Trapani, Easter Sunday-We have spent the past couple of days exploring the mountain top town of Erice, 2500 feet above Trapani, and the salt flats between Trapani and Marsala.
Erice is stunning, a medieval town with cobblestoned streets worn smooth over the years. The day we negotiated the hairpin turns up the mountain was clear and warm, and my sister swore she could see Mount Etna and a plume of smoke in the distance.
Lunch was a delicious affair made up of several different pastas, but even before lunch we visited a few pastry shops to see the beautiful marzipan pastries and lambs all ready for Easter. Even the cannoli are stuffed with a sheep’s milk cream, and we haven’t had a bad cappucino yet.
My most dominant images of yesterday were all the windmills we saw along the salt flats. They used to be used to grind the large chunks of salt that were gathered from the flats after all the water had evaporated. A visit to the salt museum in Nubia showed what backbreaking labour it must have been to carry the large buckets full of salt from the flats in the oppresive summer heat. There is still some salt production in the flats, but most of the windmills are abandoned, some missing their colourful red tops, a silent testament to another age when salt was used as a currency and a method of paying Roman soldiers. Sale=Salt, salary=wages in salt.
We had an excellent lunch in a small, family-run restaurant in Marsala, I enjoyed a fiery penne arriabiata and a moist and flavourful grilled swordfish steak…followed by a crowning touch of mellow Marsala wine. My sister liked it so much she bought a bottle from the restaurant owner!
We enjoyed a picnic dinner last night to give our bellies a rest, but I purchased a variety of sheep’s milk products to test. Highlights: A very, very fresh and mild pecorino, a slightly-aged pecorino with black peppercorns, and then two ricottas, one flavoured with lemon, the other with pistachio, one bright yellow, the other green. They tasted strongly of their flavouring and made a wonderful dessert with a few grapes and chunks of fruit and nut laced chocolate.
Today it’s down to Mazara del Vallo to explore the Arab quarter and stay overnight near the seaside before heading to Agrigento and the Valley of Temples.
Ciao!
