Sicily 2021 #10 - Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel, I See You Have NOT Forgotten Me

I am going to jump ahead. Yesterday was a chill day. We went back to the Ortigia area of Siracusa, had a lovely lunch and spent time in the afternoon just walking around with the family and doing photography. I will get pictures posted of that day when I get access to reasonable internet.

Today was a transit day. Originally we hoped to go from our rental (from hell) in the Siracusa area to one in the Palermo area on the other side of Sicily. But a mistake in the booking system led to us not being able to get to the new rental until Tuesday. We decided to stay for two nights and one day in the Agregento in the south of the island. Agregento is the gateway to the Valley of the Temples, one of the best sites for ancient Greek temples in the world.

 

The day started easy enough. We had a leisurely breakfast with the #3’s then both families got packed up and left, they for Catania to catch a plane back to Amsterdam and we off to Agrigento. The weather is projected to be extremely bad then next five to six days. But our drive to Agrigento except for heavy wind, was quite nice. We chose a longer route that took us all along the southern coast of Sicily.

 

It was amazingly agricultural. In fact this is something we’ve noticed almost everywhere we’ve gone here – the vast amount of agricultural activity that is taking place. The fields of plastic covered hot houses go for miles and miles. We stopped at one town and had a lovely dinner of pasta and fresh grilled fish. Then we headed for our destination.

 

I had realized that the B&B I selected was smack dab in the center of the old part of town. The old town being a medieval, mountain location. You know what that means. Lots of narrow, winding, steep streets. Fortunately, the GPS got us to our location with a minimum of fuss. The location of the B&B was not immediately apparent. A phone call got the manager coming out to bring us up and help with our bags. Here is where things started to go south.

 

We are going up the entrance to the small, old building. There are a lot of steps. I am thinking ‘this is not good for Wife…or me for that matter!’ Then we are shown our rooms. Now, I had made this reservations through Booking.com specifically because it said it had two rooms with a connecting bathroom. That’s perfect for Wife and I with our different sleeping requirements.

 

After I had made the reservation, I had gotten a note from the owner saying that it wasn’t exactly two rooms with an adjoining bathroom, but two rooms with a hallway leading to a bathroom. I had responded asking if that hallway was a public one leading to many rooms or a private one just for those two bedrooms. I was told it was private. Oh, and by the way, there is a third bedroom on that hallway but he promised me they would not put anyone in it. Hmm, I thought, I guess that would work for us.

 

In the event, we arrive and are told that actually there IS PEOPLE IN THE THIRD BEDROOM. And we will all be sharing this common bathroom. STOP. Not acceptable. The gentleman doing reception seems to have anticipated this. He was fully prepared for our reaction. I think he must of told the owner that he was trying to pull a fast one. Fortunately for us it wasn’t that late, around 5:30pm. The reception person found us another place down off the mountain in the beach area. He called and made sure they had rooms. He helped us with our bags. He was a real gentleman.

 

Of course, getting to the new hotel turned into a bit of a trial. The GPS took us to the back of the building and we didn’t realize it. So we spent several minutes wandering around narrow, windy roads until we finally found the entrance to the hotel which was somewhat hidden. By this time there are ominous, dark clouds rolling in. We get checked in. Our new reception person is incredibly helpful. The car park is across the street so not that easy to get to the car from the hotel building itself. As we settle into the room, the skies open up, thunder, lightning, a massive storm. We have lots of drinks and food in our car but aren’t going to brave the weather to get them. We are just happy that we got into a place, dry and warm that has an elevator and where we are not sharing a bathroom!