Vally of the Temples - Artigento

Up this morning and started with a great breakfast at our B&B.  This is what we like in a B&B, fresh pastries, nice little sandwiches, not a wrapped bread in site.


We have a guide booked for today, Laura, who is meeting us at 9:30 this morning for about a 4 hour tour.  What an amazing tour, we got so much more out of the day than if we had done it on our own.  We spent over 3 hours going along the 2 km stretch of temples.

Temple of Juno

Hercules temple

Dioscuri Temple

2km road connects the temples

Juno temple

When the Christians took over they started to use burial chambers near the temples

Temple of Concordia

View of Agrigento where we stay for 2 nights 

Laura showing us white plater that still remains on some of the ruins

Beautiful views 

Exhibit being worked on to demonstrate how the temples were built, there are different exhibits being erected around the temples 

Agrigento Goats

We then on for about another 45 minutes in the museum.  Laura is from Artigento, and remember spending a lot of time playing on what is now the archeological  grounds.  The temples were spectacular, dating back to the 5th century BC.  The Concordia temple is the 3rd best Greek preserved temple in the world after one in Athens and one in Naples.  Amazing  that 2 of them are in Italy.  Laura was able to give us lots of history as she studied in Athens following Palermo.  She worked on excavation here when she moved back to Artigento and worked on excavation until 2014 until she became a guide.

In the middle is now the symbol of Sicily, Trinacria,, which we see everywhere.  This is the first one from 5 Century BC

One of the giants is in the museum from the huge temple Zeus, there is a replica of the palace beside Nancy and below.  Makes Ron look short

You can see where the giants are in this replica of the temple, imagine how huge this temple must have been

Following our visit to the Valley of the Temples we stopped at a bar to pick up sandwiches for a picnic at the beach.  It is now 2PM and we are hungry, so happy for any food.   We found a nice spot along the beach, good to get some food.

After lunch we went further along the coast to Scala dei Turchi.  This is also known as the Arab steps, gorgeous white cliffs right on the shore.  Access to the steps was closed, but we chose to ignore the signs and go through the barriers to get onto the cliffs.  There has definitely been a landslide here, and this was why the barricades were up, but all was fine.  It was extremely windy when we went around the corner of the cliff, but so spectacular it was well worth the visit.

The GPS took us at the lookout first which is about 1 KM from the entrance.

We then walked to the  Scala dei Turchi.

We had to crawl through 2 of these to climb the stairs.  

Following Scala dei Turchi we went further along the coast to Lido Rossello beach.  This is a much less popular spot than Scala dei Turchi, but just as beautiful.  You could not get on the cliffs here but the views were spectacular.  A beer was had by all and we enjoyed some nice sunshine. The place was actually lock when Andre tried to open the door but the owner unlock the door. And the beer were only 2 Euro each.

Funniest part of the day was Ron stepped into a what he thought was a little bit of mud, but turned into a sink hole and Ron lost his shoe in it.  He had to pull the shoe out of the mud, totally covered in what looked like cement, and Ron said it was heavy like cement.  Ron tried washing it off in the ocean, and his shoe is now sitting outside and he is hoping it will dry.  Right now he is wearing Andres sandals with socks....

Lido Rossello

Time for a beer

Ron pulling his show out of the "quick sand" cement

Trying to clean the clay off his show

Wendy walked the beach instead of the shortcut after seeing what happened to Ron

Amazing spot for a beach bar!

When we got back to town we went for a walk for a gelato which the B&B owner said was the best place in town. Super busy and delicious indeed. We then explored the town a bit.


Supper tonight we pick up a bottle of wine and Nancy, Andre and I had leftover pizza, Ron bought a very sad sandwich from a shop.  We are all now in the breakfast room, working on blogs and pictures for our blogs, as well as planning for tomorrow.  Looking forward to another great day.

See how much Nancy is smiling, this is because Ron usually shares hers, but he got his own tonight.  Nice sandals Ron!

Cool stairs

Theatre right beside the church, would have been nice to see inside of Theatre

Snuck into the Church right after Palm Sunday mass