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.
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like the Acropolis,
but without the crowds |
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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.
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| 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.
On the edge of Trapani there are large salt pans. These get
flooded regularly and a few are still used to produce salt. There are some
windmills too that were used to pump the sea water around the pans. The area is
now a nature reserve and a stopping place for flamingos on their migration. As
we were the only ones in the area I thought I’d sneak up on a few to try to
get their portraits. Suddenly there were
several hundred airborne and two very sheepish tourists …
