Trapani

Shannon and I live on the east side of Sicily and we try to get out and around as much as we can. The west side of the island is very nice too and although only 3 hours away, it makes for a long day trip. As a result, we planned an overnight trip to the west side of the island with our friend Jodi. Our first stop was in Segesta, an ancient Greek city from 700BC. The site has a huge temple and you are permitted to walk around the columns. The temple is said to be the best preserved example of Doric Architecture in the world. From their you take a hike up the hill to the ancient city and take in the views of the surrounding mountains and the Castellammare del Golfo. There is also a Greek theater where Greek tragedies are still preformed in the summer.









From Segesta we headed over to the port town of Marsala. The town is famous for its wine so we stopped in an enoteca to have some lunch and to try some local flavors.









After lunch we headed north to the salt fields between Marsala and Trapani. Sicilians claim that Trapani makes the best salt in the world. Sea salt is still produced here largely the same way it was done 2700 years ago when the Phoenicians brought the techniques to the island. They let seawater into fields and wait for it to evaporate. When all that remains is the salt, they collect it with shovels and wheelbarrows and keep it in piles. To add to the scene there are antique windmills that were used to pump the water. While in the area we went to the Salt Museum and took a ferry to Mozia where there are the ruins of an ancient Phoenician town.
That night we stayed in Erice. Erice is a medieval town located on the top of a mountain. We checked into a hotel and enjoyed a nice dinner. Erice was a nice quiet town and it has streets that are much too small for cars. The next morning we bought tickets that would get us into seven churches around the town. We took in the amazing views from on top of the mountain and visited all the churches.









Erice is famous because it has its own style of ceramics but also they are renowned for their pastries. So I had to go shopping but I was rewarded later with some pie.

Next we drove east to the Zingaro Reserve. The Rieserva Naturalle dello Zingaro is an amazing place. It is at the edge of a mountain chain and is along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

There are no roads inside the park so we went for a hike to enjoy the views. After a hot walk we stopped at one of the beaches along the sea and spent a few hours swimming and getting some sun. We jammed a lot into a two day trip and had a great time. There is a lot to see in Sicily.

Cava Grande

On an already hot day Shannon and I decided to hike Cava Grande in the Syracuse province. Cava Grande is a limestone canyon carved out of the Monti Iblei Plain by the Cassabile river. Cava Grande actually translates to Grand Canyon but the name is the only thing the two gorges really share- You could fit many many Cava Grandes in the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Perhaps only the temperatures compare. We hiked all the way down to the river enjoying the views as we went. The hiking is precarious in only a few places, but like the Grand Canyon there is also a possibility of heat exhaustion. The park service is watchful of hikers, you have to sign in before you take the trail down and get a pass. Along the trail you see a number of marked helipads that are used to evacuate hikers and they have park rangers along the way in case of emergencies. At the bottom we followed the Cassabile river for about a half-hour and chose a pool of water to take a dip in and cool down. The majority of the hike was spent going down and back up.

Aunt MaryBeth

Shannon’s Aunt Marybeth came to visit us in Sicily. She was traveling through Europe with a friend and they made Sicily a part of their trip. We showed them around and did our best to ensure they got the most out of their time here. We all went up to Taormina on Friday and they got to see the Greek Theater and

take a look around one of Sicily’s nicest cities.
On Saturday Shannon took them to the Tornabene family home in Gangi.

Wanda Tornabene and her mother Giovanna write very famous Sicilian cookbooks and they also open their home to cooking lessons. The drive took the ladies through the gorgeous Madonie Mountains which offer some great views and some precarious driving. They even had to stop once because of a herd of cows in the road. During their lesson they cooked an entire Sicilian meal with a number of courses and of course at the end they got to eat the fruits of their labor.
On Sunday we took them into Catania to show them around the city and look at the Duomo. Afterwards we headed south along the Ionian Sea to Syracuse to see the historical sites and walk around the city. We visited the Archeological park and took a crypt tour along with visiting the Temple of Apollo.
That night Shannon made some Sicilian food and we all ate it out on our porch overlooking the Aci Trezza harbor.
We kept them pretty busy here, but I think we all had a lot of fun.