now I have reached the end of this blog entry. I have one blog left to publish from this trip. I hope you found this entry interesting enough to read the next one as well.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.513s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 42; qc: 186; dbt: 0.205s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.6mb
alex waring
Alexander Waring
Sicily
Sicily seems filled with sights. The ancient temples look amazing, particularly the fog-covered ones! In my recent car rentals, I understand also the freedom they bring, but also the relief in returning them!