4/25 Next adventure – Monday, 25 aprile – Italian Liberation Day! This Italian National Holiday commemorates the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic (think Mussolini) which was thought of as a puppet state of the Nazis during World War II. Stores were all closed but the bars were open so we were able to have our Italian breakfast, caffè and a brioche. We walked a bit before leaving Ragusa and saw a community garden – wow it was really good.

And on down the valley were two bridges, one which appeared to be the remains of a Roman aqueduct although this one seemed renovated or rebuilt. We don’t think it is used for vehicular traffic. The Cave of Saint Dominic is hidden away in the trees and shrubs this side of the bridge.

Our taxi driver who was going to take us to Agrigento arrived at 10:00 and the van was fantastic. Dario was very nice and took us on a two hour ride through some gorgeous country.

We saw some beautiful scenery, including more of those stone walls created from the rocks out of the fields that had been cleared. There were also many areas of new trees which were all protected by a plastic covered hot house. Actually, we noticed that orange tree seedlings are grown in greenhouses. It was truly amazing and nice to see the old traditions carried on today.

Then there is the industrial area – hmmm, am I in Bayonne or Newark, NJ???

Even found some windmills, along with more greenhouses. Besides the windmills, we saw several acres of solar panels in some fields. These guys are trying to safe the earth. And talk about recycling – barrels to separate plastic, paper/cardboard, glass, organic and a category “indifferenza” for non-categorized refuse are set up throughout the towns. And, trash is picked up six days a week, a different category each day! Tomorrow is organic day — the food residue predominantly.

Beautiful view of the sea but sometimes those signs just jump right out in front of me and say “take a picture of me,” so I did!

As we neared Agrigento we were able to see the temples on the top of the hills. Wow were they amazing! We are looking forward to seeing the Valley of the Temples and the rest of the history of Agrigento. And of course we will post photos of these amazing ancient architectural feats.

When we got to our apartment Francesco came out to meet us and help with our bags. His wife Carla was still cleaning the apartment so after showing us where everything was he drove us to the old part of the city so we could walk around. We decided we wanted to eat so we found a lovely restaurant, sat outside and had an amazing lunch.

I had spaghetti cacio with crisp artichokes (spaghetti with black pepper and crisp artichokes) absolutely fantastic! Jim had spaghetti with pumpkin shellfish and shrimp and it was also delicious but he liked mine better. We had bread that was toasted with olive oil and oregano on it – oh boy was that ever good. After lunch we decided to walk a little so took a lot of steps to see what was at the top of the town, a path that dead-ended, so headed back downhill and back to our apartment.

We learned another fact today though. The extensive use of bottled water here was driving us crazy, what with all the concern, including ours, about the use of plastic. Turns out, the water here and a lot of Sicily is pumped up to tanks on the roofs of the buildings which then “create” both storage and water pressure for use in the house or business. The water is pumped topside only two or three times a week though — not continuously and yes, one might run out depending on consumption. The folks here don’t like the taste of the water that has been stored in those tanks and worry some that the water might get tainted while sitting in the tanks. So, they use bottled water.

That was enough for one day. Jim had to work on getting us another car so we have one for when we leave here on Monday.