Agrigento

Agrigento

Agrigento is home to the Valley of the Temples, which contains many ancient Greek ruins from the 5th-6th century BC.  It was fascinating that they are still standing.

Temple of Concordia

Temple of Concordia

Icarus 

Temple of Juno

Temple of Juno

Temple of Juno

Temple of Hercules

 The Temple of Zeus was the most destructed.  Some of the stones were used to build a port along the coast near Agrigento.  While the pillars were not standing, you should see the outline of the men that they were carved to resemble that held up the roof.  Some were in many pieces, but one was very complete.

Temple of Zeus Pillar

Temple of Zeus

Temple of Demeter and Persephone

Ustica

Ustica

Friday we went to Ustica, an island north of Sicily.  When we were in Erice, we could see Ustica to the North East.  This was one of the places I was looking forward to the most, and it definitely held true to its word of being paradise!

When we first got there in the morning, it was very cloudy and looked like it was going to rain.  That didn't stop us from deciding to hike across the island. Of course throughout our hike, we get caught in multiple rain showers.

We also wanted to make sure we got a boat tour around the island.  That is the best way to see all of the coves and grottos of the island.  Our tour guide Pepe spoke very little English, but that just made it more entertaining.  We had a German friend on the boat with us who was able to translate anything important for us.

Luckily, the sun came back out in time for us to do our boat tour.  That also meant we could go swimming without freezing to death.  None of the pictures we took were edited in any way.  The water really is that color!

Grotto Azurre looked like nothing special from the outside.  When Pepe took the boat inside the sun hit the water in such a way that it made it look neon blue.  These pictures don't even do it justice.

Almost immediately after our boat tour ended, it started raining again.  We stayed inside for a little bit to eat a late lunch, and by the time it was time to get our ferry home, it was sunny again.  Someone was looking out for us because the weather was timed perfectly all day.

Trapani

Trapani

Last weekend went went to Trapani, Erice, and Marsala.  The bed and breakfast we stayed at, Casa Trapani, was awesome.  We had an entire house to ourselves.  You walked into a foyer and there was a bedroom straight ahead and then you sent upstairs leading to two other bedrooms and then eventually opening up to the roof.

While in Trapani, I think I had the best cappuccino I have had since I got here.  I was incredible creamy, and strong without being bitter.  So good! And of course I had to get cacao on top.

Erice

We spent friday in Erice, which is a little city on the top of a mountain right next to Trapani.  It was beautiful.  Erice looked like it still could have been from right out of the middle ages.  The views from the top of Erice were also fantastic.

There was one bakery in Erice that is famous for their almond paste desserts.  We went in and I could get everything except for three items! It was awesome!  They were really good, but incredible sweet.

Marsala

Saturday we went to Marsala.  none of us were overly impressed by it.  We had a wine tasting at Donnafugata scheduled, but something must have gone wrong with the times and we weren't able to do it.  They were incredibly rude to us, so I was not overly disappointed.  Plus we already had a fantastic wine tasting in Cefalu with Lucia.

La Rocca

La Rocca

Yesterday we went back to Cefalu so we could climb La Rocca.  It is this gigantic rock/ mountain that has a Castle and Fort at the top.  The ruins at the very top are from the 4th century.  

We picked a fantastic day to do this.  It was nice and sunny but it was also really hot.  Luckily we had a slight breeze that made it tolerable.

I think by the time we were done hiking, we had done about ten miles up and down.  The rock itself is about 900 feet tall.

Today in clinical I really got to see many differences between nursing in the US and Italy.  The nurse I was paired with did not even do any sort of physical assessment on the patient.  Many of their responsibilities are also what we consider the job of a nurse's aide.  He also couldn't do anything like dressing changes.  He could only assist while the doctors did it.  I found that really strange because doctors at home really only check dressings the first day post-op.  As long as it is looking good, the dressing changes are then the nurse's responsibility.