I’m writing this ensconced between polytunnels of tomatoes on a small campsite near Ragusa. I have access to 6 kilometres of sandy beaches, so I’m not complaining. More to the point, I also have unlimited wifi – hooray! It’s a beautiful spot, I can thoroughly recommend it. Just jump on a plane to Catania, then hire a car and drive south to Montalbanoland. Donnalucata has apartments to let on the beachfront, nice little bars, shops, restaurants and a fabulous ice cream shop……Donnalucata is not a woman, it’s a place near Marina di Ragusa on the south coast of Sicily!
Then do as we did and visit Scicli, Modica and Ragusa, if you want to, all towns rebuilt after the earthquake of 1693? In Baroque style; otherwise just relax on the beach and enjoy! I’m getting ahead of myself as usual…..we got here from Sciacca where we were last heard of with noisy neighbours I think.
Sciacca requires some energy as you have to go up at least 250 steps from the port to the town, so you keep fit. It’s a proper Sicilian town, so not too many spoon rests and oil bottles…just ordinary shops and sights! It has a Saturday morning market, which I enjoyed, joy of joys and a nice old ruined castle.
After my disturbed nap (see previous post), we scrambled back up the hill for the carnival in Sciacca. A shadow was cast over this, by the death of a local boy in a road accident, so it carried on in a slightly subdued format. Huge crowds, lots of street stalls with food, sweets, toys and so on and a parade of semi-political floats featuring huge papier-mâché figures such as Angela Merkel as a ringmaster at a circus brandishing a whip and raising a Euro beer mug; (NB HM) another with Greece winning the lottery, because of its bale out; the whole procession overseen by the giant, benevolent figure of Peppe Nappa, who I suppose is like a Lord of Misrule perhaps?It was all good fun and an enjoyable evening with dancing girls in the procession, who seemed to lose interest and chat among themselves or chew gum, when the procession ground to a halt which was frequent, standing self consciously in their little twirly skirts with nothing to twirl to….
We left Sciacca the following morning and went on to a campsite for a good wash of clothes, hair and bodies, plus Internet…..the campsite in question had hot showers (hooray!) but was really rather tatty with broken down bungalows, rusty cars and general tat.The campsite owner forgot I spoke Italian and referred to me, when speaking to a colleague as ‘the signora who wouldn’t be convinced’ as he indeed failed to convince me about how well his internet system worked. No surprises there then, my sons will say.
We checked out the town of Agrigento, demounting Lottie, so we could scramble up the narrow streets of the hilltop town. It’s a really nice place, with fantastic food and a nice feel to it. Have you ever been to a place where it just clicks with you? Well, Agrigento was like that. We had coffee and Sicilian pastries, most of which are based on almonds and/or ricotta, yum, in one of the central squares; then wandered around the quiet town in the lunchtime hush. Like almost all Sicilian towns, Agrigento closed down between 1/1.30 until 4/4.30 and we vowed we must get up earlier if we wanted to see anything! But the ice cream shop wasn’t shut! So there we sat, overlooking the valley with the ice cream dripping down the cones in the sun, it was a race against time! Feeling rather full of ice cream and pastries, we didn’t bother with supper that evening…..
Next day, with the complete Bimobil, we returned to visit the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. It’s a lovely site, set among olives and almond trees which were in full flower. So lots of healthy walking and admiring of a variety of Greek temples in various states of decrepitude. Have you ever seen graffiti on a cactus? I hadn’t either till then but no, they weren’t in Greek script! Any number of visitors had made their mark….
Lovely as Sicily is and there is so much to enjoy, it’s an unfortunate fact that the Sicilians are not what you would call civically-minded. Hardly surprising perhaps, in an island occupied for centuries by a series of invaders and where the Mafia had such power for so long. Why would you bother? On the other hand, this has both up and its down sides. You don’t get those beastly officious people that you get in the UK and it’s great to be able to wild camp just about anywhere, as no one bothers with you; similarly, no one worries how or where they park their cars, so parking the Bimobil is not such a problem. On the downside, this means that you frequently have to walk in the road, as a car is parked across the pavement; there is a real problem with litter and rubbish and the island is full of half finished houses and roads….I digress….
We’d had fine sunny weather since we arrived, so it was a bit of a shock when it turned dull and grey and dare I say it, even rained a bit?! The forecast was looking poor for the following week, so we decided against going inland and up into the hills. We had enough excitement in the snow last year in Spain and we were trying to avoid bad weather not embrace it!
So from the beauties of Agrigento we went to its shopping mall, also nattily called Valley of the Temples…..Well, it was a grotty day and we were all cultured out! So we amused ourselves in food shops, clothes shops, book shops, jewellery shops (only a watch strap…) and mobile phone shops. I was astonished on my return after lunch to a mobile phone shop, to be told that the SIM card deal I’d been offered was only available in the morning, better come back tomorrow morning! In true English matriarch style, I told them that since I was travelling, this wasn’t going to work and went elsewhere. It was rather like the lady in the bank who told me she couldn’t change the 50€ note I’d just withdrawn from the cash dispenser, as she sat with a drawer full of notes in front of her. Don’t ask, I haven’t a clue…Sicilians can be amazingly rude and offhand or completely helpful and charming…there seems to be no middle course!
This brings me neatly to Giovanni, the site owner at Donnalucata where we have been staying by the lovely golden beach. Giovanni fits very firmly into the second category.
We’d driven down here after a night on the coast at Rocca San Nicola. That was a fairly uneventful stop, until the morning, when we managed to gouge poor Bertie on overhanging roof tiles, when turning in a tight driveway. Ouch! I don’t know who screeched more, me, Alan or Bertie…..
So totally fazed by this, we tottered along the coast and promptly lost ourselves in the hideous port of Gela, complete with stinking chemical or gas works which we found ourselves driving through….
Never mind, we got through it and headed on to Montalbanoland, the series of locations where the TV series is filmed: starting at his house in Punta Secca where we said ‘oooh, aaah’ and then headed to a nearby fish restaurant where we had a delicious arancino each, washed down with a lovely glass of dry white wine and of course I had to sample the Sicilian lemon jelly pudding….
Onwards to Donnalucata, where we came across this lovely little site. So after topping up with much needed water and offloading of waste, we were given the guided tour by Giovanni and decided to stay for several days, demounting Bertie so he could stay behind and lick his wounds, while we went off cavorting in Lottie. It’s a small site replete with palms and banana trees, right next to the sea. The only downsides are the barking dog (there’s always one) and the rather antiquated shower and toilet block. Press, pray and shiver as you take your shower for behold, it will run out after three minutes of tepid water.
At which point I will leave you and regale you with further stories of Montalbanoland, Scicli and Modica in the next instalment.