Ragusa Marina
Our journey to Ragusa Marina turned out a bit more complex
than expected. I booked a B&B there on a recommendation of a friend who had
driven around Sicily. We had taken the train and arrived in the modern part of
the town with no idea how to get to the area of our B&B. We went to a café,
across the road from the station, for lunch then asked them how to get to the
seaside area. Luckily a bus left nearby. When we arrived at Ragusa Marina we
had no idea where our B&B was located. After a phone call I was told they
had sent me a text message which I had not received. Anyway all worked out well
and our B&B was quite nice though breakfast supplied was very minimal. We
then spent the latter part of the afternoon exploring the town and wandering
along the beach. It is a beach resort town though quite pleasant.
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| Sunset over Ragusa Marina |
The next day we travelled back into the main town to go to
Ragusa Ilba the historic part of the town. We wove in and out the back lanes
down many, many steps and ended up and the town piazza, very lively with many
restaurants and dominated by the cathedral. After exploring the area we caught
the bus back to the modern section of the town, then back to Ragusa Marina.
For all the Inspector Montalbano tragics Ragusa Ilba and Ragusa Marina are featured
in the television series. There are tours involving other areas featured in the
series and so we decided for the fun of it to go on a half day tour, which
included visiting the delightful seaside village where his ‘apartment’ is
situated and can be rented when not being filmed plus some other sites. Off to
Scicli which was an Arab stronghold, then a royal city under the Normans. After
the earthquake in1693 it was transformed into a Baroque town when rebuilt. Of
course on this tour we were given the Montalbano ‘features’ then had time to
explore the town and have lunch before we returned back to base around 2.00pm,
rested then went out afterwards for a stroll, then dinner.
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| Scicli |
Agrigento
The next day off to Agrigento which turned out to be a
marathon journey. To start with we had to return to Ragusa to catch the train
to Gela, then a bus to Agrigento, however the train was an hour late, then we
had a long wait for the bus at Gela and finally late afternoon we arrived in
Agrigento. The tourist office was near the bus station and was still open when
we arrived. I managed to get a map plus the directions to the street of our
B&B, which was just around the corner. The only problem was that at the
number of our accommodation and what was located at it didn’t match up. An
abandoned building. A travel agent came out of his office to help us, I showed
him the information about our accommodation, he phoned them and they collected
us. WE were very lucky.
There appears to be two levels of the street and we were on
the upper level, all sorted. The Kerkent B&B was the best. It was close to
the main road through the town down a lot of very steep steps. We strolled
around, eventually had dinner along the steps near our B&B.
The next day, Friday we visited numerous churches a bit of
an overkill and generally enjoyed wandering in and out the streets and
laneways. We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant called ‘Naif’ recommended to
us by the B&B.  |
| One of the many steep streets Agrigento |
On Saturday we visited the Valley of the Temples and is the
site of the main temples dedicated to Zeus, Heracles, Concord and Hera as well
as many minor shrines. We arrived early even it was around 2.00pm we returned
to town. It was a very hot day and we were tired on our return and decided to
have a rest back at our B&B.
Afterwards we booked our train to Palermo for the following day.
Palermo
Left for Palermo on Sunday on 10.14 train then took a taxi
to our B&B Vado Massimo which was near the main thoroughfare. After a few
hiccups of not receiving a text message we were eventually met to sort out our
accommodation. After we settled in we went to explore the area. Down from our
road was a glorious theatre, and the performance this night was Madame Butterfly,
we managed to get tickets in the ‘gods’ as there was nothing else available. It
was an early performance so we decided to have dinner afterwards. That sorted
we walked down the main road to the magnificent crossroads Quattro Canti, with
sculptures and a fountain on each corner. After just generally wandering around
we went back to the theatre. The singing was great and the production was
interesting. Afterwards we had dinner just across the road from the theatre,
like many of the audience.
Palermo has a rich and varied history with vestiges
everywhere and is a great place to explore. We put in a full day sightseeing.
San Cataldo built in the 12th century maintaining the Norman-Arab
style with three distinctive red domes as well as Arabic inscriptions. We visited
many sites, the Norman Palace initially built by the Arabs then became a Norman
palace under King Roger II, however the
Palatino Chapel is a standout, a mass
of amazing mosaics completely overwhelming and beautiful. We also visited St
Giovanni degli Eremiti monastery was built in 1132 for Roger II over the
foundation of a Benedictine monastery and displays an Oriental influence. A
wonderfully peaceful interlude. Of course various other churches visited in
passing. That night we attended a traditional Sicilian puppet show. The puppets
are large and surprisingly very heavy. The show presents traditional stories
from the past. Delightful entertainment and well worth experiencing.
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| Palatino Chapel |
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| The famous Sicilian puppets |
The following day we checked out the port as to where we
would be catching the ferry to Naples the following night, it was a very long
way so a taxi would be an option. On a recommendation we decided to go to Monreale.
We decided to catch the bus, however with the pushing and shoving at the
entrance Alan had his wallet pickpocketed. It was picked up and handed back,
luckily the credit cards were quite invisible, so only the money was taken.
Very annoying.
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| Cathedral of Monreale |
It was our last day and we were determined to visit the
Oratorio S del Rosario di Santa Cita the stucco work of Serpotta is overwhelming
covering the walls with putti, each with a different expression and pose,
statues, floral emblems etc. Like many
of the visitors we had been seduced by the BBC program Sicily Unpacked to make this visit. We also visited the San
Domenico church and the Oratorio San Domenico with stucco by Serpotta and an
altarpiece painted by Van Dyke.
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| Some of the Stucco of St. Cita |
Nearby was the Palazzo Mirto a great example of a nobleman’s
mansion built in the 18th century a great place to visit. Also close
at hand was Palazzo Abatellis a Catalan Gothic building which is now used as
the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia consisting of 19 rooms. On the ground
floor is the fresco The Triumph of Death by
an unknown artist. It is worth a visit, though a few more captions in English
on the more modern paintings would have been handy.
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| The fresco The Triumph of Death |
After further wanderings and a cup of coffee we went to pick
up our bags and catch a taxi to the ferry for Naples. The surprise was the
departure pier was a lot closer than we had sussed out the previous day.
We were taken to our cabin after which we booked our table
for dinner, which was delicious. The ferry left port at 20.15 we watch Sicily
gradually disappear into the distance. We were now on our way to Naples.
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