April 17- Marsala to Erice

We are up at the usual time, grab a croissant and we are off. It’s about a 60 minute drive to our destination and there is nowhere to stop in between the two places. The road to this village is windy to say the least.

Tough when you meet a car here. Thanks God we were not in a 345 degree turn.

This shows some of the road we came up.

Another view

We arrived around 10:00 so still not many people around. We pay for parking and will need to leave the car there until we leave in the morning. The road to our apt, is very narrow. Not even sure any car can drive on it let alone park. We can’t check in yet so we walk toward the old castle. Nice views. 

Wow. We think that is Trapani down there. The city where we will be for the next three days. 

A church and cemetery that we passed on our way up.

There is a hiking trail that is 110 km, I think. It is also windy.

The sea, the sky

The ruins of the castle. This was were they had the thermal baths.

Shot of the castle on our walk up.

The boys 

Having a look below from the castle.

We had to pay to get in the castle so we decide to go all out and buy a full ticket which will allow us to enter four more sites for 12 Euro each. We walk around and make our way to the Torretta Pepoli. The clouds keep rolling in and out so makes for interesting photos.

Torretta Pepoli in the cloud

Without the cloud

Walking down to the Torretta Pepoli 

Our next site is the Quartiere Spagnalo- The Spanish Quarter. It’s quite the walk down to get there. Again the views once arrive are amazing. It is the other side of the village. We also visit a museum here. 

Walk down to the Spanish Quarter

Views from there 

Ceramics in the museum 

Church we passed along the way

So many wild flowers with a view 

One of the doors “Portas” 

Walk down 

Fishing equipment in the museum 

Another view. Two random people standing there

As we walked around, there were a lot of photo opportunities. 

Easier streets to walk on. 

Vendors are ready. 

SAN Giuliano Chuch

More difficult road to walk on. Rocks jutting out. 

Duomo of the church 

Inside one of the eight churches in Erice 

Little side street 

It is just after 1:00 so we decide to stop for a bite to eat. It’s a cute mom and pop restaurant with a young woman as hostess and server. She speaks a little English while Salvatore and his wife don’t. Wendy has a sore throat so she has tea and the rest of us share a bottle of red wine. Wendy horders à vegetable soup, I have coucous and veggies, Ron and André have pasta. The owners come out to see how we like the food and try to communicate with us. It’s great. When we finish they bring us some type of Port. It’s very good but we realize that they are trying to sell us a bottle. They also bring us little Easter cookies. 

Ron’s pasta

Wendy’s tea

Inside of the small restaurant 

The Easter cookies

The drink after lunch

Wendy’s soup. They bring out different olive oils to add to the pastas and the soup. 

Another photo inside the restaurant 

My coucous

We then walk to find our apt for the night. It is tucked in tightly on a narrow street. We meet the hostess, pay, give our passport info and return to the car to pick up our bags. 

Stairway to get up to our room.

View outside of our window 

The other direction

We are all cold. We have the heaters  on to 28 degrees and it doesn’t seem to warm up. We figure we go out to warm up. The sun is starting to set so not much sunshine between these narrow streets. We walk and look for a pizzeria. We are not very hungry. We stop at a Bar/Pizzaria and order our food. Wendy and I share a pizza and Ron and André each have their own. They also each have a glass of wine. No drinks for the girls. Two of the  pizzas have olives on them. They are not sliced, but full olives with pits. They were not the good olives that we’ve been eating all over Italy. When Ron finished eating there were 11 lonely olives left, uneaten. 

We return to our apt shortly after nine. Will be hitting the sack very soon. Full day ahead tomorrow.