It took the best part of a day to travel by slow, provincial train from Noto to Agrigento. Worse still I had a hangover, as it had been my lovingpartner's birthday the night before, which we'd celebrated with a very fine meal, but far too many limoncellos ...
First the train crawled through a flat landscape of grassland and cereal fields. Then it became hillier and more interesting - lots of citrus and vines, all in little plots. Though many of these orchards and vineyards were covered in unsightly, white plastic sheeting - presumably to protect against the pigeons, of which there were vast flocks ...
Finally we arrived at Agrigento. It's famous for its Greek ruins - some of the best outside Greece. But let's leave that till tomorrow. For now we had to drag our cases up the Via Atenea to the most delighful B&B you could ever hope to find. This was the view from our breakfast terrace (painted, I think, by the lady owner, who was Portuguese) ...
And this is my own photo of it ...
The next day, before entering The Valley of the Temples, we spent a couple of hours in the Archaeological Museum, where there were many beautiful vases ...
Looking forward to the next posting on Agrigento. I also find myself wondering why lemoncello was not on your supply list for the backyard wilderness experience.
ReplyDeleteI blew up the photo of the vase to look at the detail. It looks to me as if the woman is holding a spanner...Tramp
ReplyDeleteGeorge - the reason is, we'd already drunk the bottles we'd brought back. Otherwise they would have been first on the list, lightweight or not ;)
ReplyDeleteTramp - I've had a closer look at it myself. That spanner - indeed, the whole tableau - beats me. Anyone any interpretive suggestions?