Today began with a splendid banquet at our B&B, Villa del Saraceno. Claudio, our host, prepared pesto, bacon and cheese omelets, which were delicious - Rachael thinks it was the best omelet she can remember, ever.
The big event for the day is a visit to the Valley of the Temples, the vast archeological site below the city of Agrigento. It has (again), some of the best preserved Greek ruins in the world, including the magnificent Concordia Temple - instantly recognizable because it was adopted by UNESCO as its icon. It was a perfect day for the visit - sunny but not too hot, and sufficiently off season so that it wasn't crushed with visitors. We were here for about three hours or so, walking from one end to the other and then back again.
Most of the remaining miles to Licata were a delight, following tertiary road SS 54. As we're finding on many of these backroads, the surfaces are very unpredictable and irregular - rutted, broken, potholed, vegetation encroaching over and through the pavement. It makes for slow cycling, but as compensation they are virtually carfree.
A bit later though, near the coastal village of Chiotta, road quality hit a new low - it more or less disappeared completely, dissolving into scattered chunks of pavement almost completely covered by vegetation, all sunken a foot or so below the grade of the preceding road. It looks like there was a slide here sometime back, and they've never come back to repair the damage. All of the nearby houses are abandoned and falling into ruin.
We arrived at our B&B in Lacata not long before sundown, and soon after making ourselves presentable we headed out for a look at the town before sundown and then to find a meal. The streets were very full, and some sort of festivity was occurring that involved children and adolescents dressed up in traditional outfits. Overhead, the skies were filled with hundreds of swifts sweeping between the rooftops.
Total elevation gain: today, 3000'; for the tour, 25,300'.
Rachael with Claudio, our host at the wonderful Villa del Saraceno. Best breakfast of the tour!
Another tile staircase, in Porto Empedocle. I've been surprised to keep running into these - we've known about the large one in Caltagirone coming up a few days down the road, but not that they are found in many of these older towns.
On provincial road 64, avoiding the dangerous highway and a tunnel. It was a beautiful route but slow going because the surface is so distressed - this is one of the better sections.
On provincial 'road' 84, near Ciotta. Actually, a few hundred yards of the road are just missing, due to a slide from the looks of it. The houses are all crumpled and abandoned; the road broken by gaps, barricades, and other obstacles.Here, Rachael cautiously rolls along some sheet metal crossing a deep chasm.
Finally we break out of the wilderness and return to civilization. Now we're really close to Licata, if you don't factor in the missed turns and dead ends just ahead.
A traditional Sicilian painted cart! This is way over the top - I didn't think there was any chance at all that we'd see one of these on the road. I thought they only survived in museums.
We had a delicious dinner tonight at La Lamprada, a place recommended to us by our hosts. This is caponata, the traditional Sicilian eggplant side dish.
