Night 6 After Ragusa we drove to Caltigirone for the ceramic tiled stairs (thought this town was overrated) and Villa Romana. We stopped for wine tasting in between at Gigliotto which typically allows "walk ins" but they were having a busy day. We hadn't made an appointment because we weren't sure we'd have enough time. At the villa it was actually was fairly warm (for Minnesotans) and stuffy. There were many tour groups, and I'm sorry, but most are just rude. They block areas, talk loud and totally disregard everyone else. To me, this is particularly problematic in the tight spaces at Villa Romana. Still, we enjoyed the amazing Villa.
From the Villa we TRIED to get to our agritourismo in Agrigento. Ugg. Ugg! We drove for about a 1/2 hour where we were supposed to pick up the autostrata. Except the entrance ramp was closed. We tried many different routes hoping to get on somewhere. (Note to self, always have a paper road map!) It was Sunday and the streets of whatever town we were in were empty. Finally I saw a man at a gas station. He spoke no English, and I basically speak no Italian. I said Agrigento and pointed the direction we were "supposed" to go. He shook his head and talked and gestured. He was kind, and I understood nothing. Finally I picked up on "semaforo" and I remembered there was a traffic light well down the main street. I repeated "semaforo" and we both gestured and I had a general idea. We followed his directions as best we could and finally navigation rerouted us. Then we drove past what was supposed to be our entrance ramp and it looked like the whole highway had collapsed. When we finally got to Fattorie Mose' (60E) and I told our charming and energetic hostess, Chiara, what happened she offered wine. Fattorie Mose's grounds full of grapes and fruit, nut and olive trees were stunning. Our room was large and breakfast was extensive and served on a lovely balcony. We ate dinner both nights with Chiara and found it really fun to talk to Chiara's family and other guests. The food was good "home cooking" Italian. I consider this place a must, unless you are "posh". Chiara says she doesn't get posh people.
Night 7. We visited the Valley of the Temples and of course it was a sunny, warm day. I actually wore sandals. Although my knee was pretty much recovered, I used the cane because of the rough, uneven paths. There is no shade, I can't imagine this in the summer. Still, we found the valley (actually not a valley) extremely worthwhile and returned to Fattorie Mose' where we were offered fresh lemonade and wine. We purchased some of Chiara's wonderful olive oil.
Night 8. We left Agrigento (sadly) and drove to Trapani via Selinunte and Segesta. Both lovely. Was really frustrated at Segesta. I asked at the ticket counter about the shuttle times and told them I needed to return a rental car. He assured us we'd be fine on time. We visited the temple and then walked to the bus for the theatre. There were about 10 people ahead of us. But, a large tour group arrived and the bus driver decided to take the tour group and a few of the people in line. He drove up the hill, dropped the people off, came down and refused to take everyone else. We weren't going to have enough time to wait a half hour so I went to admissions and asked for our money back. We turned in our car in Trapani and walked to Hotel Moderno, 55 euro, huge, impeccably clean room. The hotel felt extremely devoid of other guests so it felt a bit creepy. The man at the front desk was helpful. We didn't find Trapani very interesting, but we found excellent restaurants and did a day trip to Erice and another to Mazara and Marsala. I felt like Erice was missing a "spark". Few people live there so there are no flowers and its mostly all tourists. We did stop at Pasticceria Maria for some yummy pastries. Mazara was so interesting, I highly recommend. Our first stop was the visitor center right by the water to pick up a couple walking tour maps.