Lucas would like me to tell you about Temple day.

On the day that we went to visit the Valley of the Temples— Europe’s largest archeological park, we were running late. We had rented a tiny car and driven out of Catania and their 300,000 roundabouts *, had several rounds of gas station cappuccinos and calzones, and now it was getting late in the day. 

Our rental car was slightly bigger than this one.

The temples were close. They were this way. Then than way. The signs went up, then they went down. Gates were locked. Parking lots were elusive. Finally, we went to the museum for directions. We had missed the turn. We only had eight minutes to get a ticket at the right gate and it was an eight minute drive to get there. “Come back in the morning,” they said. “OK,” we nodded, but back in the car, Pierre gripped the stick shift and grinned, “might as well try!”

Nino Vaccarella Italian race car driver. Photo from Wikipedia.

Transformed into a Sicilian race car driver, Pierre swerved through traffic and pushing the miniature car to its max. I jumped out as we pulled up and ran to the gate. It was dusk, and everything looked closed.  “Prego,” came a voice from the shadows. Startled, I screamed. It was a security guard. I apologized and we laughed before his face turned serious. “Closed,” he said. “Please,” I said. “We were lost. We went all over and we leave tomorrow.” The security guard stared at me and I was sure that he didn’t speak enough English to understand my babbling, but as I turned defeated to walk away, he said, “un momento.” And we got in.

The temples were built by Greek Settlers 2800 years ago. It is also the burial site of a Greek settler tyrant Theron. He was supposed to use the money he was given to build temples but instead he used it to hire bodyguards and take over the region. But it looks like he also managed to build temples because there are a bunch of them here. According to Wikipedia this same guy also won a bunch of chariot races in the Olympics and there was a speech made about it.

….Since the sand of the shore is beyond all counting, [100] who could number all the joys that Theron has given others?

That is the last line from an Ode to Theron after he won a chariot race. It’s giving me Trump “winning” golf tournaments vibes, but who knows. Anyway, the point of the temples was to show their strength to the world. 2800 years later we’re still impressed.

We were able to check out five temples. And they were all beautiful. Amongst them were almond and olive trees. Some of the olive trees are 2000 years old.

There was also a huge sculpture called a Telamon, or Atlas.

Standing at approximately 11 meters  in height. They were originally designed to support the temple- just like Atlas, the Titan whose punishment was to hold up the sky for eternity. There were a whole bunch of these statues in between the column pillars. It’s hard to wrap my head around how gigantic this temple was.

We were happy to have been the last ones in the park. It was cool, quiet and dark when we walked back. For a moment we thought we might be locked in and have to spend the night on the temple floor but the helpful security guard appeared again from the shadows and let us out.