There’s a lot to love here in Sicily. The food has been wonderful. The scenery is amazing. And yesterday we went to the Valley of Temples, world-class Greek ruins in Agrigento. When I say they practically define our cultural heritage, that’s particularly true – the Temple of Concordia there is one of the finest Greek temples still standing and is in fact the model on which UNESCO’s World Heritage logo based. Apparently the temple is built on solid rock with a layer of soft ground under that absorbs tremors, so while other temples crashed in various earthquakes over the millennia, this one has stood firm. The fact that it was converted to a Christian church in the late sixth century probably didn’t hurt it’s survival prospects, either. It’s in remarkable shape for something built 2,500 years ago!

Mosaic from Roger II’s chapel in Palermo

Distant view of the Temple of Concordia in Agrigento

Olive tree estimated to be 500 to 600 years old. Seriously.

Mark outside the Temple of Hercules

Temple of Concordia

Mark digging around in the ruins

I’ve eaten more octopus while here in the Mediterranean than you could imagine. Here you’ll see Mark caught me having a conversation with my meal.

From Capri we took a ferry back to Naples to catch an overnight ferry on to Sicily. The ride to Naples was somewhat more exciting than normal, as the seas were pretty heavy; the boat we’d planned to take was cancelled, but our hotel had anticipated that and told us to take an earlier, bigger boat. Our expectations for the boat to Sicily were distinctly modest, but the boat turned out to be really pretty nice, a lot like being on the Love Boat. It even had a nice restaurant, where only three other people besides us came for dinner. Not sure how they justify the expense of three or four wait staff plus kitchen staff…

Early Wednesday morning, after a great night’s sleep on the rocking boat, we arrived in Palermo, Sicily’s capital. It’s an ancient city whose food and architecture reflect the mix of Greek, Roman, Arab, and Norman conquerors over the centuries. When we first started planning this leg of the trip and I was looking over maps, I was struck by just how close Sicily is to North Africa, and walking around the historic center of the city you could see this great mixture of Arab and Italian cultures.

So we walked, took some pictures, and ate some great food which, after Capri, was a great bonus. Now we’re doing something new for this adventure: we’re renting a car and are going to drive around the island, trying to get a sense of Sicily over the next week or so.

It feels as though we could be in North Africa

The interior of some of the churches are understated, but not this one

The Cathedral

View of Palermo from our breakfast room, with a very faint rainbow in view

Fun statue

Much of tourism is just looking at how people live

Great street markets in Palermo, with lots of fish…

… And olives – many variety of olives

Here it looks as though the bishop is making an obscene gesture

And big news in the planning department: we found great frequent flyer tickets to Bangkok on October 11, so after our bike trip in Puglia we’re going to Rome for a few days and then to Southeast Asia. We won’t stay in Bangkok for long, and will probably head south down through Malaysia and into Indonesia. We’ve been wondering for quite a while where we would go after Italy, and now we know!