Day 2 – Agrigento
On the road again, we drive from Siracusa to Agrigento. It’s a very long drive, but we wanted to see
Sicily and we’re seeing it – like cross county truckers… I keep a look out for Don Corleone or road
signs “Godfather Mafia – this exit”, but to no avail. What we do see is the beauty of Sicily
farmland, mountains and endless small towns.
I’m surprised to see such a variation of plants such as;
poppies of all different colors, pine trees, Cyprus trees, palm trees, fruit
trees and cactus - lots and lots of cactus.
I thought they only grew in the desert, but they are all over Sicily and
are almost ready to explode into full bloom.
We finally reach Agrigento.
It is a small town located on the top of the hill, not far from the
coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. It
is best known for the Greek ruins that sit at the edge of town.
We find our B&B and proceeded to create havoc. A few moments after we checked into our very
spacious room, we turned on the two air conditioning units and suddenly our
room lost power. I headed to the front
desk to report the problem and discovered the power had gone out for the entire
B&B. The manager had to reset the
fuse box and all was well – for 2 minutes and then it went out again. The manager was dumb founded as this had
never happened before and she had to reset the fuse box again. As she was doing this, I was sending
telepathic messages to Pamm and Marilee telling them to turn off our AC units… Which they did after the power went out the 2nd
time and we didn’t turn them on again.
Our room had an open ‘communal’ shower area (as well as a
normal one in the bathroom) that had 2 shower heads. Pamm and I had to give it a try. I made the comment that I was going to use it
like a slip and slide. We got silly and
put on our bathing suits and turned the water on. Important to note – the B&B is a stone
building, the walls are stone, the floors are stone and there are no carpets. When stone gets wet, it gets slippery… So as I proceeded to walk into the shower
area, I found out that we had indeed created a slip and slide. Proving the old saying “careful what you wish
for…” I slipped and went splat, but no
damage was done to me or the floor.
Then, when we had finished with our fun, Pamm turned off the shower
spickets. There were 2 sets of them in
the shower so she turned both of them off.
When we went to use the water
again a little later, we found we had no water at all. What kind of place was this – first the
power, now the water! It was early in
the evening and the front desk was closed, so we had to call the B&B owner
at home. He says it will take him about
½ hour to get there and asks us to meet him on the main street, as our room is
in back alley and there is no room number to guide him to. Marilee and I walked up to the main street and
sit on a stoop in front of the main B&B door to wait for him. Shortly a very handsome man comes walking in
our direction. Marilee assumes this is
the B&B owner and uses her best Italian to ask “Are you here to help
us?” He looks at us both from top to
bottom and responds with a smile “What kind of help do you need?” She apologizes and says we are waiting for
another man – he looked us up and down again, smiles, and then goes on his
way. Lord knows what he must be
thinking…
The owner finally arrives, we walk him to our room and he
turns checks the spickets in the communal shower and discovers the
problem. One of the sets is the main
water shut off value for our room…
Finally prepped and ready, we head out to find some
dinner. It’s about 8:00p which is the
normal time for dinner in most of Italy.
We walked and walked and walked but everything was closed in this sleepy
small town. We finally found a small
restaurant that was hidden off the main street and we were the only
customers. The search was worth it as
the pizzas were delicious and so was the house wine.
After our long drive and busy night, we overslept and were
going to miss the 10a cut off time for breakfast. I got dressed quickly and went to the
breakfast room to bring back food for Pamm and Marilee. As I proceeded to try to take out a plate of
3 biscotti and 3 yogurts, the woman working in the breakfast room yelled at me in
Italian (while using grandiose arm and body gestures) and would not allow me to
leave the room with the food. When we dropped off the key at the front desk,
Pamm (who speaks the best Italian in our trio) found the women in the breakfast
room and questioned her about why she yelled at me. The woman proceeded to yell at Pamm that we
had slept to late and missed breakfast. Pamm yelled back and just kept saying “3
biscotti, 3 biscotti, what’s the problem, it’s a B&B, I’m hungry, 3
biscotti…” The woman turned her back on
Pamm and ignored her – so Pamm said “thank you” and we left.
Off to the next stop, but first we
explore the Greek ruins.
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