Today we visited the second site that we had come to Agrigento to see - La Scala dei Turchi, or the Turkish Steps. This is a series of white cliffs along the coast, where in the 1500s, Saracen pirates, misnamed Turks by the locals, would land in the sheltered bays and use the terraced cliffs to access and plunder the coastal villages. In the past, you could actually walk and climb on these formations, but that is now prohibited. But you can get stunning views of them both from up above at the belvederes (bel -good; vedere -to see - a good place to see) and from the beaches below. We did both!
By the time we finished at La Scala, it was lunch time, so we sussed out a street-side café in Realmonte that proved to be a real gem. The boys both had pannini, while Mer and I opted for a Caprese salad and two different kinds of bruschette that were delicious.
A return to the flat where Irv and I stayed while Mer and Richard went off to watch a soccer game with the semi-pro team from Agrigento. They said it was an entertaining game that ended in the home team winning in a shoot-out.
A search for a dinner venue had one strike, but then we found a little place called La Burgato which turned out to be very good. The boys had spaghetti carbonara which they both claimed to be delish, while Mer and I opted for Insalate Mista, which was also molto bene! Since Mer had a hankering for gelato, she asked the server from the restaurant where there was a good place. Unfortunately good old Google Maps took us on another joy ride to get there, but it was indeed worth the drive. The gelato was amazing!
As we had been driving back and forth at night, we had noticed that you could see three of the temples lit up, so we ventured over to get a closer look and some pictures.They are beautiful to see during the day, but something special all illuminated. And thus our day ended.