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.

Veer left towards Corzo The Ice Picker....

...not something I ever expected my phone to tell me, but when you are in Sicily with Jaime Lee anything can happen. We were heading to Modica for the morning when she suggested this particular move. After we stopped the car and had a good laugh we realised she meant Corso Di Ispica.

Modica is one of a  group of towns that were completely rebuilt after a 1693 earthquake hit this part of Sicily.  Over 90k dead and dozens of towns wiped out.

We parked near the uninspiring train station, near an awe inspiring viaduct, and walked in past a trash and treasure market being set up.

All the way up the main street, up the ever rising stairs to the cathedral that seems to be a wedding cake decoration, the Duomo di San Girgio, with the expected dragon, ever up to the Pizzo Belvedere with a view of the town snaking along the valley, and the locals having an animated discussion with the Police.

Then back down, down, down past Quasimodo's house- Salvatore, poet , Nobel laureate,  to Caffe Adamo where a much deserved break was organised. Pistachio all round, gelati for me, cremolatte for Marjan. Imagine fresh, sweet, nutty pistachios infused into a lovely icy/creamy confection. The pure flavour of pistachio in an ice cream. Apparently Noto ice creams are better. Impossible we say! Prove it!

There were some interesting shops.......

But the Sicilian man told me to photograph the balcony opposite...so I did...

People/car watching whilst having the ice-cream was fun. In particular the pedestrian crossing across from the Caffe which was a constant source of temptation as the only open  spot available for parking for those wanting to come and get some sweets for Sunday lunch.

Empowered by sugar we hit the trash and treasure, everything from Italian army helmets, very tempting for the boys, to full suites of furniture, to Sicilian hand made cricket bats. The whole of Modica seemed to be having a Sunday stroll. We kept seeing the same people all over town.

Eventually we felt lunch was in order. Of course we are at least 50Km from the sea here, so no seafood on the menu. None! Nada! Zilch! Pork it was, for me anyway, eggplant for Marjan, and a very tasty and varied ante pasta.

By the time we got back to the car the town was near empty, except the eateries. Everybody was eating or sleeping. Even the Lidl supermarket was near empty. Marjan says she will only drive in towns at lunch time.

......and if you think we are obsessed with food, all I have to say is "Have you met us?"

How many roads must a man walk down.....

Let's start with last night's dinner.......after all I wrote the last blog early so we could dine by the beach, and I did not fancy writing it after a litre of wine.

We had what Marjan said was the most beautiful and colourful sunset she has ever seen. It went on all through dinner, and though I might argue the precise point with Marjan it was impressive.  It must have been the people on the beach all took photos, the people walking their dog took photos, the waitress took photos, the owner took photos, we took photos. We had been advised about one of the places on the beach to eat at, it was family run and good value, so that is where we went. The cook came out to chat, Italian and German to Marjan, her sister, the waitress came out to chat, Italian and Spanish and English and we decided that yes the baby squid and small fish, cannot recall the name but between whitebait and sardine, that were fresh from the market that afternoon would accompany the litre of wine, bread, prawns and Sicilian salad. Marjan ate the fish as they were beheaded, she closed her eyes and had some baby squid as well. The prawns were no problem, and I had no problem eating anything in front of me. All very nice and the sunset show was awesome. During our conversations we mentioned we were staying at Enza and Pino's place. Now we do not know if modern communications were involved but who should show up between entree and main......yes Pino and Enza to say hi, shake our hands ask if everything was OK. All very lovely and little -townish.

Off early in the morning. We had a two hour drive to a Roman Villa to see the bikini girls. The drive took us through some lovely inland countryside and eventually into an amazingly fertile valley, veggies, fruit you name it. At the head of the valley a poplar forest and then the Villa Romana del Casale. A fourth Century Roman Villa, probably belonging to the Governor of Sicily, certainly a big knob. Before I started planning this trip I had never heard of this place, but it is amazing. The place was occupied for a while till the Vandals (bloody Germans) destroyed it. Later on (around 1200) a mud slide covered the place and hence protected the mosaics. Most of the villa walls are gone but a lot of the mosaics remain and they are wonderful. Patterns, stories...you name it. By the way the scale is interesting. Most of these would be as bit or bigger than our family room at home, they are taken from walkways about a storey above them.

One whole galley depicts animal scenes, hunting wild African animals for return to Rome.

The most famous mosaics are the bikini girls. Actually a depiction of woman training/competing and being awarded as winner during an Olympic style games. You can see the previous, damaged, mosaic in the top corner.

Even the toilets were decorated......

It really was something to see......

We then headed into the pretty town of Piazza Armerina where all the survivors headed after the mud slide. A really nice town, the old quarter, once we managed to find a park on market day......

The piazza around the Duomo was almost empty, and the church closed,but it had a cafe to provide some pizza, orange juice and coffee....

Back to the car via a supermarket and off again for another lengthy drive to our next lodgings.

Again through some lovely countryside before things got interesting. Jaimie Lee decided to take some liberties with our route and we ended up taking quite a few interesting roads. We saw abandoned airports, abandoned freeways, abandoned multi storey buildings, the backside of every town between Piazza Armeria and Modica, some fertile bottom-land, acres of hot houses, some amazing cliffs. In between this we were let on one road, right onto another back around to the original one. We were heading in the general direction but making a lot less progress than I would have liked.

Eventually we pulled over and re-calibrated Jaimie Lee with a prickly pear and a quick back and forth with a fully laden car. Just about then Bob Dylan came on the stereo to sing Blowing In the Wind and we knew our day had been fated.

We eventually made it to our rustic cottage (1926...so modern) overlooking the Archaeological park of Cava d'Ispica. A sort of cave dwelling, graveyard from Paleo Christian times. Greeks and Romans built amazing stuff, Christians dug holes in cliffs. More on it if we decide to visit, for now we just look across at some of the caves from our balcony (the dark marks on the light cliffs)

Scala di Trurchi

We had left this day as our beach holiday day for this area. As it turned out it was the least beachy day of them all. Planning!

We nonetheless headed out for Scala di Turchi in the morning. This is a spot made up of white stepped cliffs. apparently its appearance on an Inspector Montalbano episode has made it more popular with Brits.

It was certainly a striking place. A little bit scary getting near the edges. Some did not have too many problems but we are older and clumsier and kept a little back. I almost told someone off who was scratching their name on the chalky surface, but hey I'm not Sicilian and they may be.

At one point I wanted to take a particular shot but was delayed by one particular couple where were taking selfies and endless shots of her posing with her butt stuck out at what may be considered a provocative angle. It was provocative because they would not move out of my frame. So I change the postprocessing....

Anyway, we had a longish walk along the beach, between one cocktail bar/ristorante and the next. The area along here is littered with the joints, Apparently it is not a real beach if there is not a bar to rent you a spot on a lounge chair. At least these people were employing folk to rake and clean the beaches. Rubbish rate down.

Eventually we got tired and the beach was approaching an industrial area........this become the pattern further east on this coast........so we headed back and up the cliff and had some refreshments. The place we chose was above the cliff; ground floor a take away cafe, first floor a family home, second floor a terrazza with a view....so up we went through the private balcony where Mrs was hanging out the washing to the terrazza with a view. Weird.

We decided to visit the Torre Salsa nature reserve.  The west road just ended. Like the road stopped in a ditch. The east road kept going but the road eventually descended into a bog near the lagoon....so we abandoned that approach and instead just had an afternoon of chilling at the villa looking at the view.

We will head down to our local beach later for dinner and a beach sunset.

By the way, Happy Grand Final Eve Day. Do they have cards I can send yet? When will presents be required. Although by the time you read this it will be Grand Final Day.

Also, it is interesting to note that and angry man will always trump a reasonable woman.

As you can see, I have been looking at the Internet during our shill time. The world is still strange!

Inland tomorrow. Which may be just as well the weather has cooled a couple of degrees.