Sicily - Agrigento

We have been staying at the beach-side suburb of San Leone as Agrigento is up on a hill and, apart from the historic centre it looks a bit “ordinary”, mainly large apartment blocks spreading out in all directions (and this due to mafia involvement, no planning permissions nor building standards followed). Our apartment is part of a stand-alone modernised house inhabited by a family. The actual apartment is pretty good, though why they’d put a kitchen (without power and hot water) up on a second level … let’s just say with the fridge and electric jug downstairs this makes cooking and washing up less of a joy than is usual.

San Leone is probably typical of a fairly modern beach area, a few large apartment blocks but mainly individual houses surrounded by huge fences and gates behind which one or more large dogs lurk. There is one decent supermarket (though by NZ or UK standards it is very small), and plenty of cafes and bars (pretty much the same thing). The beach area is variable, nice sandy areas with rocks placed out in the water to provide protected swimming areas. Plenty of public beaches but quite a few private ones too – for a price they provide loungers, umbrellas and toilets, showers and bar facilities. The street frontage is pretty dire though – broken footpaths, abandoned buildings and rubbish. At least the entire beach area has rubbish bins placed every 30m or less.

If we had a car there are several locations well worth a visit an hour or so away (one of the best Roman villas around, the pretty harbour town of Sciacca, and the designer outlet complex that we were teased with as our coach went past on the way here). Without a car we are relying on busses and they are pretty good too, though the timetables published on their web sites don’t always match with those on the bus stops themselves (which are more accurate). You are supposed to buy your tickets at the local Tabacchi (tobacconist) though you can usually buy them on the bus at a slightly higher cost.  When neither were available our bus took us to the nearest tabacchi enroute and waited while we dashed across and bought our tickets. That’s service!

The main reason for coming here is the Valley of the Temples, apparently the largest archaeology site in the world! Mind you, they're advertising the same at another archaeological park on the island. It contains numerous ruined – and not so ruined – Greek temples. Despite its name it is up on a ridge and getting in to it turned out to be a ridiculous and dangerous challenge. The public bus takes you to the exit which is nowhere near the entrance. There are no signs to where the entrance might be but at a cafe a torrent of Italian and a waving of arms indicated the direction and with mounting disbelief we followed another couple back down the main road and around a few blind corners (no footpaths anywhere, but a worn trail in the dirt gave us some encouragement), eventually scurrying across a large roundabout and heading for a large car park. Behind that there are a lot of stalls selling tour tickets and tourist items and, eventually, you come to the ticket office and entrance. If you survive all that then the next few hours are delightful. There are plenty of ruins of houses, walls, tombs and statues as well as the major temples.

like the Acropolis,
but without the crowds

a large olive tree -
that's not a hobbit at its base

We had an offer of a cheap hire car which would have been useful but instead we found a hop on-hop off bus that covered most of the places we wanted to go and worked out a little cheaper and a whole lot less stressful. So we splashed out almost all our remaining cash on getting the bus, knowing that the first destination for us was an ATM in Agrigento. Sadly the first bank ATM we tried declined our card. We prefer to use ATMs attached to banks as they are less likely to have their security compromised as we learnt to our cost a few years ago in Florence. Then the next ATM we tried also declined our card. Our bank in the UK couldn’t tell us why our card was being declined but put us through to VISA who spent some time with us arranging to forward cash to the nearest Western Union office (no doubt for a good fee). While we were awaiting for it to arrive – it was nice to know that this is a back-up option - we tried our card one last time in a Post Office ATM and it worked perfectly. We grabbed lots of cash and phoned VISA back to cancel the cash advance just in time. Then we spent some time letting the stress levels slowly return to normal …

A walk through the old centre of Agrigento showed the main street was attractive with good shops and plenty of grand old buildings and churches, but stray a block either side and conditions deteriorated rapidly. Lots of little lanes and steps with a few buildings nicely done up but the remainder scruffy, decrepit, or in various stages of demolition. And the ever-present rubbish and dog poo. Interesting and a few photographic opportunities but not a highlight. As usual, the locals saved the day - recognising us as tourists (somehow!), without being asked they'd cheerily direct us to the closest point of interest.

In the back streets, the street art was a highlight

Heading a few kilometres west from Agrigento there is a port where ferries head to the southern-most islands of Italy just off the African coast. And just beyond the port are beautiful beaches and then the prize – Scala dei Turchi (the Turkish Steps), a white cliff ascending from the sea, allegedly giving the Turkish invaders an easy path up the cliffs from their ships. It is spectacular even if it's a popular tourist spot.

Lastly, fans of the Montalbano crime series will know Agrigento as the headquarters, though the TV series is filmed mainly in Ragusa, a little further to the east.