The very early morning ferry brought us back to Pozzallo at 08:15 so we had an early start for a busy day.
Much of southern Sicily has glorious oleander growing along the roadsides, and wild cactus. There are extensive groves of olive, pistachio, almond, and citrus trees, and of course the vineyards. This is also the home of Magna Graeca, as the later Romans referred to the "greater Greece" of antiquity, and its concentration of ancient Greek settlements and ruins.
There's also a lot of weedy overgrowth and occasional debris. At one point we passed a dead dog on the side of the road; southern Sicily is simply not as tourist-visited and thus not as nicely maintained as the rest of Italy that we had seen.
Except for the magnificent temples at Agrigento, today was really about getting from Malta to Naples. We had no foodie goodness and much of the scenery was like driving through eastern Colorado or New Mexico. If we had another day we'd have explored Marsala and the western point of Sicily, but we had consciously traded that for the quick and exciting side-trip to Malta.
The drive from Pozallo to Agrigento and the Valle dei Templi took about three hours, including a stop for diesel at a desultory gas station /convenience store/restaurant. It brought us through congested and unappealing Gela, but most of it was pretty boring and Lorna and Melissa spent much of it napping after the last two short nights and one very busy day.
As we approached Agrigento and the Valley of Temples (Valle de Templi), the scenery was just as boring, except suddenly there was a classical Greek temple atop a hill, and a sign by the road that said something to the effect of "Classical Greek Temples This Way". After the geological and vegetational randomness, the straight lines of ancient construction were visually arresting.
The Valley of the Temples is not a valley at all, but a high long ridge overlooking a dry valley and the ancient town of Agrigento. There are several temples in varying condition after millennia of earthquakes and eruptions of Etna, but they are all well maintained now. There is a snack bar with some seating, a cart with fresh-squeezed pomegranate and orange juice, and a counter with a variety of premade sandwiches that were not bad. There's a parking area, and a golf-cart service to help people to get around. Of course it was hot as Hades there, so we started in a golf cart to the far end and then slowly worked our way back toward the parking area.
From the Valle de Templi, we drove west to Sciacca and Castelvetrano and then north to PMO, the Palermo airport. There we turned in Giulia, our faithful if somewhat ditzy automotive companion of 1000+ miles (1600+ km) and took a terrifying taxi ride to the Palermo ferry terminal.
We had to deliver Giulia to PMO by 5:30PM, in order to make the 45-minute terrifying taxi ride to the ferry terminal. We could have saved a few Euros by taking a bus, but that seemed a silly way to save a few shekels in the grand scheme of things, and we'd just have to schlep our bags from the bus stop to the ferry terminal; the cabbie took us right to the best waiting place, having done this before.
The GNV ferry was immense. There was a 19:00 boarding for a 20:00 sailing. We had an unsatisfactory dinner on the ship: my Steak au Poivre looked institutional. We shared a nondescript Sicilian Nero d’Avola. Lorna had fish and clams, Melissa had a pizza, they shared a tiramisu, and all of it could have come from an Italian Sysco freezer-truck.
Our quarters were tight but acceptable. They'd have been more acceptable if one of the bars stayed open later, but they closed early and it was too tight to write in the cabin so I found a space; at least the wifi was good.
The plan for the next day was simple and busy: arrival in Naples, train to Rome, and then all day exploring the wonders of Imperial Rome before seeing Aida (my favorite opera) at the Caracalla Baths. The ferry arrived on time, but debarkation was slow and chaotic, so we missed our train. Fortunately the Trenitalia people were nice and they put us on the next train at the same price! Tomorrow we get to The Eternal City.