Marina di Ragusa & Lago Dirillo

On Saturday Les & I drove down to Marina di Ragusa, a beach town on the Mediterranean Sea, and joined hundreds, maybe thousands of Sicilians for a day at the beach. We staked out a piece of sand, laid down our beach towels and headed for the water. The Mediterranean was warm, calm, and clear. As we looked down at our feet we occasionally saw a small fish wander by. We'd cool down in the water and then head back to the sand to dry off and lay in the sun. After a lunch of paninis and iced tea we cooled off in the water once more and then decided to move on. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures at the beach. We didn't want to risk someone taking off with the camera while we were in the water, nor did we want to have to take turns babysitting the camera so it stayed in the car.

After the beach we spent a of couple hours at a local shopping center. Shopping helped us work up an appetite again so we picked up some bread, cheese (I was ecstatic to find Gruyere Swiss for the first time here, one of my favorites!!!) salami, olives, nectarines, and a bottle of iced tea. We set off toward home hoping to find some place beautiful to enjoy our feast.

I spotted a dam in the distance so off we went in search of the lake. We found Lago Dirillo, a reservoir out in the hills. We walked down towards the water and found several fisherman dotted around the edges of the lake.

A fisherman

The edges of the lake were quite steep but we managed to find a somewhat level place to throw down a beach towel for our picnic. After our lovely meal we walked around a bit and I took a few pictures using my telephoto lens and new tripod.

Lago Dirillo

Hills in the distance

Les & I with the lake in the background...happy, tired, and sunburned

I was a bit nervous taking these pictures. You can't tell in the photo, but the hillside drops off next to me and drops down into the lake. You could see the rocks beneath the surface of the water for a few inches but then the water appeared to be a very deep green a few inches out so you know it got really deep really fast. It creeped me out. I kept envisioning falling or having my camera and tripod, teetering on rocks, get bumped and seeing it slowly disappear into the green...anyway, enough of that not fun thought! The camera didn't fall, nor did we!

Our picnic on the edge of the lake was a wonderful end to a wonderful day. I think the beach and swimming in the sea is the only reasonable way to enjoy the heat of Sicily. Hopefully we'll make it back again soon!