Sicily 3-- Agrigento "Valle dei Templi"

We visited Agrigento twice during our stay in Sicily. Of course, we wanted to go to "valle dei Templi" and its museum. Sunday the 3rd, we spend all day there. Due to off season, there weren't many people. Which was good, I thought. I never saw anything like that in my life, huge ancient ruins and temples. They were just look like ones I saw on T.V long time ago. First one we saw was one situated very closed to the top car park. We paid €10 to get in for the archaeological site without the museum. I knew that, we would be spending long time there, so, I wanted to make it as separate visit. 

We got in to the site, it just wowed me! It was amazing. From there, we walked down towards second part of the site. Ruins everywhere. I kept imagining how it was like, how people looked like, how they walked, what they did, and more. Those things blew me away. And view from there was also fantastic! One of the view I liked was Agrigento city behind the site with yellow flower on the front...Spring was arrived.

We just walked round and touching the ruins and feeling it! The most of temples had metal gate and fence to prevent from people coming in, but one of them wasn't locked. So, I assumed it was opened for public and got myself in, so as Marcus. We were enjoying the view and the temple. After about 15mins or so, guards came and told us off. Told them it wasn't locked! Anyway, this is the view!

Those photos are very close up from the side of the temple. I would imagine they are quite rare!?

It was lovely sunny spring day. Loved feeling warm sun on my back. Made hell of difference from English grey cold weather.

We were also looking for somewhere to sit down and have our snack. Anywhere would do! 

By the time we got to the end of first part, it was after midday. I was a little tired. Needed rest. 

Look what we found. It was a pillar for the end of the  temple. (sorry not sure what the name was) It was huge. Made me wonder how those ancient people built these gigantic buildings? and Those were cut very precise. I quite often watch on youtube about ancient civilisations and buildings as well as aliens, when I actually saw them, all I could say was :"Cor Blimey..." ❀❀❀ I just stood there looking at the ruins, lost words. Then... "I want to see more!!!"

When we got to the second part of the site, a stray dog decided to spend time with us. First, she was following us and then, soon realised we were following her. She took us everywhere. She knew where she was going. and She was a cute dog! ☺☺☺

After walking for a while, we ended up in front of the "secret garden" (Giardino della Kolymbetra)
I think we paid €4, cor, it was well worth spending it. It was huge garden with untold numbers of orange trees, olive trees and lemon trees. There were bins to put peelings in, benches to sit down and rest. Felt like it was a paradise! I can imagine hot sunny day after walking in the temples, I bet it was peaceful place to have a rest. So, that's we did. We picked loads of oranges and filled them in our bags, ate as many as we could and still left untold numbers and more! I told Marcus, "I can't eat everything.."

 From there, we walked up to another little temple over the rail track. On the way there, we walked passed little Greek bridge and very old olive tree!

 There we decided to have a rest, looking out the garden and the temple. The dog was still with us, and looked very happy. 

Slowly we walked ourselves back to the car park. And on the way, we lost our little friend. She decided to follow someone else.

A few days after our visit to the valley of Temple, we went back there for the museum. I heard a lot about it on Tripadviser, I was really looking forward to it. That day, it was raining. We parked our car in the car park in front of the museum. By the time we got to the museum, we were soaked. It was that much raining. it wasn't far from there, just pissing it down. We spent about good a couple of hours there. We wanted to take our time looking at those interesting artifacts. We met an English couple who loved archeology. Saw an American couple taking photos of the artifacts, again, it wasn't busy either. Thank God, one thing I don't like is packed museum and galleries. So, it was like heaven to me. 

The museum was good, very well presented, but when we were there, lightings weren't good. Some were lit really bright from behind, it made huge shadows on the exhibits, some even didn't have lights at all and very dark. Some staffs were talking really loud and laughing loud. Apart from that, it was cute little museum and loved that fact it was packed with wonderful history. 

When we got to the car, guess who found us and put a huge smile on her face! Yes, the dog found us. Again, she followed us a while and waiting for us to come out while we were having our snack in the car. Rain wasn't too bad then. 

It was hard to say good-bye to the dog, since she was so cute and well behaved. Anyhow, we headed our way back to Piana Grande.

When we started to drive on the road, I could see her running after us as if "see you next time!"