It was a beautiful sunny day to visit the Valley of the Temples. We had this most colorful guide, Claudio---picture an Italian Jacques Tati. He used a pointer to elaborate the drawings of the Valley as it was. He was a very dignified gentleman with an orator's voice. He had a horticulturist's eye & pointed out the almond trees, carob trees & various growth around the area. Amidst a lifeless area, there was a lot still in bloom.
We left for Enna, which is very near where my grandmother, Francesca, is from. Driving along from Agrigento to Enna the vegetation is less tropical. Thankfully there are still olive, orange & lemon trees. It's March so after a long grey winter, it's good to see color.
In Enna we returned to the place we ate many years ago. There was a group of 38 & one can only imagine how many bottles of wine we went through that night. This time we returned with a group of 18 for lunch. We had bottles of red donna fugato wine, yum. Most took advantage of the delicious antipasta that was being served. I had gnocchi with pesto, Wayne had a ratatouille pasta & Nikki had an eggplant frittata. We shared some marinated artichokes. No dessert, just a some espressos to keep moving along.
We had a little scare with the ATM. Wayne requested money from the machine and the machined okayed it. He got his card & receipt---but no money!!!! The 250 euros must be invisible. So when we got to Taormina he called the bank. Thankfully they showed no transaction, so we think that the ATM just ran out of money. Whew!!!
We made a pitstop on the side of the road to take photos of Valguernera, nonna Francesca's town. It's a hill town, that probably was decimated during World War I. Not decimated by bombs, but poverty. That's why a lot of immigrants came to the US.
We had a cliffy drive to Taormina. We arrived during sunset over the Mediterranean. We stayed at Hotel Villa Diodoro. It had a grand entrance & was surrounded by a park. Our rooms had balconies, so you could hear the birds chirping & stretch your neck out to see the sea.
After unpacking & settling in, we went down to the bar to meet everyone. We had some prosecco. In Italy it's all about the aperatif & the digestivo! We were all in severe pizza withdrawal. Our bartender recommended a place in town. Vecchia Taormina took some time to find it, but it was without a doubt, worth the wait. It was along a tiny alley, so on a cool night in March, we sat under umbrellas & with heat lamps. The pizza crust was thin, cooked & charred from the oven. Tonight we drank a white house wine. Mmm mmm.....
FYI for the girls out there: there's a lot of humidity in Sicily. For Nikki & I, that was a good thing for our hair.
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