We visited the valley, which is actually a hill, in June 2014. It was a very hot and sunny day so mrs Ech Wel was begging her travel-agent all the time when we would finally go to the beach. She isn´t really into ancient ruins and prefers a tan.

There are 7 temples on site of which the one named Concordia is the best preserved. It was named after a Latin text found near the temple which was talking about harmony among humans. (Concordia is the latin word for unity and concord.) It was kind of appropriate as this was our honeymoon.

Even more suiting was our visit to the temple of Hera, the goddess of marriage and weather conditions! It is an old custom for young couples to visit the sacred building to quarantee a successfull wedding. We paid our homage of course and called it a day. Off we were to the nearby beach of Eraclea Minoa.

Of course when we arrived at the coast the sky had turned from blue to grey. It was full of clouds instead off the deep blue heaven it was just a few minutes before. We waited for a while to give it a chance to get better again but had no such luck. When we drove home we soon found out that it was our own fault...

Our appartment was at the foot of the Etna vulcano and as we came in her neighborhood we discovered that the clouds we had been seeing were actually smoke plumes! I checked the map we had been given in the Valle dei Templi and soon noted what was wrong. We hadn't paid attention to the temple of Hephaestus aka Vulcan, the God of fire! According to ancient mythology he had his workshop beneath Etna and he was now taking his revenge on us.

So if you happen to be in the neighbourhood, make sure you pay respect to the ancient gods!