The Segesta ruins – 30th April

We discover that we have an extra day in Palermo (it is really hard to remember what day it is when you aren’t working), so take advantage of the time to do a day trip to Segesta, the site of a Greek temple, located about an hour and a half way, in the middle of nowhere, but with a convenient motorway on the doorstep.
First challenge is to work out – you guessed it – if there was a local bus connection, then where the bus stop was located and the bus times. Many questions later, and after an extensive web search, we located all the information we needed, mainly because of a tip from an Italian friend of Pip’s, who had done this exact day trip. We will put all the details onto a forum on TripAdvisor, because we gather from comments that the information is not well known, as indicated by the lack of other passengers. For the 90 min trip each way, there was only us, the bus driver and one local passenger on the large coach.

Segesta was founded by a mysterious people called the Elymians, supposedly refugees from Troy, who were conquered by the Greeks, became allies of Carthage, then part of the Roman Empire, and later was occupied by the Vandals, the Moors and lastly by the Normans.
At the site, there is a temple, the foundations of some buildings from the ancient town, and a beautiful theatre looking out over the valley to the hills beyond – and lots of buses, mainly full of school kids.
In spite of the numbers of people, the site itself is quite tranquil and peaceful, set as it is on a high hill, surrounded by fields of wildflowers, orange and red poppies, masses of gold daisies, yellow fennel, and other flowers in white and purple that I couldn’t identify.
We walked to the top of highest hill, where the remains of a Norman fortress is located, then to the theatre, arriving in time to hear a group of French school kids on an excursion performing a scene from Shakespeare! It was a great performance and they received rousing applause from the tourists who were watching.

The view from here, with the sea in the distance, was terrific.  But presumably obstructed in Greek times by the two storey stage, of which only the foundations remain.
Next, we wandered down the hill, exploring the ruins of walls, houses and towers, till we arrived at the Temple, which was never finished but is largely intact, despite several earthquakes.
 
Back on the bus, we snooze our way back to the bustle of Palermo, where I spend the afternoon browsing the shops for tiles (oh no, says Mike, but I don’t buy any as I want antique ones and they are VERY HEAVY), before a lovely meal at the Antico Focacceria S. Francisco, a restaurant serving typical Palmeritan food.