Our first trip to an agriturismo...

Last weekend, Jason's shift from work made arrangements to have lunch at a local agriturismo. An agriturismo is a farm or rural area turned into a tourist attraction. They serve locally grown or produced food... all fresh. You really don't get to order from a menu, they just serve what they have prepared for the day. Eating is an extended affair. Your brought marinated fresh vegetables (olives, zucchini, yellow peppers, sundried tomatos, fresh mozzarella), then breaded appetizers, then pastas, green salad, meats, a liqueur that is supposed to help with digestion, desserts and fresh fruit, and finally the meal ends with coffee (usually just a shot of espresso or a cappuccino). It is hard to not get full after the first few courses, but if you limit yourself, you can make it through the whole meal to enjoy everything served. The restaurant itself is an old farmhouse... they leave sections of the wall unplastered so you can see the original structure and materials underneath. Agriturismos are located out in the valleys, away from the towns on the hills. This particular agriturismo was located near the towns of Mineo and Grammichele. The name is Agriturismo Valle Dei Margi.

Aidan gets the camera ready for our outing by taking this self portrait.

This is her ready to go to the farm...

Overalls, pigtails, and a bit of an attitude.

She fell asleep right before we got to the agriturismo... I couldn't bear to wake her up.

This is the back dining room with us and some of Jason's co-workers and their families.

This niche led to another dining room.

This was a path through the orange groves to some other buildings.

The end of the paved road... the beginning of the orange groves.

The walkway into the restaurant.

The coffee bar for after the meal.

This is the back of the coffee bar... I thought the overhang was interesting.

A beautiful building behind the restaurant... It might be for storage, or maybe its an apartment.

Aidan on the swing right after she woke up.

Her on the mini suspension bridge.

She wasn't too sure about the swaying and only made it to the third log.

But she loved the mechanical horse... it only took euro change and I didn't have much.

She went on a few rides...

One with her friend Sophie from her ballet class. After I ran out of change we told her the horse was too tired to give anymore rides. She sat on the coin box next to the horse and hugged it and kissed it trying to wake it up for more rides.

This was part of the petting zoo... It wasn't much and all the animals were in these chain link pens... Not much petting going on there.

This cute little baby goat caught Aidan's eye.

Her and one of the other girls tried to pet it's nose through the fence.

This big goat was a poser... It moved around and waited until I snapped a picture then moved again.

I tried to get a picture when this peacock had his feathers ruffled and tail up, but he was moving around too much and the other people were crowded around the pen.

I did get this nice one of his face by sticking my camera lense through the fence.

The was a small horse that was very friendly... He let the girls and I touch his nose.

One of Jason's buddies picked some oranges off a nearby tree and they were feeding it to the horse. Aidan tried several times to feed it, but got scared when he'd lean down to chomp it. Finally she let the horse eat it out of her hand, but I couldn't get a clean shot.

When we took her away from the horse she got very distraught... I couldn't help but take a picture. Jason smiling and Aidan screaming was just too funny.

She cheered up when we let her feed the goats some of the hay that was outside the pens. she couldn't get the hay through without dropping it though.

She finally got the hay through the fence and a couple of goats came to say hi.

Well, that is all for this trip... We are headed to the Valley of Temples in Agrigento this weekend. We are going with a tour group from the base. We don't know anyione else whos going, but it is easier to just enjoy the trip rather than have to drive and worry about parking and figuring out where to go. I will post those pictures as soon as I can. Until then... I hope everyone enjoys this Memorial Day weekend. Ciao...