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| Another beautiful day.....blue skies, sunshine and comfortable temperatures. Today is to be "our vacation from our vacation"--a day to take it easy for the most part. After breakfast--we are the only people in the breakfast room and still have not seen any other guests in the hotel--we have an 8:30 appointment to meet Michele Gallo, who has arranged guides and other services for me in Sicily. He will give us a little tour of the temples and we will have a chance to get to know each other. We arrive at the parking lot and wait for a while...after about ten minutes, I call him just to make sure we are at the right spot. It turns out that he has been waiting at the bar for us. We are happy to meet each other--after years of phone calls and e-mails, it is nice to put a face to a name. He gives us a very interesting tour of two of the temples--when a guide is good and knows his stuff and can communicate, it is usually well worth getting one. He uses a Japanese guide book as a visual aid...the illustrations are better than those he has found in any other books for showing details of the temples. The temples are quite spectacular close up.....we learn about the history of the city and how Agrigento was a major outpost in the 5th century BC. The Temple of Concordia--the most intact--is the best preserved Doric temple in the world (according to Michele). As with other well preserved temples, it was used as a Christian church and therefore not pillaged or destroyed. The second temple we visit--the temple of the Olympian Zeus--is mostly in ruins. It was never finished but it was planned to be the largest temple anywhere in the Greek world before construction was halted in 406 BC. We have a chance to discuss business--he is very interested in how my travel consulting works--and we also talk about Italian literature (Diana writes down some writers he recommends) and about the Inspector Montalbano books. He is amazed that they are able to be translated into English, because of how much Sicilian dialect is in the books...sometimes even Italians have problems with some of the words and usage. He loves the books and seems tickled that we know and like them. He reminds us that the author--Andrea Camilleri--is from the nearby port town of Porto Empedocle. That town is the model for Vigata, the fictional town in the books, and Agrigento is the model for the headquarters town of Montelusa. He tells that some restaurants in Porto Empedocle have begun featuring "Montalbano menus"; in the books, there are long, detailed descriptions of the meals the police inspector eats. The Italian television series based on the books, used the area around Ragusa (where we head next) as the location. We say goodbye to Michele--he has a tour group at 10 am--and head back to the hotel. We sit outside and write postcards, enjoying the weather, the view and the grounds. We decide to have a picnic for lunch at the hotel so we drive into Agrigento to get some bread and fruit.....it is a busy Saturday morning, but I find a parking space not far from the "centro". We go back to the same bakery and "frutta verdura" that we went to nine years earlier....we buy some tomatoes, olives and--on impulse--a large sack of pistachio nuts. On the way back to the car, we pass a man selling cheese out of his truck and we buy a sizable piece of fresh ricotta for Euro 1. Back at the hotel, we feast on ham, salami, cheese, olives and--according to Diana--the best tomatoes she has ever had...small cherry tomatoes bursting with flavor. After lunch, we just hang out and read, rest and write.....we are really taking advantage of the grounds of the hotel. Later in the afternoon, we get in the car and head for Palma di Montechiaro as part of our Lampedusa itinerary. Lampedusa went to stay in the town near the end of his life--it has been a family fief in earlier times--but now he had a chance to be an "ordinary" citizen. It is significant because several key scenes and location for "The Leopard" are drawn from his stay in Palma di Montechiaro and from the life of his grandfather, who lived here.. Although the town is somewhat shabby and rundown, we visit the "mother church"--the cathedral--which was built by his family and the convent next door which inspired another key scene. Driving back to Agrigento, we notice again the rows and rows of plastic covered plantings--sort of rough greenhouses--covering acres and acres of melons, tomatoes and other crops......when you look at the scenery from a distance, it appears to be a sea of plastic. We make a gelato stop at the beach resort of Marina di Palma, a run down and quiet (in the off-season) beach resort and then head back to Agrigento. We stop at the last temple....set high on the end of the ridge. We try to use the ticket that we had purchased this morning for entrance to the other two temples....but the ticket taker thinks that we need to buy a new ticket. He can't explain to us why he thinks that and we can't convey why we don't think we need to buy a new ticket. In the end, he reluctantly lets us pass. It is good climb to the temple and the stairway is in some disrepair but we inspect the Temple of Giunone and enjoy the view over the valley to the sea and back to the town. Dinner tonight is at Leon D'Oro in the beach town of San Leone, just a few minutes away from our hotel. We had eaten there nine years earlier and I have recommended it to many clients. Luckily, we had made reservations in the afternoon because, although the restaurant is virtually empty at eight o'clock when we arrive, the maitre d' is soon turning away customers without reservations. There is also a large party in the next room--a French tour group of about 40--who are having dinner. This, combined with the regular Saturday night crowd--the Italians start arriving about 9 pm--makes for stress for the staff. They are having a hard time taking care of all the customers and they seem to be shorthanded. Our food is quite good.....I start with smoked tuna roulades wrapped around a cheese filling and Diana has the antipasto Siciliana. When she asks for "panelle"--chick pea fritters--the waiter says they don't have them tonight but they show up in the antipasto and in another plate for the table. My pasta is fettucine with small octopii and fava beans and Diana has a "maltagliati" (a wide pasta similar to pappardelle) with a vegetable sauce. For seconds, I have a grilled fish (picked out for me by the waiter--he brings it by for my approval on its way to the kitchen) and Diana has "involitini di vitello", thin pieces of veal wrapped around a cheese filling. Everything is very good....although my fish is not as spectacular as I had hoped for....and we also are enjoying watching the customers as they arrive and get settled. However, we get a bit more of the people watching than we really want. The "disapperaring Italian waiter" scenario materializes and we have great difficulty getting someone to offer us dessert or the check. In fact, the waiters did not "disappear", but they were so busy with getting food for the rest of the customers, that our need for the check was a lower priority. After all, we had already gotten our food. In any case, we finally get our check and the waiters are somewhat apologetic......but it just took too long for two tired American tourists. The bill is very reasonable for the amount of food and wine we consumed....about Euro 65.00. It is a quick ride back to the hotel, a fast view of the temples lit up on the ridge and to bed. Tomorrow to Ragusa. |
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