Caves of the Ice Picker

I went out early to have a look at some of the dry stone walls that just dominate this plateau.

We decided to drop down into the valley and have a look at the Cava Ispica, or as Jaimie Lee likes to tell it, Cave of the Ice Picker.

The caves have an interesting history with the Siculian peoples first occupying the area some time before 1000BC. They were an italic people who came south and lived in this area. They started the caves for their burials, building extensive catacombs with tombs of all sizes dug into the rock.

All of this over a fertile valley bottom.....

and the only company..reptilian...

Obviously at some stage the Greeks used the caves as there are Greek gymnasiums for army training in a couple of largish rooms with ablution pits.

It also has churches, monasteries, christian catacombs etc. For a while the local people lived here quite extensively to defend themselves against African raiders. Poor people lived in many of the caves till they were mostly abandoned after the earthquake of 1693.

The whole place was very creepy. It is quite extensive occupying both sides of the 14Km gorge.

We then went to a slightly more modern cave occupancy. A little further up the gorge was a mill, in a cave that had been using an arab water wheel till 1957. It too was dug into the cliff, and the actual water wheel room was tiny, I was bent over double to get in. The owner was a great grand son of an actual water miller, but these days has a nicer external house attached to the cave. The mill now works by re-pumping town water up into the original spring feed.

It was warm so we decided to go to the beach. Marjan drove and the language was inventive. We found a lovely stretch of sandy beach. Unfortunately the wind made it a bit unpleasant both in the water and out.

So we went for a walk along the headland and around a newer ruin. You see this all over Sicily, buildings, roads dilapidated and abandoned. Some are ancient, some seem no more than 10 years old. La Fornace Penna was built early 20th century as a brick works.  The bricks were exported everywhere and much of Tripoli is built with bricks from here. In 1924 the place was burnt down, either by the socialists or the fascists....or perhaps it was Signore Trumpione . Now it just stands there making movie sets for Inspector Montalbano.