DO YOU WANT TO ORGANIZE AN ERASMUS AT AGRICAMPING SOPHIA?
Photo Source: Gaetano Sciacca - Antonino Rampulla
WHAT IS AGRICAMPING SOPHIA?
It is a campsite with tent pitches, glamping tents, mobile homes and bungalows
WHERE IS IT?
In Italy, in Sicily, near Syracuse, in Pachino:
36.736883, 15.095610
HOW TO CONTACT US?
info@agricampingsophia.it
(SPEAK ENGLISH) +39 3473079242 – (ONLY SPEAK ITALIAN) +39 3452396095
WHAT DO WE OFFER?
We offer hospitality and catering for Erasmus projects
FOR HOW MANY PEOPLE?
We can have 4-7 single beds in the Socrate Bungalow, 6-10 single beds in the Platone Mobile Homes, 4-6 single beds in the Aristotele Mobile Homes, 4 single beds in the Iblone Mobile Homes, 4 single beds in the single beds in the Empedocle Glamping Tents. In total we therefore have 18 comfortable single places or 31 single places with a fair spirit of adaptation.
IN WHICH PERIOD CAN AGRICAMPING SOPHIA BE AVAILABLE?
The most suitable periods to use our services are the second half of May, June, September and the first half of October. Agricamping Sophia is a structure essentially designed to operate in the summer period.
…AND THE TOILETS?
Each bungalow, mobile home or glamping tent has its own toilet facilities, with toilet and shower. In addition, there are also shared toilet facilities for the campsite and the restaurant area (8 toilets, 6 showers).
ACCOMMODATION:
- N.1
Bungalow "Socrate": 4-7 single beds, two rooms with two beds each, a living room with kitchen where three more single beds can be arranged if necessary, anteroom with sink and bathroom with toilet, bidet and shower.
- N.2
Mobile Home "Platone": 3-5 single beds, a room with double bed (which can therefore also be used as a single bed), a room with two single beds and a bunk bed, a living room with kitchen where a single bed can be made, a bathroom with sink and shower and another bathroom with sink and wc.
- N.2
Mobile Home "Aristotele": 2-3 single beds. a room with 2 single beds, which can be joined by a third bed if necessary, a bathroom with sink, toilet and shower.
- N.2
Mobile Home "Iblone": 2 single beds, a room with double bed below (therefore usable as a single bed) and single bed above (bunk bed), a bathroom with sink, toilet and shower.
- N.2
Tende "Empedocle": 2 single beds in a spacious glamping tent, a bathroom with sink, toilet and shower.
ADDITIONAL TOILETS: 6 showers, 8 sinks, 8 toilets, disabled bathroom, washing machine.
CATERING: we have a professional kitchen for preparing breakfasts, lunches and dinners. for coffee breaks we provide our kiosk, equipped with a fridge, a coffee machine and a microwave oven. next to the kitchen and the kiosk there is a patio, equipped with chairs and tables, where you can eat. our cuisine is Sicilian and Mediterranean. Some of our specialties are pizza (Sicilian version) and “brioscia” stuffed with ricotta.
COMMON SPACES: the patio can become a meeting room, a web radio, a rehearsal room, a jam session club, a live music club, a disco club…
SURROUNDINGS: Marzamemi and Portopalo di Capo Passero with their sea, the polis Siracusa; Noto, Modica, Scicli and Ibla with their baroque…
BREAKFAST
Our cuisine, as already stated, is essentially Sicilian and Mediterranean. We make a small exception to the rule only with regard to breakfast: having noticed the difficulty of certain food cultures to conceive of an almost entirely “sweet” breakfast, as we are traditionally accustomed to do in Sicily, we also offer toast and crepes with savory toppings in our morning menu. Upon request, to be communicated the evening before,
we also prepare brioches that can be filled with jams, hazelnut cream or sweet ricotta. Fruit juices and milk will be available in the kiosk’s fridge (see COFFE BREAK). Espresso coffees and cappuccinos can be ordered in the kitchen, as if it were a classic Italian bar…
COFFEE BREAK
Coffee breaks will be essentially “self-managed”. We will provide you with our kiosk, where you can use a refrigerator (of which, if necessary, we could reserve some space for us), a microwave oven and an espresso machine. However, it will be our job to always make sure you find ground coffee (in an airtight container), biscuits (in another airtight container), tea bags and fruit (which, depending on the type, you can also find in the fridge). In the kiosk there will also be an adequate number of mugs, coffee cups, glasses,
teaspoons and other useful kitchen utensils, strictly NOT “disposable”, which you will therefore have to wash after each use (there is a sink in the kiosk) and which will be an excellent exercise in respect for each other... We will gradually restore the drinking water, fruit juices and milk that you will drink in the kiosk. It will be your responsibility to take care of things such as closing the biscuit container when you have
finished eating them or closing the juice cartons and putting them back in the fridge. In general, the Erasmus group will be responsible for cleaning and keeping the kiosk tidy.
LUNCHES AND DINNERS
Our menus vary according to the season and fresh produce available. However some of the meals we prepared for Erasmus Projects that got very good ratings are pasta with Sicilian pesto, risotto with mushrooms and sausage, couscous with vegetables, various types of pizza, chicken cutlets, scaloppine with mushrooms, pasta alla palermitana.
It is clear that pasta, bread and bread products are the basis of our food culture, so participants must be clearly informed that our cuisine is essentially Sicilian and Mediterranean.
(ALMOST) A SELF SERVICE
We do not provide table service so Erasmus participant will line up in front of the kitchen window to get their meals and cutlery. Drinks and glasses will be those provided in the kiosk, therefore self-managed. At the end of the meal, any organic leftover must be strictly thrown into the compost bin (and not in the unsorted bin, nor in the plastic, paper or glass bin... only in the compost bin) and the rest of the waste correctly disposed of (for example, plastic bottles crushed and thrown into the plastic bin...) Dirty plates and cutlery must be put away where we will indicate.
ALLERGIES AND FOOD HABITS
In order to evaluate and prepare culinary alternatives, we urge you to give us clear, precise and reasonable advance notice of any allergies and food intolerances (certified by medical tests), such as celiac disease or lactose intolerance, as well as dietary needs of a religious nature (such as the prohibition on eating any substance of pork origin for Muslims) or arising from ethical choices (vegetarianism).
CLEANING, HYGIENE AND WASTE SEPARATE COLLECTION
Everything regarding personal hygiene (including toilet paper), cleaning of the rooms and kitchen utensils in the kiosk (therefore various detergents) is your responsibility. Before your arrival at the campsite, we will make sure that the accommodations and common areas are clean and sanitized, as we ordinarily do with our guests. You will be asked to maintain at least a sufficient level of cleanliness in the accommodations and common areas you will use. We will provide you with a set of sheets, towels and blankets per person .
If necessary, we make a washing machine available on the veranda of the common bathrooms, subject however to an extra charge of 3 euros per use (i.e. per wash). It is very important for us is that the separate waste collection is done well. If you have any doubts about this (for example, where to throw the milk carton) just ask us for information.
USABLE AREAS
You can use any area or environment of the campsite available. The kiosk can also be used as a storage area for stationery, or if you have delicate material to store (for example a projector) we will agree on a safe place in the campsite to store it. We need to be aware in advance of the activities and of any practical needs .We must discuss every “special” activity (i.e. paint works, sculpturing, loud noises…) assess their feasibility at the campsite and agree in advance. There could be campers arriving or already living in the camping and we will take care that this does not interfere with the ordinary running of the Erasmus and we will also intervene to clean the shared bathrooms.
As mentioned, we can agree on “disco evenings” or “jam sessions“ (in case we have musicians among the Erasmus participants). It would be nice to agree beforehand about playlists that the group would like in disco evenings. it would be appreciated if the Erasmus participants communicated two or three songs each, just as it would be useful to know beforehand what instruments the possible musicians play, so as to understand if we could find them.
COST
For food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, two coffee breaks and, in general, everything related to the restaurant activity), accommodation, use of the campsite and organization of leisure activities (such as jam sessions and disco nights), we ask you 35 euros per person, per day, and a 60% deposit before using our services. We invite you to consult our website www.agricampingsophia.it for general information on the campsite and to view additional photos. Text Source: Antonino Rampulla - Gaetano Sciacca
ARCHIVE NEWS
CART RUTS MODELED ON SOFT ROCK?
Read also RACK OR HOUSING FOR CLOGS?
Some cart ruts from the Targia district, in Syracuse, and most of the cart ruts from Granatari Vecchi, in Rosolini, give the impression of having been impressed, modelled, on a rock that was originally viscous, not entirely solid. As absurd as this hypothesis may seem, especially in Granatari Vecchi, the softness of the shapes and the at least anomalous uniformity of the rock bank, as if it were a concrete casting, which hosts the cart ruts, is unicum compared to the lithic context in the area.
In Targia this phenomenon is less impressive but if we consider the cart ruts essentially cart tracks, therefore furrowed roads indirectly resulting from the repeated passage of carts along the same route, we do not understand why such uniformity and smoothness is present, in the majority of cases, also on the parts not affected by the passage of the...
RACK OR HOUSING FOR CLOGS?
Read also CART RUTS CUT FROM QUARRIES
In the presence of slopes, even slight ones, in some cart ruts in the Targia district, in Syracuse, central holes are found with a diameter of between 30 and 50 centimeters and a depth of 15-20 centimeters, spaced about 50 centimeters apart. Neither the position (they are not exactly in the center of the cart ruts and perfectly aligned with each other), nor the shape appear perfectly regular: either the passage of time and any wear have profoundly modified their original shape or, simply, they have never had a systematic regularity. However, the offset in position between one hole and another is never completely “off-axis”: there is always a portion about twenty centimeters wide that coincides with the same portion of the previous and subsequent hole. The best preserved and most defined holes are found in the cart ruts usually called Scala...
CART RUTS CUT FROM QUARRIES
Back to CART RUTS AND A FEW TOO MANY PROJECTIONS
I will skip any preamble, referring to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.
The easy academic tendency has been, in most cases concerning cart ruts, to consider them in terms of the latomie, or quarries, with which very often (for example in the cases of the Targia or Pizzuta districts) they share the same territory.
According to this theory, the carraie would have been indirectly created due to the wear of the rock at each passage of carts or sleds loaded with extracted stone blocks. I will not repeat the arguments presented so far in order to demonstrate that this is a theory that has little solid foundations on an in-depth analysis of the cart ruts. However, I will add a piece by demonstrating the implausibility of a connection between them in both chronological and functional...
CART RUTS AND A FEW TOO MANY PROJECTIONS
Read also THE POLISHING OF THE CART RUTS
I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.Considering the possibility that the cart ruts were gradually dug by the passage of carts pulled by pack animals, for example pairs of oxen, observing certain sections of the cart ruts present in the Granatari Vecchi district, in Rosolini, and in the Pizzuta district, close to the Vendicari Reserve, two questions arise:
1. Why force the animals to pass over rough surfaces and protrusions high, compared to the base of the furrows, even 60-70 centimeters?
2. Why, in the presence of such obstacles, not opt for a detour?
For Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer such protrusions appeared later, since at the time of the passage of the wagons, a layer of earth covered the rocky bank, thus not making the obstacle...
THE POLISHING OF THE CART RUTS
Read also THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS
I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.
To proceed with this comparison I have chosen a probable capital and the corner of a recess present in a block of the northern walls of Eloro that would seem to resemble a pinax, that is, a niche that would have housed a fresco of the heroa, but which a more careful observation refers to a system functional to the grip of the block through a pincer winch. Both elements, like the curt ruts, have remained at the mercy of the elements for millennia, and are therefore subject to comparable wear and tear due to the passage of time. The finishing of the capital should be of a high standard, since it is an architectural element that also has an aesthetic function. The recess, on the other hand, should have...
THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS
I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.As can be seen in other sites around the world, in some cart ruts I visited, in particular in the Cugni district in Pachino, in the Granati Vecchi district in Rosolini and in the Targia district in Syracuse, a clear border can be seen, a sort of frame, next to the grooves, more marked externally, barely noticeable internally.
The borders I measured have a width of 14-20 centimeters and a height of 8-10 centimeters.
Not all cart ruts have such frames present or particularly evident, regardless of the degree of wear or degradation. They are found above all in cart ruts with less deep grooves.
As already described in detail, given the presence of furrows with a depth of even 65-70 centimeters, the wheels of a possible vehicle would have had to have a...
THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART FOUR)
Click here to return to third part
Clapham Junction
As in the Maltese site Misrah Ghar Il-Kbir, also in the Targia and Granatari Vecchi districts the cart ruts intersect and cross each other in a similar way to the track switches in a railway station. The nickname Clapham Junction that was given by David H. Trump to the Maltese site, derives precisely from the similarity with the famous English railway station. For Sagona these are agricultural furrows and water channels, for Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer these are abandoned paths due to obstacles and wear. Obviously we do not know what the morphology of the Syracuse and Rosolini territory was at times when the cart ruts were traced, but considering the current context, there certainly would have been no agricultural reason to build them, given the presence of fertile land, springs and fresh water courses just a few kilometers...
THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART THREE)
Click here to return to SECOND PART
Considerations on the theses of Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer
I find this study extremely interesting, even if I am perplexed by this emphasis on the loss of hardness of the wet rock given that Malta is among the European territories at greatest risk of desertification (as is unfortunately also the south-eastern area of Sicily). We don't know exactly what the climate was like in Malta when the cart ruts were made, as we don't even know for sure how old they were made. However, it might be understandable to take the humidity factor as a starting point. n strong consideration, in relation to a territory constantly subject to rainfall, but why would the ancient Maltese have had to intensely travel with loaded carts right after a downpour, with all the inconveniences that for example the mud would have entailed?
The Maltese territory is...