September 7 – The Taxi to Caltagirone

Leaving Villa Amico in Agrigento, we paid our bill, thanked Pierdomenico, and humped our packs back down to the bus stop. We boarded an almost empty bus, but after several stops on its way up the hill, it quickly filled. An older man sat in an empty seat facing us, our knees touching.
Striking up a [...]

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Roomside Picnic

Now to find our hotel. We stumbled around the piazza under the weight of our packs, searching for La Scala 2, our hotel for our night in Caltagirone. Two kindly gentlemen could see we were having trouble and pointed us in the right direction. Trudging up a short incline, we spotted a door standing ajar; [...]

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The Ceramic Capital of Sicily

La Scala di Santa Maria del Monte (the Stairs of Santa Maria of the Mount),
Caltagirone’s distinctive staircase of decorative 142 stairs (I climbed them all
more than once). Each riser is adorned with colorful, hand-painted ceramic
tiles depicting everything from Moorish motifs to Baroque designs.
No two are the same.
We were ready to dive with gusto into [...]

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Exploring Caltagirone

One of the oldest towns in Sicily, Caltagirone was greatly influenced by
the influx of the Arabs. However, much of its architecture today is
distinctively Baroque. Bridges and balconies, church domes and building
facades still display the town’s ceramic history.
Aside from exploring the town, we also had it in mind to reach the train station below [...]

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