Back on the boat, cabin fever set in, so Megan and I decided to hire a car for a few days and see some more of Sicily. We set off first to Agrigento, which we have visited before. This time, we were able to ignore all the 'historically important' sites, and just enjoy the town. We're suffering from history overload, and don't have much enthusiasm for visiting ancient sites.
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| View from Agrigento to the coast |
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| Our B&B in Agrigento. Love the cactus. |
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| A perch for the virgin |
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| Just another famous monastery that was closed |
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| Megan showing the plaster |
Agrigento was an enjoyable town, we wandered the streets and shops without feeling impelled to see any of the 'sights' as we'd seen them previously. Next day we headed off to Marsala, the town and region that produces the eponymous wine. On the way, we stopped at Sciacci and bought some beautiful hand made ceramic tiles. We are in the process of selling our house in Australia, so it felt like we'd made the first purchase towards our new home (wherever that might be!).
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| Ceramic dome in Sciacci |
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| Main thoroughfare of Sciacci |
Marsala was an ugly place. We stayed in a B&B just outside the 'old town', and couldn't help noticing just how impoverished and plain butt-ugly all the buildings were. There was no charm nor character the buildings, just a sense of grinding poverty. Our B&B room was mouldy and charmless, as was the included breakfast watched over hawk-eyed by the proprietor. We couldn't wait to leave.
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| Town gate in Marsala |
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| Town square in Marsala |
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| Another day, another church |
We did find some joy in the country side near Marsala. There is a low-lying string of islands just off the coast which provide shelter for a small shallow harbour which has been the centre for salt production. The area is dotted with picturesque windmills, and there is a lot of aquatic bird-life in the area.
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| Marsala sea side with windmill in the distance |
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| Windmill with salt production lake-pans |
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| Canals between the salt pans |
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| Rock salt piles, protected by a covering of roofing tiles. |
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| Windmill, which now sells.... salt for tourists. |
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| Sheep attack! |
From Marsala, we struck out for Trapani. In the suburbs outside the town is a gondola that travels quite a few kilometres up to a town, Erice on top of the hill. This was a stunning ride with glorious views. Erice clearly made most of its income from tourism, but was a picturesque walled town.
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| Gondola cars |
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| Climbing out of Trapani |
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| Trapani from half-way up the gondola track |
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| Gate entry to the walled town of Erice |
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| Erice grockle |
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| The leaning tower of Erice |
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| Steep town streets |
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| Panorama from Erice over the valley of Trapani |
Back to the actual town of Trapani, we were also pretty disappointed by the town. We'd heard about the wonderful cous-cous, a local delicacy of Trapani, so we'd promised ourselves a night out in a good restaurant. Problem was, we couldn't find one! They were either closed or booked out. It is early in the season, but eating out is clearly a tourist endeavour, rather than for the locals. Facing imminent starvation, our only recourse was to buy some take-out from a caterer, and eat it in our B&B room. Pretty dismal really.
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| Fast hydrofoil ferry |
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| Garibaldi landed here when he started his unification drive |
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| Trapani harbour |
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| Yet another... |
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| Palazzo |
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| Waterfront promenade |
We stumbled onto a film set in Trapani, by accident actually, as our way was barred by security people. We watched as several takes of a scene involving period cars and a man in a 70's brown suit were shot.
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| Film set, with a take under way. Note the period cars. |
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| Some of the actors and producer. |
We were quite uninspired by this trip, and we realised that maybe it us.... maybe we've just seen too many sites, too many churches, too many wonderful things. We've been on Pavlov for four years now, which is a pretty long time for continuous travel. Our house is sold back in Australia, and we had been planning to buy a block of land we had seen on our last visit back, but it is now sold. So we are at a loose end. We have to return to Australia in December to remove our belongings stored in our shed (an agreement of the sale was that we could leave our things there until December). The real question is, where should we buy a house, and will we come back to Pavvie? Stay tuned, same bat-time, same bat-channel.
