Last – Exploring Sicily: Scenic Routes and Local Lunch Spots – Day 7
Porto di San Leone
So we opted to stay outside the main city of Agrigento and instead found an Airbnb by the ocean in Porto di San Leone. It is 7km outside the city of Agrigento. Everything is close by including Valley of the Temples.
Summer tourist season is over here and it’s a little cool and rainy today. Still, I believe it was a great choice. It’s been nice to have the laid back atmosphere of a cool breeze coming from the ocean, the sound of ocean waves and the smell of the salt air. Definitely something I gravitate towards since growing up in Florida.
My run this morning was nice. The cool crisp air hit me hard at first but once I got into my run it was very enjoyable with little car traffic. I ran back into the neighborhood behind the Airbnb. The beach houses along the back streets were dense and the streets narrow. I then ran back out to the main street that ran around and back to the water. As I ran out to the end of the jetty I snapped some quick pics on my phone and and then closed out my run by running along the ocean and back to the house.
The rental is a 2/2 duplex as we call them. It has a very narrow spiral staircase in the main studio room that leads to a nice sized master bedroom and bath on the second floor. Everything in the Airbnb feels modern, new and well kept. It faces the ocean but a main street and park separates the house from the ocean. Parking here is free. I really enjoyed it’s location being unique and different from our last city complex location in Palermo.
Valley of the Temples
So today we went to the Valley of the Temples. It is a short distance between our ocean stay and the city of Agrigento. The Valley of the Temples is not so surprisingly named because it’s a row of Greek Temples spanning about 2.5 km on a hillside in the valley of Agrigento. These temples and it’s history date back as early as 600 years BC. I believe the best way to enjoy this massive sized park is the same way we did. That is to park your vehicle at the farthest bottom location of the park and take a van to its entrance on the opposite end of the park. This allows for a leisurely 2.5 km walk back down the hill to your vehicle.
The van ride to the entrance is 3 euros per person. The entrance fee to the park is 17 euros. If going to this park, I’d suggest getting the 3 hour audio guide that is a separate cost on entry. We didn’t get it, as it was an after thought after we got to the first temple. After paying and heading to the upper most temple we scrambled to find something on audio on the internet to understand what we were looking at but there was nothing available. And although there were some plaques and written information about some relics and locations it would have been more rewarding listening along to an audio guide as we walked through the park.
Also, I would suggest doing some research ahead of time on this park. It is so massive of scale that you don’t really understand that until you go and see it first hand. So there are the main temples along the main cobblestone path. These temples are massive and amazing unto themselves. But also there are a lot of other structures that reading about and understanding where they’re located before hand will really help you to appreciate the park even more. You can start at Wikipedia here and I found this blogger site on how to maximize your visit. Needless to say even if you don’t, the views and sites were amazing and incredible to behold.
We took our time walking to the lower end of the park. We were under the impression where the main cobblestone road ended was where we were to exit the park. What we didn’t understand was that park continued along a walking bridge over a street for another 1/2 km or so. The walking bridge was secluded from the cobblestone road we were on.
If we would have continued to follow a path on the south side of the cobblestone road, It would have passed us over to another area of the park that had additional relics and ruins that we didn’t get to see. Though disappointing as it was, it was fine with me as it was already a lot to take in and I had already snapped over 300 pictures for the day. Also I wanted to get to Scala dei turchi or the Stairs of the Turks before sunset.
Scala dei Turchi
The drive to Scala dei Turchi is about 15 minutes west of Agrigento. We started along SS115. It’s kind of hard some times to recognize whether you are on a road or not. Some times it felt like we were traveling down an access road or behind a shopping center. It’s hard to explain but parked cars looked to be behind buildings and the actual road had no visible lines or signs. You just road on your side of the pavement while trucks and cars sped down the opposite direction. As you move towards the actual Scala dei turchi you do pass several outcroppings of white rock along the road. Some quite massive and beautiful which sort of gets you excited for seeing the cliffs themselves.
As we approached the cliffs we saw lots of cars lining the streets and people walking along the road. As we got closer, there was a small area with a low lying fence where people could gather and look over at the cliffs. We decided to head a little further up the road and found a small secluded (likely restricted) area where we could park and see the cliffs. I took several photos. We all looked at the view took some selfies and headed back down. The traffic was very light so we stopped at the previous location on the road and I snapped some more pictures.
It looks like they’ve opened up the cliffs again for people to walk on. I saw people down along the cliffs as I snapped pictures. I wasn’t so concerned about heading down there and experiencing the cliffs first hand. It seemed interesting but not worth the effort. I found this blog that sort of explains the cliffs history and their access availability here.
We then headed back down the road and back to the apartment. We saw a Lidl along the way. So we stopped picked up some groceries to make a comfortable easy going dinner of pasta, vegetables and shrimp.
