A DAY IN AGRIGENTO

Ever since I came to live in Sicily, I've been trying to get back to Agrigento, whose breathtaking Valle dei Templi should surely be listed among the Wonders of the World. When I first visited Modica, it was just possible to do the journey to Agrigento and back by bus in a day, provided you left Modica at 5 am, changed buses at Gela and were prepared to commence the return journey at around 3 pm. That journey is no longer possible as the connection times have changed and I'm afraid the situation is another example of a lack of understanding of what tourists want on the part of tourism firms in the area. So when my friends Marie-Laure and David announced that they were planning to travel to Agrigento today by car and invited me to go along, I was only too happy to accept.

We left Modica at 08.30 and made straight for the Valle dei Templi, where we arrived just before 11 am. Marie-Laure and David had been amazed, as I had been on my first visit to Agrigento in 1992, to see the Temples rising above us as we drove along. We immediately walked up to the Tempio della Concordia, the best preserved of the Temples, dating, it is believed, from about 430 BC. There has been some restoration work on the lower part of the Temple and I had not seen it without girders around it for many years. And now here it was, its honey-coloured stone gleaming in the sun. We were silent for a while as we gazed at perfection. We spent a good hour at this site and then decided not to venture up or down to the other Temples as it was so hot along the hill [it must have been about 44 C] that we thought we would keel over! We therefore admired the other main temples from afar before repairing to a restaurant we had heard of, La Trizzera, for a much needed lunch.

And now I'd like to share with you some of the images of the day:

I was a hit with the owner of this traditional cart and could have spent the rest of my life in Agrigento! [The notice asks you to leave an offering "for the horse" if you want to be photographed with the cart as a background.]

Tempio della Concordia:






Marie-Laure and me. We'd been discussing shoes Aristotle!



Now lunch: we all had cavatieddi pasta with a tomato and aubergine sauce



then Marie -Laure and I had veal scaloppine



while David had chosen from the fish menu:



Fruit was served for dessert



and then cassata:



Marie-Laure and David outside La Trizzera:



Altogether a fabulous day with great friends!