On Sunday, Erin and I begin our two day journey of the
island: The Great Adventure! We head
west towards Palermo. My speedometer
reads 125.... Wow! Until you remember that it is kilometers per hour... I'm
only averaging 70-75 mph. Some on my
fellow drivers are going much (much, much) faster! As we go along the motorway, we see in the
distance this town on top of a tall mountain: looks cool. So we go for the adventure and turn off the
motorway. The views are spectacular and
it is amazing all the buildings they can fit into such a tiny space. Let me tell you that there is little room
left for roads! At the far end of the
mountain top, there is an old fort. We
park and we go exploring. It turns out
that this fort was key to holding Sicily from the impending invaders. It was certainly worth the detour!
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| The Enna Fortress |
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| The town of Enna, from the fortress |
So now to Palermo... We entered the city and the traffic was
terrifying! After much circling, we
finally find a spot to park the car. We
actually take pictures to help us find the car later... just in case. We arrive later than expected plus it is
Sunday so we don’t know what is open or really how to get to the various
sites. Then Erin spots A City Sights
Sightseeing bus and 20 minutes later, we are on the bus. What a fantastic tour that was considering we
had really no idea what we were going to do and how we were going to do it! It
was an unplanned surprise but those are usually the best kinds. We loved the tour as we saw so much and
learned a lot about Palermo too. We
jumped off at the Cathedral and took some pictures and walked further down to
see a Piazza for a better view and pictures.
But we were hearing thunder and it was getting darker so we decided we
better boogie out of there and back to the car.
We didn't make it! We quickly purchased
an umbrella from a small tourist store as we left ours in the car as it was
sunny and bright when we had left the car. But fortunately, we don't melt when
we get wet so all was good. We found the
car, the people doubled-parked in the back of our car came back relatively
quickly and it was off to the next destination!
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| The Cathedral from the bus |
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| Erin and I on the bus tour |
Tomorrow morning’s destination is Selinunte, Greek ruins. So
we find a place about 10 miles from there and spend the night. This hotel looks nice and is nice but like no
one is there. It is virtually empty. I felt like I was in a Hitchcock movie. It was weird but ended up being very nice.
The next day, we were up in time to get to Selinunte shortly
after opening. Was it ever impressive! It had three different locations so we opted
for the tram service to save time and to save our feet. The first location was inland and was an
example of temples. Just beautiful! Loved it!
But there is our tram driver waving at us when we emerge from the
ruins. We hop on board and we are off to
the sea! Again very awesome but now it
has started raining. But again this is
just part of the adventure! But we
weren't to stay there. We had the full
package so were off to the third location, just Erin, me and the driver. He was
an excellent driver and treated us very well, showing us many things. But then
it was back to the sea to see that location until we saw all we wanted. Both Erin and I were very impressed and happy
that we made time to see this area of Sicily.
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| The First Temple at Selinunte |
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| Erin and another part of Selinunte |
Next stop: Agrigento:
more ruins. It was so funny… Erin and I
were discussing that according to the GPS, we should be getting there soon and
I look up and up on the hill are temples. You don’t see that every day in
America! And “Yeah! We were nearly there!” But between there and me is a 5 exit
round-about... Not fun and after two attempts, and much horn honking on my part
(Erin is very proud of me as that is how Italians drive), I finally navigate to
the parking lot. Quite impressive ruins
but I think we are tired and “ruined” out, we go through these quite fast,
enjoying them but not lingering. Then it
was off to Trecastagni and her place.
What an adventure it had been and we and the car survived!
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