One of the most interesting places in Sicily, for me at least, was the Valley of the Temples on Sicily’s southern coast. We took a hotel for a few nights in Agrigento, a place where you could take your cena outside on the terrace, where you looked up at the temples bathed in evenings final glow while eating your pasta with sardines. Later, the floodlights came on. Even when you planted yourself on the toilet in your room, the main temple was viewable through a carefully placed porthole. Sweet.
Author Luigi Pirandello’s birthplace is nearby, in Kaos. There’s inspiration in this place.
The Valley of the Temples is a rugged, yet hospitable landscape, The Temples sit on a dry, dusty plateau which invites you to sit and bath your throat with a white Sicilian wine as dry as dust.
So I’m perusing the available houses to rent, and I come upon this restored railway keeper’s lodge. Stately, tall, blending in with the landscape. It doesn’t look all that big, but it’ll sleep more than 10 if you can find that many friends. They don’t all have to like the archaeology and asthetics of ancient temples, the sea is close–right down the “Scala dei Turchi” (Turkish steps) in fact–for which the house is named. The sea is but 200 meters away. Tell your friends. They’ll want to come. Scala dei Turchi waits for them.
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