We were wishing that we’d spent more time in Marsala, but we’ll have to leave that for next time, I guess. Anyway, last night after finishing my post for the day, we headed out for dinner about 7:30. We thought we’d try an interesting restaurant Jan found the previous day. We arrived about 7:45 and it was nearly empty, so we figured we were okay. But they asked if we had reservations, and when we said “no” they said “let me see what we can do”. Okay … the place is empty. Fortunately they found a table and we were seated and ordered our dinner. I had pistachio encrusted tuna with caramelized onions and burrata potatoes. Jan had sea bream pasta. They were both amazing. Another reason to return. And as we ate, the place began to fill until, by the time we left, every table was occupied, and the bar was packed with people waiting for an open table. It was a good way to end the trip, and lucky that we showed up when we did.
When we travel, I often go out in the morning to bring back a cappuccino or flat white for our morning coffee. A carrying tray helps a lot, but that isn’t something you see here, so I’m usually holding two coffees and juggling keys on my way back to the apartment. But the local coffee shop had an ingenious solution using the paper placemats from the restaurant. There are two cappuccinos inside this paper construction. It worked like a charm.
Then we were on the road again, stopping to fill up with gas on our way out of town. If any of you are inclined to complain about four dollar a gallon gas … don’t. Just don’t! We paid over $9 USD a gallon today. And we were happy to do it. Our bigger fear was that we might have trouble finding gas at all, but fortunately that hasn’t been an issue. So far.
It was a fairly easy drive today, just over 2 1/2 hours and straight, open roads At least by Sicilian standards. So we were relatively relaxed, right up until the last 15 minutes after we arrived in Agrigento. Then … whoa boy. Tomorrow we visit the Valley of the Temples, and the plan had been to drive there. Not anymore. The car stays put until we leave. Lesson learned. Next time, I’m pretty sure we will be taking trains around Sicily. Speaking of which, here is the train station, a short, very relaxing walk from our lovely apartment.
The stone is different in each area of Sicily. Here is an example from the building across from where we had lunch.
We are already wishing that we were staying longer in Agrigento.
