Enna

Wednesday 10th October - morning

We set off at 8.30 this morning to drive to Enna, which was a reasonably short drive.

Enna is one of the most ancient towns in Sicily, having been occupied since earliest times. It is really a typical medieval hill town, with a tightly packed huddle of buildings and narrow twisty streets, the churches all hemmed in and the views quite spectacular, because it is so high above the valley below.

The route to Enna was quite testing for the bus, with the narrow twisting roads, where the bus was obliged to occupy the whole road on hairpin bends. We had a couple of interesting confrontations with motor caravans, one involving a good deal of shouting and arm waving.

We were all anxious to photograph the wonderful view of Enna from the valley, but the road was a bit too narrow for us to stop. I do have a view of sorts, but it is mostly of a tree which got in my way at the wrong moment!

Once our wonderful driver had navigated the bus up the narrow hairpin bends to the town, we got out to see the castle, which dates to the thirteenth century. It is divided into a number of courtyards,

but we only really had time to climb the tower for fabulous views over the surrounding countryside.

Nearby is the Rock of Ceres, which is associated with the cult of Demeter. Her daughter Persephone is supposed to have been taken down to the underworld from a lake a few kilometres away, Lago de Pergusa. This is the Rock of Ceres, said to have been the place from which Demeter appealed to Jupiter to help her find her daughter.

The foundations you can see on the rock are those of a temple presumed to have been built around 480 BC. 

The main street of Enna is called Via Roma, and we walked along it to the Duomo.

The facade is very plain and Norman as you can see; it was built in 1307. However, the sixteenth century interior is extremely Baroque, with every surface decorated.

There are other plain Norman churches, but everything is hard to photograph because it is difficult to get far enough away from a building to take a photograph, the streets are so narrow.

You can see how little spave there is, even for cars! We had time for a short wander round the town - and the obligatory coffee. When we got back to the bus, our wonderful driver had found some ripe prickly pears for us to enjoy. He kept them in a bucket of water to keep them fresh and cool, and kindly peeled them for us to enjoy.

I haven't had one for over 50 years, and they were delicious; even Paul liked them. 

When we left Enna, it was a two hour drive to Agrigento for a late lunch. I tried a Sicilian speciality, Arancini, deep fried rice balls. One contained minced meat and peas, the other, cheese and ham. I thought they were excellent. Then we went even further and had our ice cream in a a warm brioche, another Sicilian speciality. I enjoyed that too, but Paul says, even though we shared one, that he ate far too much and wants no dinner!