Happy birthday, Yvonne!  She turns 81 today and probably wishes she was languishing in her bed on Miller Bay rather than traipsing around Sicily, but she has been a good sport about our adventure.

We are leaving the “big city” of Palermo and heading south to start our exploration of the rest of the country. Our first stop, about an hour from Palermo, will be at the small famous (infamous?) town (population 11,158) of Corleone, Sicily, the birthplace of the Mafia. There we will met by a local resident who will give us a lecture on the history of the Mafia.

The scenery changed drastically as we left the coastal area of Palermo. Suddenly we were entering a mountainous region with more forests and eventually extensive fields growing durum wheat. This is the famous “breadbasket” region of the country, an area that has produced these grains from Roman times. It reminded me a bit of Eastern Washington but here the fields are smaller and the hillsides are more rugged. Surprisingly there was not much evidence of grazing animals.

When we reached the center plaza of Corleone we were met by Gino Felicetti, who led us to the nearby park where we sat in the shade and listened for one hour as he traced the history of the emergence and demise of the mafia. He had pictures of the famous figures of the organization to share and stories about how and why it became what it had. His family had some involvement which had forced them to leave the area for some time. The story behind Lucky Luciano was particularly intriguing as was the story of how the mafia worked with the US during WWII.

Leaving Corleone we drove another hour and stopped for a quick lunch at a road side stop where Yvonne had her favorite lunch – a ham and cheese Panini on the magnificent freshly made Italian bread!

After lunch we drove to our main attraction for the day-the Valley of Temples, located by the town of Agrigento where we will also spend the night. The Greeks colonized the east coast of Sicily in the 8th century BC. About 150 years later they migrated to this location, calling it Akragas, where they built 15 massive temples dedicated to their gods. Our walking tour (which Rick Steves calls “one of the great travel experiences in the Mediterranean”) with a local guide covered the 5 remaining temples in the area. Unfortunately it was hot (upper 80s). Yvonne was the smart one, noting that they offered a tour via a cart which she took while the rest of us walked! Two hours later we caught up to her resting comfortably in the shade of the trees while we all were hot and tired. Luckily there was a stand selling the famous lemon granita at the exit of the park so we had an opportunity to refresh our bodies.

Our hotel was only a short distance away and the cold showers awaiting us felt superb. The hotel, Baglio dell Luna, was magnificent. Formerly a private home it has been converted to one of the prettiest hotels we have stayed at modern rooms with awesome AC, verdant gardens with greenery and flowers and an outdoor patio overlooking the Valley of the Temples for dining. We had a marvelous dinner in that setting complete with the staff singing happy birthday (in Italian) to Yvonne with a candle in her dessert! I wished we could spend more time here but we move on in the morning.

Steps for the day:  11,567. No wonder I was tired!