11-15-23 Ragusa

 






Morning walk through upper Ragusa.






From upper Ragusa, I connected with a nice trail back down to the Cemetery.




Even though I have walked through town maybe 8 times, I still got lost.  Had to take this obscure stairway up to my street.

Later on:

I decided to go back down the magical overgrown stairway, across the creek to the marked Camino trail down in the canyon below town. 

The beginnings of the trail up the canyon.
Bee hives
Views back to Ragusa.

The cemented road turned into an old stone trail, probably just a remnant of a much longer old trail.

I felt a bit uneasy, didn’t know the area, wondered if there would be dogs, then my new thing I try: “what if it all works out fine”.

The nice stone trail ended too soon at a paved road.  There was construction at my first fork, and I assumed I was heading up the paved road.  100 meters up I had seen no trail markings.  As I consulted navigation with the wind blowing hard I didn’t realize I was in the middle of the road, until a car honked. Fuck, if that doesn’t feel rude, I don’t know what does.

I realized the fork with the construction, was the trail. I headed back down and had a lovely day.


That’s the lovely white gravel road I needed below.  

Going up this nice canyon.
Spring water.  

I reached a gate fairly soon that blocked the road.  The sign said no hunting or vehicles.  So I kept going. 


A huge oak tree. 
Red berries.  No I didn’t try them!

If you look closely, there is a shelter built into the rocks.


Cyclamins the equivalent of our shooting stars
I’m further up the canyon now. 

Near the top point.
Beautiful stone walls everywhere 

Then I see green fields with white flowers and cows grazing.

That is Mt. Etna in the distance.

And now going back down. What an amazing hike. 

The pictures are not in order.

After crossing the creek
The magical overgrown trail below Regusa 
The creek crossing 
The beautiful forest on the way back from the canyon 
The stone paved trail near the creek crossing 

Trail to the creek
Creek crossing (I didn’t fall in thank you very much)
Trail up from creek crossing 

Porthole into town. 

Ragusa reminds me of Ronda Spain .  Amazing old town with countryside to explore. 

I have a small travel day tomorrow.  I want to take the train. I’ll see what happens.  

Thanks for following along!  Keep in touch . 

WhatsApp +17072241531

Lemonspomagranet@gmail.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Naples 2

Image
  I began to find a bit of the messy, loud, old city on my morning walk up to the beautiful Capodimonte Museum, up the hill from old town. The traffic and scooters are crazy, and I let the crowd start first in crossing the streets here.  I don’t want to be the first one out there.  Often scooters run the red and dodge the pedestrians.  I’ve unwillingly played that game already.   This one street was a very lived in neighborhood leading up to the park where the museum is.  I was expecting big crowds, but there were none. I had the museum to myself for the first hour.   There were so many religious scenes that were basically the same ideas painted over and over. So many naked babies and white Jesus being taken off the cross. Also many quirky stuff. I’m sorry I didn’t get any shots of the park.  It was lovely, with paths radiating out through mature forests.   Still fighting jet lag a bit, but made it through a big day.  I managed to get lost, even with navigation, but it was a nice kind
Read more

11-7-23 To Caltanissetta

Image
  Goodbye Agrigento.  I left the apartment at 10:00.  My bus, number 4208 didn’t leave until 11:20 and I had ample time to immerse myself in book two of the Godfather trilogy.  Spent some of that time reading in a park and then went to the bus station to read more.  One would assume  that if you bought a ticket the day before, at the bus station, that the bus would leave from the bus station.   I saw bus 4208 drive into town 20 minutes before departure time. Thought nothing of it. Maybe they are getting gas.  I saw the bus leave town at 11:23. Fuck!  In fact I said “fuck” and a well dressed young Italian man looked at me askance. One would also assume that a ticket seller would alert an obvious dumb ass stupid tourist, that the bus I just bought a ticket for leaves from another location.  So, I had to laugh this one off.  Days and days on a trail where I was contemplating expectations, assumptions and anticipation all possibly leading to disappointment; here I was.  I went over to the
Read more

12-6-23 Palermo

Image
 What have I learned on this trip?   Maybe I’m not the totally hot shit hiker that I used to be. I really didn’t do all of the Camino, and I am not into suffering for a badge of completion. And, I did most of the trail.  Hiked over 90 miles, just in those 11 days. I saw amazing landscapes that most visitors to Sicily wouldn’t see. There are a lot of super nice people, wherever you go, maybe especially in Sicily where the hospitality and friendliness and level of helpfulness permeates the culture.  Be aware of how you process the world around you. Expectations, anticipations and assumptions can cloud your awareness. They can bring you disappointments and dissatisfaction.  And you can choose to turn that stuff around to appreciation and gratitude.  Or by going into the world with an open attitude or positive intentions, you can maybe skip that outcome. I learned so many layers of eras and civilizations have passed through here.  It’s beyond my comprehension in some ways.  The ocean is so
Read more