SELINUNTE 3rd and 4th June
The bus to Castelvetrano was easy enough to find in the bus station or auto stazione as it was called. But on arrival there no-one seemed to know of a bus to Selinunte or even its nearby village of Marinella di Selinunte so we missed our connection. A very helpful woman showed us where to wait on the basis of information she had gleaned by asking at a local bar, but that turned out to be wrong for it left from the train stazione where we sat waiting for four hours. Watching a small man selling tickets helped by a very tall man from the local bar whilst an third man looked on stick up the new time table valid from 28 May - a bit late. The amount of good humoured discussion ('left a little' , 'up a little') plus some scribbling on the walls was quite amazing between these three men at a station almost without trains. I began to see why suddenly I was having so much trouble in understanding the Italian - there is a very different slurred accent here in Western Sicily
The train did arrive in Selinunte on time and 'the son' meeting the train promised us a good room at Il Pescatore for 60,000. When we arrived his mother wanted 80,000. Joan was furious and we settled on 70.000. We were in fact getting a half share in an apartment with a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms. Each bedroom had identical keys but we felt relieved that the other half were also English so there was no communication problem. According to Routard '99 Il Pescatore is rated excellent with very good full breakfasts with lots of coffee, fresh bread, fresh fruit and granite.
That evening we went down to Marinella and were amazed at the large number of restaurants open and the number of Italians driving here for their evening meal this Sunday. All the restaurants initially empty had filled up by 10pm.
4 June went around the Temple twice in the early morning and again before sunset to take photographs in differing lights.
In between we went down to the sandy beach to swim and sunbathe, both excellent.
The ruins, 16 metres high and one of the biggest in the world have a nice feel. It is a large site with reasonably complete temple, the partially restored ruins one a km to the west. There were tour groups visiting at the same time but they were not intrusive. The evening visit was especially memorable as we clambered amongst the giant pieces which once formed another big temple.
A man from one of the parties told us his sister lived in Norfolk where she went to rejoin an Italian interned in Britain from 1939 to 1943. I recalled as a primary school child in Warwick that Italians were then interned in a wired camp set up on the race course then part of the huge common. It was there my grandfather, who owned a bakery, was allowed to keep horses for his Sunday visit to church in Leamington Spa by trap, another to pull the cart delivering his bread, and a third now retired which I was allowed to feed. saddle and ride around the country lanes.
I was getting informal lessons in Italian from the two pleasant barmaids in the local pub. In response to my question qual e il ristorante preferito? and pago alla cassa mutua - pay the old man at the cash desk. The answer to the first was the Athena700m on the route into town - excellent well worth the visit. In fact it is the ristorante serving the camp site with food of a high standard.
5 June AGRIGENTO
Decided to have another swim and to catch the 13:35 bus to Agrigento where I found the Tourist Office and got details of the Belvedore who offered a large and nice room. Though we eventually settled for a scruffy three bedroom room at the Concordia at half the price but where the restaurant was excellent. A fine starter All'Italia e Rustico. Joan settled on a large plate of prawns and I a big plate of lamb ribs for first course followed by Calmare and Pasta al vongole. Both our bills including a carafe of wine were under 50,000.
A free local bus took us to the temple entrance. The site had been excavated and restored by Captain Alexander Hardcastle ex Harrow and the Boer and 1st World War until the financial crash bankrupted in 1929. He died in poverty.
Two of the temples were Concordia and Giunone but both are small in comparison with Selinunte but a very pleasant walk. Hardcastle's house with it's posters were poignant when reflecting on his outcome. Again we returned in the evening to take photographs.
6 - 8 June PIAZZA ARMERINA
Took bus there and once again started with the Tourist Office which yielded info on a new hotel Ostello del Borgo . It in fact belonged to an organisation devoted to providing the opportunity for holidays and study worldwide, Limerick in Ireland, USA and Canada etc. An old church building had been restored and converted by Jubilee money and opened just a couple on months ago. Four or five very friendly men ran the project providing 18 bedrooms and a conference room seating 120 people. The rooms were excellent with high quality new furniture with heavy wardrobes fitted into holes cut in the thick stone walls, heavy polished shutters etc. A room with breakfast including as much coffee as you could drink was 75,000, though you had to pay 5,000 each to join the organisation. It also offered a 15% discount for food at a local restaurant.
Piazza Armerina is a delightful old town full of character, friendliness including an old gent who turned out to be a returned Yank, as the Irish would say. The first day we went out to see the local attraction mosaici (pronounced MosIchi) of a Roman villa which was recovered from under a mud slide to reveal mosaic floor patterns and usually pictures in every room.
The next day we took a bus to Aidone followed by help from a woman who took us to the start of a 5km walk to the remains of Pumic/Greek town of Morgantina.
A pleasant walk on a cooler overcast afternoon in a city of 20,000 excavated by Prof Bell from Princeton in the 1950's. Remains which illustrated a structure of Government. The Legislative Assembly reported to the Peoples Assembly who would accept, revise or send back legislation, ie a poor man's House of Lords.
There were two kilns, the larger for making bricks, tiles and pips, the other foe ceramics. Two friendly men at the gate explained a great deal, we learned foe example that the city was 2km x 2km in size so what we were seeing was just the centre. On the way there and back we stopped at a bar for ice cream then beer and lemonade, the friendly woman spoke slowly and deliberately in well pronounced sentences allowing quite a lot of conversation in Italian.
9 June The 8am bus went very slowly along winding roads to Castla Giro then by main road to Catania. I think the man at the desk in Hotel Fresi was a little surprised to see us in spite of our reservation but he found us a room.
Delightful interlude with the old lady in the Panificio when buying pizza. She gave us two red rolls, which were soon discovered to contain chilli, then another two with less chilli but with olives. She laughed and repeated out loud my phrase Acqua Minerale freddo. Copying my scribbled text 20 years later I am amazed at the instant but friendly reaction - . Freddo and fredda are both cold but freddo does not agree with the nouns gender here. Perhaps it was simply caused by Joan's usual reaction to Chilli.
The bus to Castelvetrano was easy enough to find in the bus station or auto stazione as it was called. But on arrival there no-one seemed to know of a bus to Selinunte or even its nearby village of Marinella di Selinunte so we missed our connection. A very helpful woman showed us where to wait on the basis of information she had gleaned by asking at a local bar, but that turned out to be wrong for it left from the train stazione where we sat waiting for four hours. Watching a small man selling tickets helped by a very tall man from the local bar whilst an third man looked on stick up the new time table valid from 28 May - a bit late. The amount of good humoured discussion ('left a little' , 'up a little') plus some scribbling on the walls was quite amazing between these three men at a station almost without trains. I began to see why suddenly I was having so much trouble in understanding the Italian - there is a very different slurred accent here in Western Sicily
The train did arrive in Selinunte on time and 'the son' meeting the train promised us a good room at Il Pescatore for 60,000. When we arrived his mother wanted 80,000. Joan was furious and we settled on 70.000. We were in fact getting a half share in an apartment with a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms. Each bedroom had identical keys but we felt relieved that the other half were also English so there was no communication problem. According to Routard '99 Il Pescatore is rated excellent with very good full breakfasts with lots of coffee, fresh bread, fresh fruit and granite.
That evening we went down to Marinella and were amazed at the large number of restaurants open and the number of Italians driving here for their evening meal this Sunday. All the restaurants initially empty had filled up by 10pm.
4 June went around the Temple twice in the early morning and again before sunset to take photographs in differing lights.
In between we went down to the sandy beach to swim and sunbathe, both excellent.
 |
VIEWS FROM TEMPLE SITE
The ruins, 16 metres high and one of the biggest in the world have a nice feel. It is a large site with reasonably complete temple, the partially restored ruins one a km to the west. There were tour groups visiting at the same time but they were not intrusive. The evening visit was especially memorable as we clambered amongst the giant pieces which once formed another big temple.
A man from one of the parties told us his sister lived in Norfolk where she went to rejoin an Italian interned in Britain from 1939 to 1943. I recalled as a primary school child in Warwick that Italians were then interned in a wired camp set up on the race course then part of the huge common. It was there my grandfather, who owned a bakery, was allowed to keep horses for his Sunday visit to church in Leamington Spa by trap, another to pull the cart delivering his bread, and a third now retired which I was allowed to feed. saddle and ride around the country lanes.
I was getting informal lessons in Italian from the two pleasant barmaids in the local pub. In response to my question qual e il ristorante preferito? and pago alla cassa mutua - pay the old man at the cash desk. The answer to the first was the Athena700m on the route into town - excellent well worth the visit. In fact it is the ristorante serving the camp site with food of a high standard.
5 June AGRIGENTO
Decided to have another swim and to catch the 13:35 bus to Agrigento where I found the Tourist Office and got details of the Belvedore who offered a large and nice room. Though we eventually settled for a scruffy three bedroom room at the Concordia at half the price but where the restaurant was excellent. A fine starter All'Italia e Rustico. Joan settled on a large plate of prawns and I a big plate of lamb ribs for first course followed by Calmare and Pasta al vongole. Both our bills including a carafe of wine were under 50,000.
A free local bus took us to the temple entrance. The site had been excavated and restored by Captain Alexander Hardcastle ex Harrow and the Boer and 1st World War until the financial crash bankrupted in 1929. He died in poverty.
Two of the temples were Concordia and Giunone but both are small in comparison with Selinunte but a very pleasant walk. Hardcastle's house with it's posters were poignant when reflecting on his outcome. Again we returned in the evening to take photographs.
6 - 8 June PIAZZA ARMERINA
Took bus there and once again started with the Tourist Office which yielded info on a new hotel Ostello del Borgo . It in fact belonged to an organisation devoted to providing the opportunity for holidays and study worldwide, Limerick in Ireland, USA and Canada etc. An old church building had been restored and converted by Jubilee money and opened just a couple on months ago. Four or five very friendly men ran the project providing 18 bedrooms and a conference room seating 120 people. The rooms were excellent with high quality new furniture with heavy wardrobes fitted into holes cut in the thick stone walls, heavy polished shutters etc. A room with breakfast including as much coffee as you could drink was 75,000, though you had to pay 5,000 each to join the organisation. It also offered a 15% discount for food at a local restaurant.
Piazza Armerina is a delightful old town full of character, friendliness including an old gent who turned out to be a returned Yank, as the Irish would say. The first day we went out to see the local attraction mosaici (pronounced MosIchi) of a Roman villa which was recovered from under a mud slide to reveal mosaic floor patterns and usually pictures in every room.
The next day we took a bus to Aidone followed by help from a woman who took us to the start of a 5km walk to the remains of Pumic/Greek town of Morgantina.
A pleasant walk on a cooler overcast afternoon in a city of 20,000 excavated by Prof Bell from Princeton in the 1950's. Remains which illustrated a structure of Government. The Legislative Assembly reported to the Peoples Assembly who would accept, revise or send back legislation, ie a poor man's House of Lords.
There were two kilns, the larger for making bricks, tiles and pips, the other foe ceramics. Two friendly men at the gate explained a great deal, we learned foe example that the city was 2km x 2km in size so what we were seeing was just the centre. On the way there and back we stopped at a bar for ice cream then beer and lemonade, the friendly woman spoke slowly and deliberately in well pronounced sentences allowing quite a lot of conversation in Italian.
9 June The 8am bus went very slowly along winding roads to Castla Giro then by main road to Catania. I think the man at the desk in Hotel Fresi was a little surprised to see us in spite of our reservation but he found us a room.
Delightful interlude with the old lady in the Panificio when buying pizza. She gave us two red rolls, which were soon discovered to contain chilli, then another two with less chilli but with olives. She laughed and repeated out loud my phrase Acqua Minerale freddo. Copying my scribbled text 20 years later I am amazed at the instant but friendly reaction - . Freddo and fredda are both cold but freddo does not agree with the nouns gender here. Perhaps it was simply caused by Joan's usual reaction to Chilli.
No comments:
Post a Comment