Only 14 More Days: Spaggia Foggia, San Calogero and Palazzo Adriano
Well, the winter storms have done a lot of damage. Our trip to Tre Fontane showed how the beach was moved up into the town but we found out from Pascale that this is normal. Every winter the sand comes over the wall into the houses and yards. They even have several inches of water that invades their houses quite often. People now do not keep valuable items on the ground floor, especially if they live close or next to the beach.
The beach at Foggia, adjacent to Sciacca, however, was another story. When we were at Fuedo Arancio picking up some wine we met Letizia, who works at the winery and lives in Sciacca. She told us to check out Foggia because is was one of the best beaches. Well, we drove there a couple days ago on a slow afternoon. I can see why it would have been one of the best. There is a breakwater constructed about 100 meters or so off the shore which would reduce the surf and wave action, making it a great place to sunbathe and swim. Unfortunately the storms have done it no favors. In fact this beach and the adjoining ones were pretty much destroyed. The sand is not wash up on the shore, it's gone, and the shore is littered with trash and bamboo canes that had been washed into the sea from upland.
The next day we had a beautiful sunset, once the sun got below the clouds. The afternoon light here is wonderful. The photos I caught do not give a real true representation of the light. My daughter's Sony SLR does a much better job than my Nikon. I may have to put together the skins to buy one like she has. Maybe I can find a used one. $800 is a lot of cash to drop on a fixed income. I've picked the best from a series that I shot from the terrace here at Verdetecnica looking to the west towards Menfi.
On our last visit here, in 2013, we found out that Toto's 87 year old mother was starting to slow down. She had raised four sons and run two shops during her life. After we got back from our side trip to Venice and Florence she had taken a bad turn. She'd been pretty much invalid for some time but now her systems were shutting down despite a strong heart and the doctor gave her only a few days. His oldest brother lives in Florence and flew in immediately. Well, she did get better for a bit but after two weeks she passed. We went to her funeral mass yesterday afternoon at the Basilica of San Calogero on the top of Monte Kronio. We had been up there many times in our trips here but never inside the basilica. We did go up with Rachel on Christmas Eve but there was a service going on and we did not want to disturb it simply for sightseeing. I must admit that I did take advantage of the opportunity provided by his mother's funeral. After everyone had left the church and before the priest in attendance came back and locked up the church I was able to capture a few shots. It's quite a beautiful interior and it's a shame that it's never opened except for mass. I suppose that's because it's still part of a monastery. We have never even seen a priest or brother/friar around the site so I'm wondering if it's cloistered. The Franciscans now run the parish and monastery and convent but were not the ones that originated the church. There are beautiful marble carvings over the side niche arches but I was not able to capture them, nor have I found photos of them on the website. That's too bad. They are as well done as any I've seen so far.
Today Toto suggested we go to Palazzo Adriano, about 40 km southeast of Corleone, in a high valley at the base of Monti Sicani. The town of Prizzi is the nearest major "city" and sets even higher. Palazzo Adriano was the site of the movie Cinema Paradiso which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1988. It's a picturesque town with cobblestone streets and you can easily see how the director was able to recreate a sense of the mid-1940s and 50s for the film. The nearby mountains had snow on them when we were there. It was midafternoon and the temperature was close to 7 degrees Celsius, 11 to 12 degrees colder than down on the coast. There's one highway into the town and that's the only way out, also. If you go out the other side it eventually becomes a gravel track in the mountains. I know because we tried it. We got to where there was still snow piled on the sides of the road, but none on the adjacent mountainsides. Naturally, we had to backtrack through the town and head back down towards Sambuca di Sicilia. There wa a big gorge in the mountains we had to skirt on our way up to Palazzo Adriano and some beautiful countryside after we got off the highway that lead to Corleone. The river, or stream, that created the gorge was not that broad. The bridge over it was barely 100 feet across but it's been eroding that landscape for thousands of years and if it rains like it's been doing around here the past couple months I can see why the canyon was formed.
While writing this tonight I pulled up Google maps and looked for the name of the river that formed the gorge. It apparently starts in Lago Prizzi, up higher in the mountains near the town of Prizzi. We had passed by on the east side of Prizzi on our way back from Bolognetta in December when we drove through Lercara Friddi. I believe we have photos on that post. The river is captured in Lago di Gammauta just downstream from Palazzo Adriano. I tracked the river all the way to the coast. It hits the sea just east of the Verdura Resort. This could be the Verdura river.
My next post will cover our trip to Agrigento to see the house that Luigi Pirandello was born in and were his ashes are buried.
Ciao for now.