After our visit to the magnificent Scala dei Turchi, we drove along the southern coast of Sicily to the city of Agrigento. We had reservations at a lovely B&B called Villa San Marco. It’s a peaceful, lovely spot right on the grounds of the historical park of the famous Greek temples of Agrigento. We had a great view of them, in fact, right over the pool:
Our rooms were in the old barn, we think, of the original villa. Scattered around the grounds are tables and chairs for comfortable lounging and reading, and Elliott and I did a lot of that over the weekend as Lena napped. Roaming the grounds is a gigantic Italian mastiff (called a Cane Corso), a snuggly Dachshund puppy, gorgeous peacocks, white fantail doves, a cheerful cockatiel, and maybe a hamster. (Elliott thought he was hibernating. I thought he was… well, you know.)
Our first morning there we explored the grounds before breakfast. There were so many almond trees in blossom! When our group had assembled, we drank lattes over homemade jam (apricot, peach, and prickly pear), fresh rolls, and blood oranges.
We headed into the park to take a closer look at the beautiful remains of the Greek temples. The air was fresh and cool, filled with bees buzzing around almond trees and the laughter of all the children in our crew.
Mixed in between the ruins were these interested iron sculptures. Not sure what the point of them was. Fallen Greek gods?
We stopped for lunch at a little cafe on the park grounds. The kids went to work cracking open last season’s almonds with their dad, Josh. Caleb also helped out by holding Lena. They both need more practice, I think.
The kids offered Lena and me the tasty nuts they had cracked.
We wandered along the ridge to the final temple and stopped for photos of the vista.
Then Josh, Grant, and I took some jumping pictures…
Even little Lucas jumped off the ruins!
We waited until the sun was about to set before finally heading home.
The next morning we couldn’t decide whether to leave early or stick around for more sightseeing. While we pondered, we waited for peacocks to show their colors:
tasted pine needles (and flowers and leaves and rocks and other things), took rides on large dogs,
and checked out the ducks with our friends.
Finally we decided to head home after all. One of the peacocks turned up his feathers at the idea! Quite a farewell.
About a week ago, our friends Josh and Becca invited us to join their family on a trip to historic Agrigento in southern Sicily. We stayed in a wonderful B&B filled with amazing animals (peacocks and mastiffs and cockatiels, oh my!) and spent hours exploring the beautiful Greek temple ruins. But before arriving we took a detour to the beautiful natural wonder called the Steps of Turkey, or the Scala dei Turchi.
The entrance to the scala is down a long flight of wooden stairs and across a secluded beach. The children (Elise, Caleb, Lucas, Becca’s brother Grant, and our little Lena) loved the lapping waves, tidal pools, hermit crabs, and cold wet sand.
After a long walk on the beach we reached the scala itself, which is a massive, sloping outcropping of soft golden-white limestone.
We made our way up and over the sloping “steps” of the scala and found a place to sit on the other side while the older kids explored up and down on the rocks. Lena wanted to climb up to her friend Lucas!
Later Lucas and Lena conferred about the taste of limestone. Lena had tried a lot of it. Lucas, at 16 months, is a little more savvy about the edibility of such things.
Eventually we returned to the beach to watch the sun sink into the Mediterranean.
Such a lovely spot! We’ll take you to see it when you come visit!
Last week my dear friend Becca invited me along to Catania. Lena and I are [pretty much] always game for an adventure, especially when it involves being chauffeured in a minivan filled with Lena’s friends. We piled in with Becca’s three kids and her brother, who is visiting for a few weeks. And we took off for the Big City: nearby Catania, about 25 minutes away.
Catania’s streets are full of fresh produce, meats, and cheeses for sale. We could choose from…
… fresh fish in the fish market,
local cheeses, wines, and olive oil,
lots of nuts (Elise liked these!),
and plenty of fresh meat. I’ll spare you photos of hanging goats and chickens!
Becca bought veggies and fruit for her crew,
we both stocked up on Parmesan Reggiano,
and we bought fresh pasta for that night. She made pasta di pistachi (pistachio pasta, a local winter favorite) while I bought some fresh local shrimp and turned our dinner into shrimp scampi with pasta.
We also stopped at a cafe for lunch and admired all the beautiful gelato (can’t wait till the weather is warmer!)
and studied all the children’s costumes with fascination. Carnevale was in full swing and all the Italian boys and girls were transformed into Medieval knights and princesses (and some Snow Whites and Spidermans, too) for the occasion.
These guys are a fun crowd to hang with. Thanks for having us along!
Things have been busy around here! We have some friends of friends staying with us for the next few days and so have been eagerly preparing for them and now are enjoying their visit. They work in Romania and are in Sicily for vacation. It seems that Sicily is doing her best to welcome them, for it is a glorious spring day with temperatures in the mid-60s, filled with birdsong and sunshine. The kids are out on the balcony enjoying the warm Sicilian sun to their heart’s content.
Here are a few photos from my phone, all taken within the last few weeks. Happy weekend, everyone!
“I have got to find those clothespins Mama hid in here!”
You’ve heard of snow days, but… rain days? We hadn’t heard of them either.
The rain started yesterday. Elliott suggested at lunchtime that I should perhaps close the shutters around the house, just in case. Our Italian house has thick old wooden shutters for each door and window. We’ve learned the hard way that leaving them open, rain or shine, means bad things when the rain comes. So yesterday afternoon I closed most of the shutters, and then that evening I shut a few more. We had a couple potted plants in our bathroom window so I didn’t bother with that window. Oh, and we took the shutters off our gigantic kitchen window months ago (we want to see the valley and Mt Etna all the time!), so there was nothing to shut there.
The wind picked up during the night but we slept like babies. Around 6:15am Lena woke up, as she always does, and I went into her room to nurse her. I couldn’t believe the racket in there. The wind was whistling around the cliffs beneath our house at a million miles an hour, throwing rain right through the thick shutters. Wind was traveling right through the AC/heater unit over my head, making a shrieking nose. I turned Lena’s sleep sheep/noisemaker back on and slipped back into our room.
The racket was even worse in there. The wind whipped along our balcony around the edge of the cliffs, carrying debris with it and undoubtedly sweeping our balcony clean of anything we’d been foolish enough to leave out there. (Our kitchen rugs hung out to “dry”? Our potted plants? Would we ever see them again?) Even opening the doors between bedrooms took some strength because of the suction created by the wind. I felt like I was yanking open the door of the fridge when I pulled open the door to our bedroom.
At 7am Elliott’s alarm went off, which was just as well because we were both lying there in the dark anyway. A few minutes later his phone rang. It was one of his soldiers. Should he cancel all the veterinary appointments for the day?
A few more minutes passed. Elliott checked Facebook on my phone. School buses were leaving to pick up kids for the base school, but Elliott wasn’t sure if he should leave the house himself.
A few more minutes. Elliott checked my phone again. And this time… an astonishing turn of events. The base was closed! All non-essential personnel were ordered to stay home and stay safe. We looked at each other with glee. We got a “rain day”! No snow days in Sicily… but rain days, well, we’ll take ’em! And when the scene looks like this outside of the base, you can see why they decided to keep everyone at home.
Elliott said he would go brew us some coffee. I got out of bed, yanked on my pants. “I want to be with you to assess the damage.”
We opened the door to our room and starting flipping on lights, examining our house to see what had flooded, what had been blown away, and what shutters and windows were still in place. Our potted plants hadn’t made it, sadly. They were smashed on the balcony and only scattered pieces of them remained. Our kitchen rugs were still out on the balcony, but they had been ripped off the line and were lying in matted messes against the railing. We walked on to the kitchen, where Elliott spotted the water first.
There was a deep pool of water underneath our kitchen window, with more pouring steadily in. We switched from slippers to rain boots and began to slosh through the dining room (also partially flooded) and into the kitchen. I guess the floor slopes in the direction of the big window because the water hadn’t continued towards our kitchen cabinets and food items. Water blew in our faces as we stood in the puddles; it was being blown through the hinges of the windows and was also coming from new leaks in the ceiling. We blinked in the onslaught, getting our bearings.
And then we did the only thing we could do: pulled out a bucket and broom and started cleaning up the mess.
Here’s a video from midway through the mop up:
We continued to clean up for most of the day, especially as the rain and wind abated in the evening. There is more rain and wind predicted for tonight and tomorrow, though, so we’ll see what the morning brings us! In the meantime, we’re tucked cozily in front of the fire, knitting, reading, and writing letters to family. The perfect rain day.
