The Vanished Sicilian Wheeless Cart

When we woke up this morning, the WiFi, hot water and room heating were all off. I rang our host Francesca to tell her and she said she would attend to it. The WiFi came back on about half an hour later. We were going out for breakfast and I asked Francesca if we needed to be home at any particular time because she had said she would contact a technician for the water and heating. She said it wouldn't be necessary because he could do it externally. When we came back from breakfast everything was back to normal. It did cross my suspicious mind that being the first of the month, all three things going off at once and all being so easily rectified, that perhaps she pays her bills on the first and it had just slipped her mind? No matter really. It was fixed so we could start the day with a nice warm shower.

Enna Alta is divided into two crests of the same mountain. We had already covered most of the eastern crest and we spent today wandering around the western one. The main feature of this is the Torre di Fredrico, a 13th Century Norman keep which is built on the highest point of Enna and thus provides views in every direction. It was open so we climbed the 96 stone steps (by my counting) and then a 15 step steel ladder, to the ramparts and enjoyed a fabulous view of the countryside.

The view of Enna from the Torre di Fredrico

On his trip, Edward was by now on his way to what was then known as Girgenti but has now reverted, like many other places, to it's older name of Agrigento. When he gladly quitted our miserable quarters in Santa Catarina, he discovered that a heavy thunder shower which fell last night, has rendered the road somewhat wet and disagreeable for walking, as we generally do up all the long hills. Given that Sicily is very hilly, he must done a lot of walking over the duration of his trip.

As he traveled he noted that the land is almost exclusively devoted to the production of wheat and it looks like there is still extensive cropping these days. He also noted that a lot of the farm horses were overworked and in poor condition. The Sicilians generally are very unfeeling in the treatment of their animals, appearing in this respect in disadvantageous contrast with the Maltese. 

On his way to Agrigento, Edward describes encountering an extraordinary carriage drawn by mules and with no wheels. One mule was in shafts at the front and the second in shafts at the rear, like the handles of a wheelbarrow. These must have been rare even then because I Googled everything I could think of but didn't find a single reference or image to such a cart. There were plenty for the well known brightly painted Sicilian donkey carts, although these are not to be seen these days, but none for anything resembling his description.

In Enna we continued to enjoy fine weather and spent our last afternoon there just wandering the streets and lanes before an early tea and off to bed.