A travel day as we shifted locations from Noto to the Agrigento area. We are actually staying in Villaggio Mosè, not far from Agrigento. Not a very exciting day, except for a stop at an old water mill on the way, that we serendipitously found. Mulino ad Acqua is an old watermill that was used centuries ago and is still in use today, in a limited fashion. The guide/host is apparently a descendant of the original miller. He didn’t speak any English, but he called his wife to come down from their house on the property, and her English was quite good, enough to translate what he was saying. He explained about the earliest methods of grinding grain, using two rocks. The next modification was a hand driven rock wheel. The next step up was using water from the river to drive a horizontal wheel below the mill, which in turn moved the grinding wheel. The mill still works so he was able to demonstrate its operation. It was a fascinating lesson on milling back in the day, and the man and his wife were obviously proud of their little mill and most keen to share their knowledge.
We kept on driving, thinking we would stop for lunch somewhere, but it being Sunday, nothing was open. I hate to admit it, but we ended up eating at a McDonalds!!
Soon arrived in Villaggio Mosè, our home for the next few days and were greeted by Gaetano, who spoke no English but was able to show us around the apartment. It is a lovely place, very spacious and well appointed. It will be a great place to stay for the next few nights. We headed out to find the Conad store to pick up some groceries, and ended up at a great big shopping mall, which was so crowded we couldn’t believe it!! Back home with the groceries, another good home cooked meal and it was the end of that day.