Segesta, Selinunte and Cuici's Manor (Aragona)

9 July 2018

Palermo is a beautiful and we had explored it the day before.

And now we were more excited!! At least I was. Harish was tense, I think. We were going to take a rented car and drive around Sicily!!

We got up early and waited for the breakfast call. But we got none as Francesco gets 'fresh croissant' from the baker at 7.30 am. We settled for some toast and coffee.

And we did not take his advice to get a taxi. We took the bus to the airport.

Harish had researched for nearly a month on the car we were to take and the company we were to take it from. There are many like Avis, Rent a car, Hertz. He had decided on Audi A3 from Europcar.
And we got a brand new Jeep Compass!!

There was only 1 problem. I had to sit on the right side and I had no steering wheel. It was left hand drive and all through the trip I was sure Harish was going too close on the wrong side of the road.

My latest pet peeve is left hand driving. I hate it.

The car had a navigation map which we did not know to use. Thank God for my Google maps and my net connection!!

We were driving from Palermo to Segesta, Selinunte, Aragona and going to stay overnight at Cuici's Manor.

Our first stop was Segesta. It was nearly 50 kms away, but we were to reach it in less than an hour. In India, we travel maximum 40 km/hr. Harish was driving at 90 -100km/hr and was still slow to other people in the traffic!

The navigation took us straight to the archeological ruins and we were asked to go the parking area nearly 1 km away.

From here we bought tickets for a bus ride which would take us both to see the Doric temple and theatre further uphill.

We had to buy tickets again to gain entry into the Doric temple......

...and the climb was VERY steep.

But it was breathtaking.....Stunning.

I took photos of a couple and they reciprocated!! This happened all through the trip.

Time for the second bus ride to see the theatre.
And it was mentioned in all the materials I had read that the view of the Doric temple was much more prettier on this climb. Many had suggested to walk up to the theatre, but I did not even mention this as Harish would surely have opted for that.

Many people were walking uphill though.

Here there were ruins of a church. mosque, a castle, sanctuary of mango,theatre and many more unidentified structures.
The sun was beating down and it was very windy. The ruins looked like...ruins...but the view down was stunning.

Mosque ruins.

Church ruins.

Doric temple afar...

The theatre was in good shape and some workers were putting a new wooden floor. The view across the valley .....

There were water/soda/coke dispensers here too...Also a garbage can.

We reached the bus stop and had to wait for the bus to come. Then we were the first passengers on board. The driver got talking and was so friendly. Harish gave him Euro 2 once we got downhill.
Once the bus dropped us down hill, we waited for the second bus to drop us at the parking area. While waiting we were inspecting the surroundings. So clean, no plastic wrappers or paper strewn around. India has to clean up.

We had a mini lunch at the parking area. It was so good! Just some aubergine slices with Tomato dressing. Yum!

Next stop was Selinunte.
It was again ruins....But a ruins which had more greek architecture than anywhere else in Italy.
So many temples, Acropolis....a site not to be missed.
We reached there when the sun was high and took a wrong turn.
And for the first time we did a U turn in Italy, where we shouldn't!

So, Selinunte is made of 2 different sections just like Segesta. The first section consists of a few temples and the second section is larger and overlooks the sea.

First you see Temples E, F & G in different stages of destruction and then take the car and drive uphill to see the Acropolis.

There were buggies available, but we being we, walked.

While we were here, we got a video call from our children...
Our elder daughter had got admission to pursue Post Graduation at Australian National University!! YIPPEE!!

We drove uphill to see the Acropolis.
There was no directions given....Instead of taking the immediate right after the parking area, we did a huge circle around the temples! But we got to see more. No complaints.

Now, we were tired...
We still had to cover 120 kms to reach our destination. while Google Maps was doing a great job, it developed an odd habit midway. It wanted us to take 'faster option' and we rode through some small villages and even smaller roads.
Since we were going to an agriturismo, we thought this would be the way. But we got lost.
It was baptism by fire for Harish. I feel so bad for him....even today.

We had set destination as Aragona...And we did so many loops..

And I started crying. Harish had to drive, keep his calm and try to pacify me. I felt so bad for having chosen this place to stay.

When we called up Ginevra, the owner of Cuici's, she asked us to put San Elisabetta on the map. But by then we were too tired and ready to cancel the room.

She asked us to wait at Aragona Caldare and said she would come to pick us up.
By then we got lost again and google took us to some strange byelane; but thankfully sanity prevailed and we parked in the Railway parking lot and waited her arrival.

She was Manna from heaven.
And she took us to her home....beautiful home....Cuici's manor.
We would love to go back here, but will not be able to find our way for sure.

We were given the 'blue room'. It was her family's farm house.
There was another family from Denmark there. I only remember their son's name - Jack.

As the sun set over the sicilian farmland, we relaxed.

We had told her that we are vegetarians and she made so many special things!!

And we shared the table with the Danish family. The Dane man had worked in India and had been to Cochin too! He had ok opinions about our country and as usual I had to make it change. Their english was not too strong and communication was english and whole lot of actions.

All the food was prepared by Ginevra and her husband Davide, who knows not one word in English. Once dinner was done, table cleared, Ginevra joined us.
She told us stories about the farm, her aunt's monstrous modern house next door which was built after pulling doen a beautiful family farm house, about the donkeys on her farm, about the deaf children who benfit with interactions with the genteel animals, the story of her father and her husband getting the 2 ostriches to the farm without her knowledge (Psst: The 2 ostriches are Adam and Eve who have not bitten the poisonous apple!), her brother in Palermo, the famous Sicilian Mafia and much more.
She was the Italian version of me.

The conversation flowed, but we were too exhausted. We excused ourselves and went to our 'blue room'.

The next day was a long day as we were going to see Agrigento, Piazza Armerina, Caltigirone before reaching Ragusa.