Friday 6th November 2009 – Finale di Polina, Sicily, Italy

The idea was to have a relaxing day sat in the sun but the night was stormy with a large thunderstorm at 06:00. The day was overcast but fortunately we only had a couple of showers.
We strolled into Finale di Polina to buy bread, fresh milk and vegetables and found a very pleasant village without the run-down houses that we have found almost everywhere else in Sicily.
Whilst we were in the village, I spotted a poster advertising an Olive Festival this weekend. We managed to work out that most things were happening on Sunday afternoon and this was confirmed by the campsite receptionist when we returned. We decided that we would stay on until Monday so that we could see the celebrations.
Photos: We felt somewhat inadequate parked between these massive motorhomes but the sea views are lovely.

Thursday 5th November 2009 – Finale di Polina, Sicily, Italy

Another very windy night, stronger even than when we were in Marsala but it had died down by morning.
We had an early start as we wanted to visit the church in Monreale, just outside Palermo, famous for its Christian mosaics, the most extensive in the world. However, it was not to be. We drove into the town but parking was impossible and returning to the ring road we found the road to the main car park was blocked by a large market. At that point we gave up and pressed on towards Finale di Polina.
We had already decided not to visit Polermo but our route took through the outskirts until we reached the ring road. That was an interesting drive. The road in was lined with many shops and improvised fruit and vegetable stalls, often simply a lorry parked on the side of the road. It seemed that all of Polermo was shopping in this street and they all had cars that had to be parked. This problem was solved easily by double parking. This constantly reduced the road to a single vehicle width, causing traffic chaos and we had to hop between gaps big enough for us to fit. I felt sorry for a car trying to join the traffic from the left. Unusually, he wasn't just forcing his way out so I waved him on. I got a thank-you wave from him and the passenger and he then proceeded to stop right in front of me, double parked and blocking my progress.
We needed to do some shopping and we had passed many shops in Palermo but there were no supermarkets with large car parks. In fact we didn't pass a single supermarket with a car park between 09:00 and 12:45. However, just as we thought that we wouldn't find one until they all closed for their three-hour lunch, I spotted one. Serious shopping followed and the fridge was once again filled to overflowing.
This was actually a day without archaeology, although I did glimpse the large stone block base of a 'Temple to Victory' as we drove past.
We arrived at the Camping Rais Gerbi in Finale de Polina just after 13:30. The weather was warm, the pitch was large and we soon had the chairs and table out and laid with lunch. Rais Gerbi is one of the campsites that operates the ASCI Card discount scheme - €15 per night. It is a very comfortable site, good facilities, lovely sea views and the village of Finale just half a kilometre away.
Photos: Our overnight pitch in the Zingaro National Park car park – we had the whole car park to ourselves!; The view into the national park from the pitch; A tower guards a bay at Scopello just outside the park.

Wednesday 4th November 2009 – Scopello, Sicily, Italy

Having paid and bought some wine, we left Piana di Borromeo, drove the 6 km back to Fulgatore and then on into the mountains and the Greek site of Segesta. The occupation of the site goes back to the 12th century BC and was used up until the Middle Ages when a castle was built on the Acropolis but it is the Greek remains that dominate. The two main attractions are the theatre and a Doric temple.
The theatre, capable of holding 4,000 people is on the side of the Acropolis, a twenty minute up-hill walk from the modern entrance near one of the ancient gates. The climb however is worth it and weaker souls can use a bus to do the journey. The views from the Acropolis over the mountains are fantastic and the theatre was built so that it gives a commanding view over a fertile plain to the distant sea.
The temple looks almost complete from a distance and it appears that very little reconstruction has been done. However when you get close, you can see that the temple was never completed. The cella was never built, the columns weren't fluted and the stones of the temple base still have the lugs used to move them into position. The building seems to have been interrupted in 409 BC when the Carthaginians occupied the city. The mountain setting of the temple is magnificent.
We had been told that the Zingaro National Park was worth a visit and so we decided to pay it a visit. We approached from the eastern side, just west of Castellemmare del Golfo at Scopello. This part of coast is very pretty and we really enjoyed the drive to the car park at the end of the no through road. There is a charge of €3 to enter the park and as we paid the attendant we asked about camping or aires in the area. Much to our surprise, he said that we were able to stay in the car park without any charge. We can't believe that this would be the case in the Summer or the car park would be full of Italian motorhomes as the Park is very popular.
We chose the lower path close to the sea with lovely views up and down the coast and up to the steep high limestone cliffs on our left. We started walking past bushes of rosemary and soon encountered wild cyclamen, other wild flowers and insectivorous plants. Eagles soared, catching the thermals over the top of the cliffs and many other birds including redstarts flitted amongst the bushes. There were olive, almond and fig trees, cacti and many other bushes but the most impressive were the hundreds of short palm trees. The perfume of ripe dates filled the air and it was so sweet that you could almost taste it. The ruins of defensive towers dating to the 15th and 16th centuries are dotted along this rugged coastline, relics of Spanish occupation.
The narrow path climbed and dropped back to near sea level many times until we reached the point where we hoped to climb up a valley and on to the higher path for the walk back to the entrance. However, the path sign told us that the climb would take an hour and with the rest of the walk to do after that, we knew that it would be dark before we got back. Reluctantly, we retraced our steps although this was still a lovely walk with a different aspect on the views. The walk took us three and a half hours and we didn't see a single piece of rubbish. This would be extremely impressive anywhere in Italy but in Sicily it is a miracle!
We can thoroughly recommend the Zingaro National Park – come early, bring a picnic and walk for the day.
We sat in the motorhome with a view across the 'Golfo di Castellammera' and as night fell, we watched the nearly-full moon rise out of the sea. Magic.
Photos: The theatre on the acropolis at Segesta with the sea (the 'Golfo di Castellammera') in the distance; The Segesta temple set on the hill opposite the acropolis; Donkey power is king in the Zingaro National Park.

Tuesday 3rd November 2009 – Fulgatore, Sicily, Italy

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.

Monday 2nd November 2009 – Marsala, Sicily, Italy

Onward, ever onward but only a short journey today.
Anyone who knows me will understand my interest in quarries. Having worked for 26 years in the quarrying industry (OK, only in IT), I learned a lot about the business and the practicalities. Seeing foreign quarries always fascinates me or horrifies me in the case of many countries. Today I managed to combined two interests, quarrying and archaeology. We visited the 'Cava di Cusa' from where they quarried the stone to build Selinus.
The quarry, just outside Campobello di Mazara, is well worth a visit even if you are not interested in quarries. The last half a kilometre of the road was beautifully paved in stone and it was totally bone-shaking in the motorhome. After apologies to Henrietta we set off into the quarry, a shallow cut through a small ridge of very good quality tufa. There was evidence of extraction of stone blocks but it got really interesting further in. Sections of columns lay on the ground but there were also columns in the process of being excavated. The rock face was rounded and then a curved trench was created from the top surface eventually creating a column still attached to the bedrock at the bottom. Large levers were then inserted at the top causing the pillar to break away from the bedrock at the bottom. Unless of course there was a flaw in the stone. There was evidence in the quarry of areas that had been abandoned due to weaknesses in the stone and extracted columns were left after they had broken. The massive column sections and stone blocks had to be transported over 11 kilometres to Selinus and I am not sure how this was done but it must have been a considerable undertaking.
After another bone-shaking journey to the road, we drove on to Marsala past its port (the largest in Sicily). We had been told that by the people at Punto Braccetto that there was an aire in Marsala but they didn't know where it was. The owner at Marinella di Selinunte said that there wasn't one but I identified an open area on the seafront using the sat nav and set that as a destination. When we arrived there we found a free car park with parking places for campers and camper services (water and dumping). For those who wish to use the aire, it can be found on the Via Beo, the main seafront road, just north of Piazza Piemonte E Lombardo.
We parked up and set off on foot for the Archaeological Museum, which the guide book said closed at 13:30. When we got there it turned out that the hours had been extended to 15:00, which gave us plenty of time. The main draw was the Punic warship dating back to the 3rd century BC. Discovered by a fisherman who found old wood in his nets, the wreck was investigated by a British marine archaeologist Honor Frost who happened to be in the area. She then spent the next 13 years, recording, lifting and conserving the wreck and it is now exhibited in a special room in the museum together with many pithoi (large, long, thin pottery vessels) found around the wreck and the surrounding area. The rest of the museum was interesting but lacking in English explanations.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around the streets of Marsala, discovering Punic and Greco-Roman cemeteries and reading information boards set up by the Tourist Information Office at the city's interesting sites. We finished off with a visit to one of the Marsala wine shops. Here we were treated to a very extensive tasting session not only trying the famous sweet Marsala wine but also Marsala with almonds, Marsala with egg, dry Marsala and some lovely, fragrant desert wines made on the nearby Egadi islands. Although the Favignana desert wine was delicious, it was very expensive and we weren't sure when we would drink it, so we chose the our favourite Marsala, the dry. We have an Englishman, John Woodhouse, to thank for Marsala. He visited Marsala in 1770 and, realising that if the wine was fortified with alcohol it would travel well, started exporting it to Britain. Many other Englishmen followed him and fortunes were made in the business. There is no English involvement with the industry now, unlike the Port industry in Portugal.
Photos: Cava di Cusa – a column excavation, just started; Two columns ready to be extracted; A view in the Cava di Cusa quarry; The Punic warship.

Sunday 1st November 2009 - Marinella di Selinunte, Sicily, Italy

We had been warned by the guide book that Agrigento was a large site and involved a lot of walking but Selinunte, ancient Selinus, is much larger. A fifteen minute walk took us to the site and we were greeted at the entrance by a fleet of electric golf buggies with detachable trailers. You could pay to be taken on a tour and then left to explore the far reaches of the site but we wanted to walk. The temples close to the entrance are the most impressive part of the site with Temple E having the most extant remains. It is common practice to identify temples by a letter if the dedication is unknown. That said, Temple E is thought to have been dedicated to Hera (Aphrodite) and is very impressive, measuring 70m by 25m with many of the columns and parts of the cella still in place. Temple F was however our favourite. A complete mess of columns and masonry, it must look much as it did directly after the earthquake that destroyed it long after the city had been abandoned. This is Sicily's second biggest temple, only beaten by the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Akragas (Agrigento) and this is how that temple would have looked like before it was used as a quarry. It was fascinating climbing over the remains with massive columns, Doric capitals, architrave and huge stone blocks. The columns separated into their constituent parts looking like a backbone and giving a whole new view on the problem of slipped discs!
We then took a long walk to the Agora (ancient market place) where there were signs of recent excavations. Only a fraction of the site has been excavated and the work will continue for many generations but everywhere that we walked there was a huge amount of ancient pottery scattered on the ground. We continued walking to the extreme western end of the site, across a small stream to Malophoros and a sacred area devoted to Zeus Meilichios. There was a fascinating collection of small temples and altars and we ate our lunch in one of the temples, not seeing another soul for nearly an hour. The walk from the eastern temples provided excellent views of flora and fauna – we saw an eagle, kestrels and other birds of prey, a flock of goldfinches, dragonflies, butterflies, a weird-looking giant grasshopper and lizards galore. I even managed to pick some blackberries but the flavour was not as good as those at home. Down by the river a multitude of SBBs (Small Brown Birds) flitted in and out of the tall reeds and bamboo.
We walked back to the Acropolis overlooking the sea and close to the ancient harbour (now buried). This was the high-status part of the city with more temples, posh houses and shop-lined streets. It was here that we met an American who complained that there weren't enough extant ruins and “did we know of any more?”. I thought of suggesting that she could re-erect some but decided against it.
Jane got the prize for spotting the first snake of the trip – a medium-sized (any size is too big for Jane) black number that was sunning itself on a fallen column. It was as scared as Jane so it took off quickly, as did Jane. There were wonderful views east and west from the Acropolis and it was easy to see why the site had been chosen. Not only is the land fertile but there are also natural deposits of salt and sulphur, both much sought after in ancient times.
We left the site and walked down to the sea and the town of Marinella di Selinute, sitting and enjoying the view of the harbour. On the way back, the campsite owner stopped and offered us a lift but we were now in walking mode and politely declined.
Photos: Selinus – Temple F's giant columns; Slipped discs in Temple F; Can anyone identify this bug?; The campsite accepted all types of campervan.

Saturday 31st October 2009 – Marinella di Selinunte, Sicily, Italy

The plan today was for only a short journey, so we had time for a gentle start. First a very short walk from the campsite took us to an excellent bakers with a lovely display of many different loaves and rolls. We chose a horseshoe-shaped loaf and a hexagonal loaf that consisted of seven rolls joined together. I couldn't resist buying something for lunch – made like a swiss-roll with a white bread made with olive oil, it had black olives and smoked ham placed on the dough before it was rolled up. It was delicious and certainly something I will make when I get home. Then we visited the fruit and vegetable stall directly opposite the campsite. It is very well stocked with a huge variety of high-quality produce at very reasonable prices.
An hour on the campsite Internet allowed us to catch up on emails and post the blog. This was our first opportunity since we arrived in Sicily, so there was a lot to do.
A short drive took us down small roads off the main SS115 to the coast and Eraclea Minoa. The town was founded in the 6th century BC and was named Minoa after King Minos of Crete who allegedly chased Daedalus from Crete to Sicily and establish a settlement here where he landed. Although there is not a huge amount of extant ruins, the site is worth a visit just for its position. Of all of the cities that we have visited so far, this one was obviously founded by someone who appreciated lovely views. Houses built here would sell for a fortune!
The entrance fee of €2 reflected the fact that the site was small and that the museum under refurbishment (I suspect it had been for many years) was reduced to a single small room with very few exhibits. For most of our visit we were the only people on the site, outnumbered by the staff by a factor of four. They were all chatting at the entrance whilst we rambled over the site, admiring the views. The small Greek theatre was lovely. Made of sandstone and now protected from the elements by a large roof, it was very weathered due to its position and the soft sandstone structure but it was good to see one that had not been over-restored and used for performances. The view from the seats must have been stunning. Below the theatre is a high-status house, part of which has walls over 1.5m high with painted and patterned plaster still visible. There are also mosaics although most of these are covered and we could only see glimpses of the others. We followed the line of the defensive walls up to the acropolis where there are the scant remains of a temple and the presence of a World War II pill box reminded us of the strategic nature of the position.
One interesting aspect of the site was the use of stone blocks that consisted largely or sometimes entirely of crystals. In one case a block of crystals seemed to had been placed in a prominent position in a room of a house in front of the theatre.
This part of Sicily is covered with important archaeological sites, being a very fertile area with other natural resources and therefore attractive to settlers. So we were off to yet another site, this time at Selinute. We tried one campsite on the opposite side of the river to the site but it was closed, so we backtracked to find Camping Athena at Marinella di Selinunte, actually much more convenient for the site. The campsite is basic with small concrete pitches but the welcome was warm.
Photos: A lovely display of bread at the San Leone bakery; A man takes a break from harvesting olives to give me a wave – better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!; One of the blocks of crystals at Eraclea Minoa; Jane strides up to the Eraclea Minoa acropolis with the inland view in the background.