Sicily, Part 4, Agrigento

Our third day in Sicily was our big day trip to Agrigento, on the south side of the island. One of the many reasons we chose Sicily was because of it's diversity. We originally wanted to go to Greece but it was just too expensive. Lucky for us the Greeks once inhabited the island and Agrigento has some great Greek ruins.

We took the 8 AM train out of Palermo, the train's origin, and since we already had tickets it was just about the easiest thing we did the whole trip. HB went in the baby ruck sack but once on board we had free reign of a cluster of four seats facing each other. All the morning commuters got off within the first few stops and within an hour we were the only people on the train!

Here are some of my pics from the train ride.

Really, the pictures don't do it justice since A- We were on a moving train and B- The colors are muted because of the window. But you get the point. 

Once we arrived in Agrigento, the last stop, we were able to buy bus tickets at a little kiosk outside the station. BC. From there we hopped right on the first bus out to the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas founded in 580 BC, also known as the Valley of the Temples. I was a bit confused when the bus dropped us off because we were not, in fact, in a valley but up on a ridge. One side overlooked the ocean,

the other a valley before the city of Agrigento. 

I know I sound like a broken record, but it was beautiful and it smelled absolutely divine. There were almond trees in bloom everywhere. 

This first thing we saw was the ruins of the Temple to Zeus. Considered the largest temple of its time at roughly 6800sq yards, it was never completed and eventually pillaged for building materials, this is what is left of it.

This big guy is a fallen atlas, there were many on the temple each standing 26.5 feet tall.

Down the way we found the Sanctuary of Chthonic Dieties and Temple to Dioscuri. What you see here was excavated and erected around 1836 by archaeologists. 

The Greeks, being polytheistic, had many deities to worship thus built many temples. I wonder, is it hard worshiping so many different things? What if you forget to worship one? How exactly was that practiced? Things that make me go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Here what is left of the Temple to Herakles from below:

And above:

The temple to Herakles was re-erected in 1922 by an Englishman who built a cottage on site and financed many excavations here.

The next thing I'm about to show you is why people come here, it's the Temple of Concordia. It stands perfectly intact because in 597 a Roman Catholic bishop had it stripped of the pagan idols and turned into a Basillica. 

View from the west:

View from the east:

The statue is pretty impressive and when I saw it, couldn't help but find a bronze out of place here. As it happens this was placed here in 2011 by the artist Igor Mitoraj.

At the very top of the ridge you find the Temple of Hera (Juno).

This is the view from the Temple to Hera to Concordia. In between are rocky outcrops early Christians used as Catacombs. 

By the time we made it to the Temple of Concordia it started to mist and HB was cranky for lunch so we made our way back to the bus stop. Buses come by every few minutes and we hopped on the first one after asking if it went to the Archaeological Museum, located about a mile uphill. We would have walked if not for the weather and lack of sidewalk. He said yes so we boarded. However, he flew clear past it, went up into town and stopped at the bus depot for fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes that felt like fifteen hours with a hungry HB. Not wanting to deplete all of our snacks with another two hour train ride home, we sat tight. 

Once we finally did arrive at the museum, we found the cafe there to be closed. My genius self didn't notice the museum is only open until 1:30 on Mondays and the cafe is closed. Big whoops. At the time I couldn't figure out how that slipped past me since things in Italy are often closed on Mondays (or really, whenever they damn well please). It was the weather. We chose Monday because it had the best forecast. We had about 45 minutes to look through the museum so we made the command decision to give HB a snack and run through as fast as we could. 

The outside is pretty amazing. It sits on the ruins of an old Greek forum, called the Ekklesiasterion, which could seat up to 4,000 people. 

 This is the Hellenistic prostyle temple called the Oratory of Phalaris.

From here there were spectacular views of the temples to Concordia and Juno.

Once inside, HB reaffirmed my aforementioned conclusion that he does not enjoy being the only people in a museum, especially not when hungry. All things considered, being that lunch and nap time were being delayed, it really wasn't that bad. Mostly he just screamed until we put him down so he could run away from us in the opposite direction. 

The museum, to me, was "eh." Only a few things were in English and honestly, how many specimens of the same thing does one really need to see? I suppose if you're into that it would be interesting, but I don't need to see ten cases of pottery fragments. There was a reconstructed atlas from the temple to Zeus standing inside. Sorry, no pictures. I didn't even have the energy to try. 

Halfway through were some sarcophagi from the nearby graveyard. One for a small child was so disturbingly ornate and beautiful I still think about it. Humans may be very different when we look across time and culture but a parent's love for a child is one thing that remains constant. 

There were some cool pots but for me, yawn. I really wished there were more signs in English that told a story. In all honestly, we were pretty disappointed and after about 30 minutes, we left. 

Praising all that is holy, there was a restaurant about 100 meters up the road where we were able to get some sandwiches, wine, and horrid, liqueur drenched desserts that Zack chose. Sated, we set out to begin the ascent back to civilization only to discover that it was raining, quite hard actually. Armed with one retractable umbrella for Zack to hold over himself and HB, I put up the hood on my jacket and took a deep breath. 

At that moment we had two choices and after two minutes of silence we both broke out in total hysterics. Here we are, two fools walking up a very steep hill (that thankfully had a sidewalk most of the way) in the pouring down rain after the first restaurant being closed and the museum closing early. This is just what we do! Good times.

We did get to see some more outstanding views. 

Once we finally reached civilization with thigh muscles burning we thought we were in the clear but we were wrong, we just had a lot of stairs. This is only one of them, I think there were maybe five or six steep stair wells, I think I'm blocking them out (people drive up this thing too!). Sorry for the poor quality. 

At long last we reached the train station and HB passed out! I'm pretty sure we also saw a unicorn.

Naturally, he only slept for fifteen minutes and stayed awake the entire train ride home. Again the train was mostly empty the ride home so the shenanigans didn't bother anyone but us. Needless to say, we all slept very well that night.

Sicily, Part 3

Our second full day in Palermo was a beautiful one. We decided to take our time in the morning and do a test run to the train station for our upcoming excursion to Agrigento. The train station was an easy 5 minute walk from the apartment and we were able to buy tickets from a kiosk. The problem with the kiosk is that it wouldn't take any of our American cards. No one had told us you needed a card with a computer chip in it  and it took us about 10 minutes to realize it ourselves. Luckily the place was pretty deserted so we weren't rushed by other passengers and thank goodness Zack brought his debit card for the European account we use to pay our utilities! Crisis averted.

A short 10 minute walk brought us to the Palermo's Botanical Gardens. First opened in 1795, it is part of Palermo University's Dept of Botanical Sciences. We were surprised, although now looking back I have no idea why because Italians always go overboard on architecture, to be greeted by this building, the gymnasium, upon our arrival.

Ceiling of atrium

In this room lectures were held. Students would stand where you see the heads and the professor would stand to the left on a podium.

The ceiling inside

Ceiling of a side room

Scupltures on the back side of the building.

The Herbarium, which houses an "extremely valuable collection of dried plants from around the world"

In an identical building to the herbarium was the old director's quarters which no house a little museum dedicated to all things palm tree. There were little palm baskets, beauty and dietary products made from palm as well as paintings of palm trees. I found this one interesting.

                                       

Even though it was winter the gardens were still beautiful.

Don't judge me.

Ruins of an old church:

A giant citrus fruit- as big as a human head! It was aptly named citrus gigantus; I shit you not.

Beauty aside, these botanical gardens are still in fervent use today. Some of the less beautiful areas were lined with specimen pot after pot of every subtropical species of plant one could imagine from citrus to shrubs to flowers. The gardens were great for HB since he loves looking at flowers, leaves and trees and had free reign to run everywhere, and run he did.

The botanical gardens are right across the street from the water so we headed over there next. Just look at this!

We didn't spend very much time at the water because it was lunch time but seeing this made me a little sad we got a place in the city rather than on the water.

It was Sunday so of course everything was closed. However, we did find a random little bakery that had two things for sale, one of them didn't look appetizing and the other was...

Hand-breaded hot dogs! Paired with some wine once we got home, we were both fairly satisfied with our Sicilian street food.

Thanks to all the exercise at the gardens, HB took an extra long nap. Our afternoon was cut short which ended up not being a terrible thing since we couldn't find the palace we were looking for. We walked and walked in circles, saw a few cool things and the weather was good.

At Chiesa di San Cataldo, a 12th century Arab-Norman church

Don't ask me WTF this is supposed to be but it was outside a restaurant. We declined to dine here. I swear I don't go looking for this stuff; it just finds me!

This was in Giardino Garibaldi, a giant ficus, considered the largest in Italy.

Chiesa di S. Maria della Catena, built 1520:

Church of St. Francis of Assisi, built 1260:

:

I don't recall which one this was, sorry.

After two hours of wandering around on what, at the time, felt like a fruitless afternoon we found the first place that was open for dinner. As per usual, we were starving! I managed to take pics of the eggplant bruschetta, salad and tiramisu but forgot the main course. Zack had swordfish pasta and I had lasange. Both were pretty tasty!

Best tiramisu of my LIFE.

And the liter of wine. Can't forget that! It may have helped the foot taste better. The chef came out to talk with us, I guess because he was bored. He was from Bangladesh! He all but said he hated it in Sicily. He was a fascinating guy, it almost seemed like he was trying to get us to take him with us haha. Maybe he was! Oh, maybe, he was :/

Do I even need to mention we were the only people in the restaurant at 6pm? This little sign made me giggle.

It is supposed to say, "He who eats makes crumbs." Yes, it was a touristy place near the famous opera house Teatro Massimo (picture taken on the way home)

but at this point I've come to terms with the fact that we will not be dining in the hip restaurants at the fashionably late hour of 8pm. That is just not our life, but still, life is pretty good for us right now.