My wife (Stephanie), my 2-year-old daughter (Emily) and I arrived at the Palermo airport in mid-May, 2004 ready for a week and a half away from workday rhythms. We flew into Sicily from Rome using AirOne, Lufthansa’s airline partner. A good airline. Their prices are competitive with Volareweb and Alitalia (AirOne’s two big competitors) and they’re efficient and organized. In addition, we had heard that some Rome to Palermo Volareweb flights had been cancelled due to low passenger bookings. True or not, we didn’t want to take the chance. The plane was new, the staff was excellent and the plane took off on time – in both directions. We paid US $160 for the Rome to Palermo roundtrip. (All prices herein are in U.S. dollars as of Spring, 2004.)

May 19, 2004

We arrived at the ruins of Segesta by 11AM. The temple dates from the 5th Century BC and is situated on a mountainside in the middle of wide-open space. The temple is huge. The Doric columns are massive. The temple is considered to be one of the most perfectly preserved Antiquity-era sites in Sicily. Segesta was founded by a group called the Elimi and were aligned with the Greeks. Don’t give this site a miss - it is only an hour’s drive (75 km) from Palermo.

May 20, 2004

The three of us awoke early, had a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed straight to the ruins of Agrigento. It took us about an hour and a half on a smooth blacktop. Agrigento was founded as Akragas around 582 BC by a group of colonists from Gela, who themselves were the immediate descendants of Greeks from Rhodes and Crete. Akragas was renamed Agrigentum by the Romans only to be christened Agrigento in 1927. After seeing Agrigento, I can say that no trip to Sicily would be truly complete without a visit to this ruined city, and especially the temple area called “Valley of the Temples”.

May 21, 2004

We continued our counter-clockwise tour of Sicily by retracing the route we had taken to Agrigento in an effort to get to our next stop, the Roman Villa at Casale with its famous mosaics (see photo above). The scenery along the route was breathtaking - wildflowers bloomed in vibrant colors and huge, bright red poppy fields were all around us. Other hillsides bore bright yellow sunflowers. Lots of browns and greens. Cactus everywhere. And so many palm trees. It felt like we were in Los Angeles.

May 22, 2004

We had decided to drive around the area during the morning for a couple hours before meeting Daniele and his family in Modica for lunch. We got off the beaten path and took a small road to a town called Scicli in the very southeast corner of the island. Scicli is described in Michelin as a “quiet, crumbling Baroque town with few sights”. While it may have few sites, I enjoyed the town because there was not a tourist in sight!

May 23, 2004

After some fantastic homemade cornettos and espressos personally served to us by Max, we headed out through throngs of Syracusans on their way to church. In the Piazza del Duomo, Emily found a young kid selling balloons. We had seen the same kid the day before in Noto. We weren’t in much of a rush, so we watched Emily play with the balloons. We also let Emily wander and meet another young girl her age. We laughed and took photos as the two girls hugged and kissed each other. We tried to go into the cathedral but there was a sign inside that told us that Mass was taking place. The sign “prayed” that we would not disturb the services.

May 24, 2004

Breakfast was again excellent with Max preparing our juices and fresh cornettos and rolls. We said goodbye and promised to send other people (especially families with kids) his way. We filled the car with gas and headed out on the highway. The roads in Sicily are definitely better in the east than in the south and there are infinitely more gas and service stations and restaurants along the way. In fact, much of the highway was 2 lanes in either direction along the east side of the island. This allowed for much greater speed and we quickly arrived in Catania within the hour.

May 25, 2004

Taormina's streets retain much of their medieval flavor, as do several of the churches and villas. There are also some pretty Baroque structures scattered throughout the town. The castle (Castelmola) overlooks the city. There has been a strong British and American presence here for many years. The only place we saw American tourists on our trip was in Taormina. Many of them only stop in Taormina as part of larger Italy tours.

May 26, 2004

We quickly got out of Cefalu in the morning, as we wanted to get to the Cathedral in Monreale early in order to beat the crowds. We stopped for breakfast at a café on the way out of town and then got on the road. Somehow, we managed to pass the exit where we should have gotten off and ended up lost in a part of Palermo called Mondello. Using side streets, we managed, after almost an hour, to redirect ourselves to Monreale.

May 27, 2004

We wanted to see as much of Palermo as possible as this was our last day in Sicily. And so we decided to forget about all of the shopping that we needed to do. We got up early, packed our bags and stored them in at the hotel lobby for later pickup. We got our morning espresso at a nearby café and then walked to the Vucciria market.