Gale force winds buffeted Henrietta all night and in the morning we could hear the sea roaring.
Yet more archaeology today but with a twist. In the Marsala museum yesterday we saw many finds from the island of Mozia. This was occupied by the Phoenicians for over 300 years from the the late 8th century BC until they were defeated by Syracuse. After that the survivors moved to the mainland and established the city of Lilybeo, modern day Marsala.
We drove along the coast to the jetty used by the ferry to Mozia. Even if you aren't interested in archaeology, this area is well worth a visit. Mozia is set in a huge, shallow natural lagoon formed by the long low island of Isole Grande and many saltpans line the shore. These take advantage of the high natural salinity caused by the shallow lagoon and the hot summer sun and huge amounts of salt are produced here and on Isole Grande. Large piles of salt are lined up along the edge of the saltpans and they are protected with a tile covering giving the impression of low-roofed houses.
The boat left with just us and less than 10 minutes later we were dropped off on the island, arranging to be collected three hours later. The trip was amazingly calm given the storms of last night and the continuing strong winds this morning.
The island was first excavated by an Englishman, John Whitaker, in the late 19th century. He was a member of one of the Marsala wine families and he bought the island to be able to uncover its history. His collection of finds from Mozia and other nearby sites is still on display in the museum together with many more recent finds from the island. Sadly, although an Englishman excavated the site, all of the finds are displayed without English explanations. Many of the best finds, with a few notable exceptions, seem to have been given or loaned to other museums such as Marsala (we saw them yesterday).
We were provided with a map and brief information in English for exploring the island and this proved very useful. The many information boards also had English explanations and were very good. We had time to be able to explore the whole of the island, mainly by following the 2.5 km of shoreline. It was interesting to see a different a different culture with its own burial practices and deities. The boat duly collected just us at 13:00 and dropped us off back at the jetty.
We had identified an agroturism restaurant on our route inland and, given that there weren't any other campsites in the area, it seemed a good place to stop. The Plein Air booklet showed it as being at Fulgatore, the address was Fulgatore and the sat nav pinpointed its exact position in the town. So we ploughed on through miles and miles of attractive vineyard-clad scenery and arrived at Fulgatore to see a sign telling us that it was 6 km back the way that we came. The address was 10 Via Marsala, number 9 Via Marsala was indeed in the town but the next house on the road was 6 km away. We found it easily, spotting the signs that we had missed on the way because we weren't looking for them. There was only a worker on the farm busy pressing grapes for wine but he made us welcome and directed us to a pitch with electricity. The deal was that it cost €10 but was free if you had a meal. We suspected that the restaurant wouldn't be open and we were correct. It is however open at weekends if you happen to be in the area. The owner arrived back at about half past seven and came to welcome us. He return a little later with a quarter of a litre each of his red and fortified white wines plus a small bottle of “cooked wine”. We chatted for some time with him after overcoming the problem that he thought that we were French – his English was better than his (and our) French! We drank his wine so that we could return his carafes in the morning – the red whine was very good but the white at 15% alcohol didn't have enough depth of flavour. We haven't tried the “cooked wine” (reduced by half) but have been told that we should have it with a good cheese such as Gorgonzola.
Photos: Dismantling a salt 'house' roof ready for moving the salt; The windmills on the saltpans; The 'Youth of Mozia' – a sculpture representing an unknown but obviously important person from the 5th century BC and carved in marble from Eastern Greece; A 6th century BC Phoenician mask in marvellous condition; The imposing and heavily fortified North Gate of Mozia has deeply ruts in the stones due to the volume of carts that used it. Although it appears to go into the sea, there used to be a causeway, created in Phoenician times, that linked the island to the mainland. The road is over 1.7 km long and 7 metres in width, broad enough for two chariots to pass, quite a construction project for the 6th century BC. The sea level has risen (or the land sunk) now but the road was regularly used up to the 1970s and is still capable of use as the maximum water depth is only 1 metre.
No comments:
Post a Comment