Day 25 Mon 14 Oct Agrigento

Day 25 Monday 14 October

We set off for Agrigento, about 30 mins drive on to visit the Valley of the Temples just outside the city. Amazed by the set of long bridges we encountered straddling the intensively cultivated countryside . Took a shared taxi from Gate V, 3€ each to the top of the site. The temples are all along a long ridge. Going to the top of the site leads to an easier descent down the line of temples .The audio guide was incredibly detailed about temple construction, so much so that I lost the desire to pay any attention half way around. It reminded me somehow of my year 10 Latin teacher wanting to teach us the terminology for Roman battle strategies when what we were really interested in was the fall and decline of the empire. This route proved much easier to navigate than at Selinunte, there was a cafe and rest stop half way down but it was still very hot, 30C . There was a museum half way along filled with artefacts from the different sites. The Roman temple was the oldest and most intact without any reconstruction, outside of the Acropolis in Athens. Fascinating to watch archaeologists at work.

Temple of Juno

We took a detour to the Turkish steps , white limestone cliffs but it was very crowded and too slippy to walk across . We thought the write up was a little OTT , so having paid the princely sum of €7 to park,  we ended up staying only 2 hours.   

Drove on to the South coast to a campsite called Baie do Coralli , near the Punte  Bracetta l,a s beach. We got our own lockable shower and loo , a hot power shower in fact, no tokens, cards or stamping machines - we were thrilled! 18€ per night. We camped in a wagon train circle of about 8 -10 campervans, mainly German and one French and one Italian van and us . Small beach a few yards away from the van in a shallow sandy gently shelving bay.