New Year

New Year

Poised between past and future
Between alpha and omega
Between failure and fear of failure

I rub the almond that we’d picked,
Unripe, in Agrigento, Sicily. Once plucked
It could not ripen. Hard in my hand

It lodges: a furred, green pebble
Now blemished black. The nutcracker
Had skidded off its hull.

My mind goes back
To that low ridge of broken temples,
Tumbled blocks of stone,

Lintels at crazy angles,
Weeds creviced in the rock,
Wine-dark caverns, olive groves.

At one cave wall we whispered and,
Incredibly, the echo boomed like thunder.
Were the gods displeased?

Or had the gods fled long ago
The lemon gardens of Agrigento,
Lizards flicking the hot stones?

We are not strangers, yet we were
Half-strangers to each other then,
Lovers lost in a stricken city

Of split columns, cracked entablatures.
Just like empires, we decline and fall.
Our glories fade like jasmine flowers,

Our dreams die with the gods,
Our empty promises
Useless as unripe amandolas.

Vale Agrigento

So now it's vale Agrigento and its bougainvillea gardens ...

... its ancient olive trees ...

... its catacombs ...



... and its dry, sandy gorges ...

... not forgetting its sacred temples, of course ...

... for it's time to move on - away from the coast, and into the interior ...

Agrigento: The Valley Of The Temples (2)

Strung out along a ridge facing the sea, its series of Doric temples are the most captivating of Sicilian Greek remains and are unique outside Greece. The Rough Guide To Sicily

Henry Adams, in 1889, called Akragas, or ancient Agrigento, Athens with improvements. Pindar called it the most beautiful city of mortals. We found it a stunning place, and quite large enough to absorb all the May visitors. Certain spots we had completely to ourselves. Our artistic, Portuguese B&B landlady had enthused about the site's sacred, almost mystical aura, and about the extraordinary quality of the light. She was right on both counts.

The sacred buildings of this valley date from the 5th century BC. This is the temple of Castor and Pollux (or the Dioscuri - the Gemini twins) ...

And this is the temple of Concord (Concordia - Roman goddess of harmony, agreement and understanding), the most intact of the temples ...

Here's the temple of Hera (Juno), wife of Zeus (Jove or Jupiter), king of the gods ...



Looking back at the temple of Hera through prickly pear cactus, almonds and olives ...

Finally, this is the temple of Heracles (Hercules), son of Zeus and Alcmene, some would say the greatest of the Greek heroes (what he lacked in cleverness and subtlety, he made up for in courage and sexual prowess) ...

I just loved the Valley of the Temples, and it's given me a strong desire to travel further, to go to Greece, and Crete, and the Greek islands, so I can experience firsthand much more of early Greek culture, and walk in the footsteps of the gods ...

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' / Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades / For ever and for ever when I move. / How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! / As tho' to breathe were life ... TENNYSON Ulysses

Agrigento: The Valley Of The Temples (1)

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 ...