May 14, 2023

May 14, 2023

We awoke in Palermo, Sicily. It is Mother’s Day and we see runners assembling in the piazza below. While packing up we hear the starter pistol and watch them begin the race to the theme of the Queen song, Don't Stop Me.

From Palermo we drove west along the coast. It is cloudy and it looks like rain. After an hour we turned inland to visit the Temple of Segesta. Once parked we notice a line of old motorcars pass by. An antique car club must be having a road rally. We then see a bunch of Ferraris parked near us.

From the parking lot we walked uphill towards the Temple. We laugh seeing Agaves lining the path. Many are in bloom. These are not native. Agaves and Prickly Pears are both transplants from the Americas but seem to have taken over Sicily.

The Temple of Segesta sits atop a small hill all by itself. It seems in very good condition. It is constructed of limestone rather than the typical marble we expect from other Greek and Roman temples. Our local guide tells us this Doric Temple is not actually Greek. Archeologists believe it was built by the local inhabitants called the Elemi, who like the Romans, enthusiastically adopted Greek culture. The Greeks expanded from their traditional homeland and built colonies all along the coast of Sicily and Southern Italy. Despite not being Greek, the locals must have been superb stonemasons. The joints are almost perfect without the use of mortar.

The temple was built around 420 BC but looks incomplete. From above it looks like a child's cradle with only the outer columns in place. There is no inner sanctuary, nor are the columns fluted. There was continual warfare for control of Sicily between the local inhabitants, the Phoenician trading ports, and the many Greek city-state colonies on the island. It is likely one of these wars stopped the construction.

From the temple we took a shuttle bus up the steep hillside to the actual town of Segesta at the top of the hill. For defense most cities were located atop an Acropolis (high city). On the drive up, we get good overviews of the temple.

The hilltop contains several ruins from history, including the Agora or marketplace. None are in good condition except for the theater, which dates to the Roman era. The lower half of the seating still exists and has a great view of the valley leading back to the coast. The theatre was an important part of Greek culture. Here plays were performed and government policies debated, whereas the Romans mostly used them for crude entertainment and mock battles. In many ways the Greeks were the philosophers, and the Romans their practical counterparts.

Along the walk, we noticed the local vegetation. Except for the invasive Prickly Pear, it was very different from our own. The most unusual was a weed that grows in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Leaving Segesta we worked our way overland to the western shore. While climbing the mountain to the hilltop town of Erice, we get great views of the northwest coastline with Monte Cofano in the distance.

In Erice we stop and begin our tour. It is a cute town. It should have great views but we are above the clouds now. Fog is a problem with western coastal regions. We stop for a lunch of the local pasta specialty, Busiate al Pesto Trapanese. Busiate is a narrow corkscrew pasta that holds sauce very well. Interestingly the Pesto here is red, not green. The basil-based Green pesto is Genovese (Genoa, Italy region). Pesto refers to the method of the paste preparation, i.e. crushing in a Mortar with a Pestle.

It seems our luck ran out today. The fog is thicker and it is starting to rain. But since we are in the clouds and not below them, it is more of a mist. Either way we cannot see anything. Since hilltop Erice is mostly about the expansive views, this visit is a bust.

We do visit the Royal Cathedral before leaving. While it is ancient the interior nave was totally reconstructed in the 19th century. It is very unique with the ceiling looking like carved ivory scrollwork, or maybe since we are in Italy, it looks like a Pasta Church. There is also a Madonna shrine that is paraded through town during times of need. An interesting plaque lists the years and what prayer the townspeople needed fulfilled from war to plague to drought. I think people today forget that there have always been crises of some kind. Life is never easy.

From Erice, we made our way down the mountainside to the coastal city of Trapani. The city sits on a narrow peninsula sticking out into the sea. Our hotel sits on the open ocean side. After checking in, we walked the very short distance to the opposite shore that is filled with cruise ships and ferries. In the distance we can see piles of salt, from the many saltpans that line the shallow western shore. The city of Trapani is mostly modern as it was bombed to smithereens in WWII during the run up to the Allied invasion of Sicily.

For dinner we walked down the street to a pizzeria. Our pizza was made with Mozzarella di Bufala, a cheese variety made from the milk of a Water Buffalo.