Tuesday 16 June 2015

Trapani and Erice


Trapani, with Erice atop the mountain
 
As part of our “take it slowly” campaign for this season, we made a short trip across the strait from the Egadi Islands to Trapani on the north-west point of Sicily. We’ve been in a small marina called “Vento di Maestrale” beside the fishing harbour for the last seven days, enjoying the town, the clear water for swimming and the comings and goings of the tuna fleet. There is a large fish market each morning on the waterfront right behind the marina where the catch is delivered direct from the boats. A kilo of sardines, cleaned and split is just 5 euros, a kilo of tuna between 10 and 15 depending on the quality. The vendors are loud and rude, spruiking their fish and insulting the catch and the manhood of their competitors – it’s great fun! Fresh produce stalls are set up daily around the fish market entry – in season at the moment are deep purple eggplant, late tomatoes, zucchinis, all kinds of wild greens, ripe stone fruit - everything you might need to cook up an amazing dinner. Here, seasons mean seasons! Fresh peas were available for one month; after that, “I’m sorry, Signora, peas are finished!” Yesterday there were no figs, today they are everywhere, plump, sweet and only three euros for a kilo. Somehow, foods are more precious and tastier when they only appear briefly, at their appointed time.
Tuna and swordfish fresh from the boats
Part of the tuna fleet
 
Fish market
Trapani is an easy town to like. Its name is a corruption of the Greek word for sickle, and Trapani’s narrow sickle shape means it has a waterfront on each side. To the north are white sand beaches (mostly free from the tightly packed grids of umbrellas and plastic lounges for hire that you find elsewhere) while the southern edge is the harbour and a substantial salt works with blindingly white mounds of salt and a traditional windmill. Much of the town seems to be old palazzos renovated as apartments, and many buildings have the remnants of family crests, ornate balconies and huge heavy doors which must once have admitted horses and carriages to an inner courtyard. Of course it’s Sicily, so you are never far from a good restaurant or cafĂ©. Not surprisingly, Trapani’s best specialise in fresh seafood.  Terry could happily live here, one of the very few places we’ve been to that this is the case.  The islands are only a couple of hours’ sail away, with lots of bays to anchor in.  You can circumnavigate Sicily in a reasonable amount of time.  It’s not far to the mainland and Rome if you want a big city for a while and there’s actually surf on the Island of Marettimo.  It’s an attractive proposition, but we still have a long way to go.
The Cathedral
 
Life sized icons, carried by the various guilds during Holy Week
There are a few foreign tourists, but it seems to attract mainly Italians from northern parts, who spend their days lying in the sun and their nights cruising the bars.  That is, except for the massive Cruise Ships that come in, sometimes two at a time, with crowds bound for Erice.  They’re not really tourists, though, as they only spend a part of a day here then rush off in their hundreds to the next ‘part of a day’ in some other location.
                                                                     The wine shop

Main street in the evening
We spent the first couple of days attending to minor boat jobs – a water tank that might have been leaking, but fortunately wasn’t. A drain outlet that might have been blocked, but fortunately wasn’t. Repairing the snubber which took a bit of a hammering while we were anchored in Favignana – we took it to the local chandler to have the metal eyes replaced and the frayed bit cut off and re-spliced. Total for the job - €11!  We tried to get someone to come and look at the radar, but he put it off until “domani” … and “domani” …and “domani” so it probably isn’t going to happen.

Vento, the marina dog

And finally it was time for a visit to Trapani’s main claim to tourist fame, the old city of Erice perched 2,480ft up on top of Monte San Guiliano. One of the marina guys dropped us off at the foot of the mountain and we boarded the cable car to the top. It was truly spectacular seeing Trapani’s sickle laid out below just like a map. And the ride just kept going – the sea, the Egadi islands, the green and terracotta patchwork of farmland – it felt like you could see the whole of Sicily from up there! It is hard to imagine armies scaling the mountain and still having the energy to take the town, but it appears that all the usual suspects did: originally Phoenician (with Greek influences), it was sacked by the Carthaginians, then conquered by Arabs, then the Normans under our old friend Roger. A Norman castle still stands, built on the site of the famous Temple of Aphrodite. The temple was supposedly staffed by 1000 sacred courtesans, which would probably have given visiting mariners an incentive to climb the mountain. The town is mostly Aragonese and very picturesque with its winding cobbled streets and flower-filled balconies. We managed to find Erice’s single geocache to add to the pleasures of the day. Do make the trip up the mountain if you’re in these parts – it’s well worth it.
View from the cliffs, castle above
 
Terry looking out over Trapani
 
Castle built by Roger the Norman over the Temple of Aphrodite

So, last evening here in Trapani. The weather has settled, we’ve raided the market for fish and fruit supplies and had a delivery from one of the local supermarkets. We’re planning to head into the Gulf of Castellammare, then Cefalu before crossing to the Aeolian Islands. Taking it slowly. Everything is clean, orderly and working. Except for that radar. Oh well … domani.

Streets of Erice

Thursday 4 June 2015

Favignana


Favignana is the main island of the Egadi group that lies just off the west coast of Sicily. Its symbol is a butterfly, as that is supposed to be the island’s shape (it’s more like a ragged bat). The narrow middle section is only about a kilometre across – we are anchored in a lovely bay on the south side next to Punto Longo, and the main harbour is across on the north. The east wing is flat, while the west wing rises in a 300+ metre limestone mountain, topped by an  Aragonese fort. It’s so steep and high that it creates its own mini weather system and the fort is often shrouded eerily in cloud.
Common Sense at anchor under Santa Caterina

We spent most of our first day recovering from the overnight passage from Licata – it’s lovely to be rocked to sleep by the swell again. I had my first swim of the season, hopping in to check the anchor, then hopping out of the FREEZING water again as quickly as possible. After that a flotilla of pinkish-brown stinging jellies came along so I had a good excuse to stay out! The bay filled up with trip boats and charters during the day, but only two other yachts remained overnight.

Isola Levanzo in the background
 
Next morning we were delighted to see Sarah Grace arriving and Anne and Gordon welcomed us aboard for a cuppa. Then we all tootled off in our dinghy to the shore and set out to explore Favignana and to find its three geocaches (none, thankfully, were up on the mountain). We covered about 12 kilometres and discovered some beautiful bays along the way, interspersed with hundreds of disused quarries. Along with tuna fishing, cutting limestone (tufa) blocks must have sustained many island families in the past. The old quarries have weathered into picturesque columns and chasms, overgrown with caper bushes in flower. Some have even been converted into beautiful productive gardens, with olive and pomegranate trees, grape vines and citrus. Terry and Gordon located all three geocaches, and we arrived back at the boats only a little the worse for wear.

Geocachers
Quarry garden
Next day was pretty much a rest and repair day, with only one near disaster when I tried to pump up the dinghy and managed to pump most of the air out of it. While I was sitting in it on the water. For a reasonably smart person, I’m sometimes amazed by what a dickhead I can be. Anyway, we managed the 50 metres over to Sarah Grace in our very squashy craft, and enjoyed watching Sunshine on Leith with Anne and Gordon, a cultural exchange for introducing them to The Castle last week. They left for Sardinia early next morning. It was a real treat to spend some time with our friends from Finike – they are great company, very experienced cruisers and have a wealth of knowledge about history, the natural world, books and much else - I hope we’ll meet up again along the way.
Harvesting capers

We decided on an extra day or two here to see the town and get a few supplies. Just around the point we discovered a little harbour full of cute fishing boats and the day was perfect for a stroll across the waist of the island to Favignana town. Plenty of quite up-market small villas suggest a thriving tourist industry. From the people strolling the town centre and enjoying the many restaurants, the tourists appeared to be mainly good-looking young Italians. Cycling seems to be the preferred mode of transport on this relaxed island and every villa has a fleet of bicycles, which transport the beautiful people to their choice of bars and beaches. Even so, it isn’t expensive – for 45 euro we enjoyed a meal for two of fresh local tuna steaks, tomato salad, chips, bread, wine and coffee – totally delicious.
Fishing boat harbour
Tuna steaks for lunch

Today we took another short trip into town and now we’re planning the next run – just a short passage over to Trapani to see the sights and hopefully take a cable car up to the old mountain town of Erice.
Remnants of the tuna trade - old factory with anchors in the foreground