May 2007 - South Central, Sicily - Roadtrip through the Countryside

From Agrigento, which lies just off the southwestern coast of Sicily, we drove northeast towards the heart of the island. Along the way, we saw a beautiful and varied landscape, parts of which resemble southern Tuscany.

From the flat, sandy coast, the countryside gradually becomes hilly and then abruptly mountainous.

We first drove over soft rolling hills . . .

. . . many of which were studded with granite rocks jutting sharply upward, . . .

. . . through or around a number of isolated hill towns, . . .

. . . and past a few lakes and rivers, beginning to dry up with the coming of summer.

We even encountered a variety of livestock being herded along (sheep), . . .

. . . across (goats) . . .

. . . and next to (donkeys) the roads.

As we approached the stony heart of the island, which for centuries has been exploited for its sulphur mines and rock quarries, we suddenly found ourselves completely surrounded by majestic mountains with strikingly jagged peaks.

This isolated, central region of Sicily is a completely different world from the southwestern coast in which we woke up this morning. As we drove up, around and back down each subsequent mountain range, we felt more and more removed from civilization, . . . until, suddenly, a tiny hill town appeared in the distance amidst the most remote, seemingly uninhabited land. Could it be our next stop (Piazza Armerina) and would it have a gas staion? All we could do is continue forward and hope that this only road for tens of miles wouldn't take us over and around another mountain (and we wouldn't run out of gas) before reaching it.