Here's where we are on the map. Agrigento, where we started this morning, is located below Palermo, on the other side of the island. Our drive today took us West along the coast for 40-50 miles, and then North...all on two-lane roads. The drive actually reminded me of driving on Old Highway 63 in Iowa...lots of turns and hills.
The report on the Greek temples in Agrigento is a favorable one. We spent close to three hours or so on the grounds of the temples, and in the separate museum. We jointly promise not to bore any of our family and friends with the dozens of pictures that we took of all these sights. But there are some really good shots. This is not necessarily one of them.
The countryside in Sicily is hilly, rocky and not densely populated. I wonder about the amount of rain that the region receives, and what grows in these grainy soils. We certainly didn't see many ( read...none!) corn fields. Lots of olive groves. And they look to be tilling on the sides of some pretty steep hills...a farming activity that I don't think the Scott County Iowa Conservation Service would allow.
There were remnants in several locations of old, stone aqueducts, not unlike the ones shown in this picture. I'm guessing that they've been trying to solve their water problems on this island forever.
2 did a great job reading the details in Google Maps to bring us to our Palermo destination with nominal problems. A word to the foolish: don't even THINK about a driving vacation in Europe without a GPS device. The options at round-a-bouts hit so fast that a driver is helpless without a navigator calling out the turns. And even then, you'll miss some.
Dinner tonight was at a Sicily-tour-book-recommendation place not far from our hotel. 2 had a mushroom pasta...that was ok, but couldn't compare the the mushroom appetizer that we had two nights back in Siacusa.
Mine was a fish combination plate that was again, good but not great.
Our wine was one that I thought was going to be a Sangiovese-Cabernet blend according to the menu. And it was, but the bottle read Chianti Classico. I asked the head waiter about the mis-connect, but he insisted it was the correct wine. When we got home, I did some checking, and the winery does present it as a Chianti Classico. Made with Sangiovese and Cabernet grapes.
The restaurant probably should call the bottle a Chianti on the menu rather than present it as something else. Of course, a better solution would be for LtPC to ask some better questions about the wine he is ordering. Which I might have done if I had any concept of the Italian language.
Moving on...
Sadly, my 2013 cycling season is done. Our itinerary these last few days has just not allowed for rides. I actually took some time before dinner this evening and broke down the bike and boxed it up for air travel on Saturday. This task had been a little stress in the back of my mind because I knew I had to get the peddles off for packing, a job I had the bike shop in Bettendorf perform for the outbound segment. But I had oiled the peddle joints Tuesday in Saracusa, thinking about the future like a good Boy Scout, and the peddles came off without too much trouble. And only a minor abrasion to my wrist.
The plan tomorrow is to do a walking tour of the Old Town of Sicily and enjoy our last day of what has been a great vacation. We'll do some twittering as opportunities are presented.
All for now. Thanks again to all of you in the Peanut Gallery for checking in.
Ciao!!!
BCOT
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