Sunday 25th September
We were up reasonably early to prepare for a 10 a.m. departure. So after showers, tea and much repacking we tidied up the apartment and prepared to take the bags down the stairs to the car. Our plan was to drive to the Valley of the Temples at Agricento, check them out and then continue on to Palermo. As usual, getting out of the city was the trick but we managed that with reasonable ease. Then it was mostly Autostrada to Agrigento which took about two hours.
This from Wikipedia:
The Valle dei Templi (Italian: [ˈvalle dei ˈtɛmpli]; Sicilian: Vaddi di li Tempri), or Valley of the Temples, is an archaeological site in Agrigento (ancient Greek Akragas), Sicily. It is one of the most outstanding examples of ancient Greek art and architecture, and is one of the main attractions of Sicily.
The term "valley" is a misnomer, the site being located on a ridge outside the town of Agrigento.
The Valley includes remains of seven temples, all in Doric style. The ascription of the names, apart from that of the Olympeion, are a mere tradition established in Renaissance times. The temples are:
- Temple of Concordia, whose name comes from a Latin inscription found nearby, and which was built in the 5th century BC. Turned into a church in the 6th century AD, it is now one of the best preserved in the Valley.
- Temple of Juno, also built in the 5th century BC. It was burnt in 406 BC by the Carthaginians.
- Temple of Heracles, who was one of the most venerated deities in the ancient Akragas. It is the most ancient in the Valley: destroyed by an earthquake, it consists today of only eight columns.
- Temple of Olympian Zeus, built in 480 BC to celebrate the city-state's victory over Carthage. It is characterized by the use of large scale atlases.
- Temple of Castor and Pollux. Despite its remains including only four columns, it is now the symbol of modern Agrigento.
- Temple of Hephaestus (Vulcan), also dating from the 5th century BC. It is thought to have been one of the most imposing constructions in the valley; it is now however one of the most eroded.
- Temple of Asclepius, located far from the ancient town's walls; it was the goal of pilgrims seeking cures for illness.
The Valley is also home to the so-called Tomb of Theron, a large tuff monument of pyramidal shape; scholars suppose it was built to commemorate the Romans killed in the Second Punic War."
Valley of the Temples - photos
The above link gives some impression of the scale of the site.
Arriving at this sprawling complex of Greek and Roman ruins we realized that it was more then we could handle at the time and perhaps needed a guide to get the full impact of the site. You will see from the Wikipedia description above that the site is huge and covers a lot of ground. There were multiple entrances and tickets were required for all of them. Checking guided tours many lasted several hours either starting from Palermo and involving the bus journey from there or starting at the gates of the site. So deciding that today might not be the best day to try to do this, we booked a shorter tour for Wednesday afternoon, starting from the site.
During this decision process, MAC decided to call the owner of the restaurant called
Ristorante Ardigna which is about an hour away from Palermo and out in the
wilds near Trapani. Efforts to contact the restaurant before had not resulted
in managing to get a response. This case was no different. So we started on the
trip to Palermo and our AirBnB. Soon after setting off the phone rang and
Salvatore from Ristorante Ardigna, had returned MAC’s call!! We asked if we
could have dinner there this evening and he said we could, they open at 8 p.m.
and come along. Thus was dinner fixed. MAC had read about this place on a
travel blog by a couple who had been there and described the remarkable place.
We
continued on to Palermo and after entering the city we navigated the usual maze
of small narrow streets until we ‘found’ our AirBnB at Vicolo Casa Professa 15,
close to the university. Parking was, as usual an issue but we found a spot near
the entrance to the building. The building boasts a parking garage but more of
that later. We unloaded the bags and got them up to the apartment which was on
the first floor, (i.e. one above the ground floor). The apartment is very
spacious with a large kitchen, two bathrooms, a large bedroom and living room
and two small balconies. Not overly furnished but adequate and has a
washer/dryer which is nice.
So
after a rest we decide to set out for the restaurant at around 6 p.m. It took
some time to get out of the city, as usual and then we were on highway for
quite a while before turning off onto smaller roads and ultimately what seemed
like a farm track. This then morphed into a narrow paved road leading to the
restaurant. Our expectation for a place so remote was a small building with a
few tables. Not so!! The place was large and we later found out there were
rooms where one could stay. The restaurant itself was huge and the car park almost
full with cars. Obviously, many people had heard of this place and came here
for dinner. It is open for dinner from Tuesday to Sunday and for lunch on
Saturday and Sunday too. The restaurant was crowded with mainly groups and
families. There must have been 20 or more tables. The building was an old
‘macellaria’ which was a farm with animals and agriculture where a family lived
as, possibly, tenant farmers. Salvatore told us he had been here for 28 years,
(he is now 51) and had just completed the final purchase of the last piece of
the property. His wife, who he became engaged to at the age of 14 and married 9
years later, is in the kitchen and he is ‘front of the house’. Salvatore, when
he heard we were from NYC, told us that he was friends with ‘Frankie’ of
Frankie’s Spuntino’s restaurant in Brooklyn and that Frankie visited every
October to revisit his Sicilian roots!! Small world!!
The
menu is ‘Fisso’ or a la carte. The ‘Fisso’ menu is euro 40 which includes wine
or other drinks, in fact ‘tutti’. We elected for that. So Salvatore came over,
we told him what we wanted and he sort of made up the menu from there. A liter
of red wine appeared followed rapidly by 10 or so antipasti which included tripe,
escargot, caponata, arosticcini, a couple of cheeses, eggplant, etc. This was
followed by a large dish of ravioli and also another of gnocchi in a cream
sauce. Finally there were the meat dishes of various grilled meats, a huge
shank of pork and
By
this time we were stuffed and had to ask for boxes to take away what was left
which would be a full meal, in itself!! Although we declined dessert, they
brought it in a take away container anyway!! We ended the meal with an
espresso. It was an amazing and unforgettable meal in a remarkable location.
Definitely one for the record books of unusual but great places to have dinner
if you can make the trip.
The
trip home was reasonably uneventful until we go to the apartment and tried to
park the car in the garage. The turn into the garage is extremely tight and in
doing so, we scraped the right side of the car door but eventually we made the
turn into the garage but how we will get the car out, remains to be seen as it
is an almost impossible turn from the narrow street, where there are parked
cars, out into the street. We will have to plan any car trips very carefully.
Completely
stuffed from the meal and tired from the day’s activities, we were soon in bed.
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