Agrigento, Sicily Italy 2003

Temple at Agrigento

An excerpt from the new book I’m writing.

Driving on Sicily would be a challenge according to the guidebook. It reported that in some towns, if you make a wrong turn, you’re likely to face a flight of stairs that you must drive up or down. The encouraging phrase, “be brave, you can do it and besides you don’t have any choice,” scared the hell out of me. I had visions of blowing tires, damaging the underbody or even flipping the car. The guidebook listed Agrigento, our first destination, as one place where driving on stairs was likely to happen. All I could think of was, “oh shit.”

(We did get there and it was stunning—and empty)