Frank and Robyn Visit Europe in 2016: October 2016

More driving in Sicily-The Last Post

Notes on Sicilian driving habits-all speed signs are to be ignored; all give way rules are notional; if somebody in front is not going fast enough for you, drive 2 inches behind him or her; park wherever; stop anywhere to have a chat with somebody; always use a mobile phone while driving, especially when overtaking; overtaking is permitted at approaching blind corners only if using mobile phone simultaneously; always overtake especially if you are turning off in the next 20 metres and you are using your mobile phone; when overtaking on a 2 lane road ensure you make maximum use of the lane of the overtakee to teach them a valuable lesson; never use your indicators.
We leave Ragusa today for Palermo. Driving through Ragusa is "interesting" with the usual narrow roads and hairpin bends.Last night there was a downpour which has turned the sealed roads around here into muddy tracks; despite the roads being slippery and treachorous, the Sicilian rules of driving still apply.

We are lucky enough to drive through areas rarely visited by tourists like the fleshpots of Gela!

Recycling Sicilian style in Gela

We decide to lunch in Enna, which also turns out to have exceedingly narrow streets and hairpin bends. Excellent pasta once again.
Then it is on to Palermo for our last night in Europe.
Thank you all those who have been following this blog and for all your comments.....NOT!

Raging in Ragusa

We are heading off to Ragusa today but we decide to stop off at an artist's colony in nearby Favara just 15 minutes away. We use our trusty sat-nav to guide us but are unable to find colony; so we eventually decide to get out of Favara which is unrelentingly butt-ugly. The sat-nav seems to ignore one way street directions, road works and all other impediments. The streets are increasingly narrow so much so that one would have doubts walking down them 2 abreast, especially with cars parked along the way.

We have to resort to smearing the car with copious amounts of olive oil(extra virgin) to get through some nasty tight spots. We leave this hell hole, Favara, which will live in the anals of horrors forever, about 2 hours later.
We eventually find our hotel in Ragusa and take a small luxury tour of the local sights

Train for Oliver

and the famous Gelati Di Vini bar, with wine flavoured gelato.

I wonder who will be playing Santa this year?

Dinner is at the superb Il Duomo restaurant(2 Michelin stars) where we "befriend" an unusual couple- a fat, humourless Finish blowhard and his stunning Kenyan "personal assistant".

Non-edible hand towel

Agrigentissimo

Rant of the day:where have all the toilet seats gone? Why are Italian public toilets bereft of toilet seats?
Today we have our guided tour of the valley of the temples with our guide Giovanna; it is a bit like walking with a tape recorder, though the tape recorder has probably more interest in us. Anyway, she certainly knows her stuff.

Temple Concordia-designed on the golden ratio

Horny local goat

Pistachio

Remains of Tempe of Zeus which was 7 times larger than the Concordia Temple!

Following a traditional break for some really fine gelato we make our way to the archeology museum which is full of seriously old stuff.

Only surviving statue used to hold up Temple of Zeus

Model of temple of Zeus-note statues!

What was this used for?

Dinner tonight is at a nearby trattoria. Your Italian certainly have a way with pasta.

An unexpected find

So today we leave Palermo for Agrigento via the Island of Mozia. Anyway, as we are driving along we spy the Parthenon on top of a hill;

it turns out not to be the Parthenon but some sort of Trojan temple. We are in Segesta as luck would have it, so we pull over and have a gander at the temple and at the Greek theatre.

Our next stop off is Mozia in order to see the Boy of Mozia(a statue that is, dating back to 500BC. We pull into the car park and are accosted by a "parking attendant" making us an offer we can't refuse. Having been told that one can easily recognise the tourist's cars by the smashed windows and the absence of luggage we cough up the protection money.
We then board the ferry for a 10 minute ride to Mozia, though we probably could have waded across.

Piles of salt

The island is beautiful and full of artefacts in a small museum and still being dug up. It would seem you can dig anywhere here and you will soon find some 500BC treasure. Anything younger than 400BC just gets thrown into the rubbish skip and used as landfill.