Southern Sicily



The clear blue waters of the Egadi islands

28^th July Today we sailed to the Egadi islands, three sparsely habited, rocky islands a few miles off the coast. We dropped anchor for lunch and a swim in an unspoilt bay on the north of the island of Favignana.  The water was wonderful for swimming, crystal clear and the most intense, aquamarine blue.  We are now in Marsala, home to the famous wine, which was actually invented by an Englishman.

The cliff top ruins of Selinunte

29 July As we sailed along the coast towards Sciacca today we could see the remains of the ancient Greek city of Selinunte spread out across the cliff tops.  Sicily has so many of these wonderful archaeological sites.

31 July. We’ve stopped in the beach resort of San Leone to visit the ‘Valley of the Temples’ at Agrigento, a few kilometres down the road. There are seven temples, built by Greek colonists in the fifth century BC.



Temple of Concordia

 

Temple of Ercole

 

We visited the temples with our friends Jean-Marie and Soizeck, a French couple we first met in Trapani. We all agreed it was too hot to wander around the 3km long, unshaded site during the day, so instead we arrived just as the sun set, with the stone columns glowing in the evening light. The main temples and walkways are floodlit at night, enhancing their grandeur and creating quite a dramatic spectacle. After wandering around the site we sat quietly in the dark on the stone walls and admired the towering columns silhouetted against the night sky.

4 August We have finally reached Syracuse in southern Sicily, our jumping off point for Greece.   We are moored in the picturesque Grand Harbour, next to the old town which is built on the island of Ortygia. We’ve enjoyed wandering around the narrow, shady streets admiring the mix of Greek and Roman remains, Medieval palazzos and Baroque churches. The Duomo cathedral in the centre of the old town is particularly impressive: it’s built in Baroque style on the site of the 6C Temple of Athena, and you can still see the temple columns set into the cathedral walls. 

 

Gate to the old town of Syracuse



Duomo in Syracuse



One of the temple columns within the Duomo walls

 

 

Lifelike faces stare out at you from the Palazzo della Cultura

 There are more Greek and Roman remains in the Archaeological Park across the bridge in ‘mainland’ Syracuse, but we have decided to leave visiting these for another time as it’s just too hot. We plan include Sicily on the route of our return trip out of the Med and will try and time it so we aren’t here in high summer.

5 August The weather for the next few days looks fair for the 280 mile non-stop crossing to Lefkas in Greece. This should take us just over two days. We’ll leave tomorrow if the forecast is still good.