10-23 Trapani, Sicily

Sicily is the Mediterranean’s largest island, and Trapani is on the northwest coast.  It is a fairly flat agricultural land growing citrus, grapes, wheat and olives  Trapani roughly means “hook” and refers to the shape of its natural harbor.  It is in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Six million people live in Sicily, 77,000 live in Trapani.

Our tour today was to visit both Trapani, but also the beautiful medieval hill town of Erice, located about 45 minutes northeast of Trapani with a population of only 300 people.  The drive up to Erice was beautiful with lots of curves and twisting narrow roads.  Near the mountain in this picture is a quarry with beautiful pink marble.  (really can’t see it in the picture!)  Erice sits about 2,700 feet up from the sea.

Erice was associated with the Roman goddess, Venus.  From the base of the town, you climb even higher to get to the top of the hill where the Castle of Venus was built in the 12th and 13th centuries.  Today the castle is in ruins, but the views from the area are extraordinary.

Our first stop in the town was the Chiesa Madre (mother church), also known as Our Lady of Assumption, noted for its separate bell tower – built in 1314. This tower also served as a watch tower for the town.  Its outside is still the way it looked in the 1300s.  In contrast, the interior was remodeled in neo-Gothic style in 1865.  It has a very ornate vaulted ceiling that looks almost like lace.  Its 15th century side chapels were well preserved. The columns are all pink marble. The floor is actually tombstones (crypts underneath). Another interesting part of the church were the figures of St. Joseph and child – made of wood with real clothing glued onto them.  The alter was also amazing – made out of white Carrere marble – the same that Michelangelo used.  The most famous painting in the church is the Madonna (Virgin Mary).  It was accidently discovered by fishermen on a beach in the 1500s.  In the painting, Madonna’s face is painted a dark color.  Next to the painting, is a stone plaque with a chronological list of a series of processions that were made asking the Virgin Mary for something that was needed  – such as rain, protection from an invasion of bugs (seriously!), and help for the plague. The last procession was in 1936.   

After the church, we continued to walk up the steep, narrow and cobblestoned road (the only day I didn’t wear my good walking shoes!)  – some side ones off of the main one only wide enough for a donkey.  The homes here are mainly summer homes where it is much cooler in the summer.  All the houses have courtyards when you enter and all are very clean. 

Before reaching the top, we passed by two churches – one for St. Peter, the other St. Julian with its bell tower  Finally we saw what is left of the castle dedicated to Venus.  The best part of it was the view! Part of the castle is now mainly used for a restaurant during the summer season  It also used to have a drawbridge.

We made our way back down to the lower part of Erice and enjoyed a cappuccino and cannoli  at Da Michele’s.  It was stuffed with a very smooth, almost cream like, ricotta cheese.  It probably had 3,000 calories, but it was divine!

Back on the bus, our next (and last) stop was the town of Trapani.  Much of this was destroyed in World War II, and so most of what we saw had been renovated to look like what it had been.  We went to the old part with a wide pedestrian avenue.  At one end was the Town Hall.  We also saw from the outside what had been the Jesuit church and is now a high school.  We also saw the Cathedral of San Lorenzo with its unusual dome of green and orange tiles.

After the tour, we went back to the ship and had a quick lunch.  We took some pictures from the ship – saw the salt lakes and the huge piles of salt that have been harvested.  They have a big sea salt business here.  They also get a lot of red coral and make jewelry from it.

We went back to the town to explore more on our own.  However, all the shops closed at 1:30 and would not open until after we had to leave, so we just strolled around.  We went behind the Town Hall to what had originally been the Jewish quarter.  There are no more Jews in Trapani since the Grand Inquistion.  They used to make a lot of the red coral products by hand.  We happened upon the fountain with Neptune above it as well as the Church of Saint Agostino with its elaborate rose window that looks like it is made of lace.  

It was then time to make our way back to our ship for our 4 p.m. departure.  It was an interesting port, but our favorite part was seeing the old town of Erice with all its charm.