Castellamare del Golfo, Erice, and Segesta

April 21 update

Well, we’ve made it through the first week and learned a few more things this week.  First, don’t download software updates unless it’s absolutely necessary (we screwed up the Iphone and had to go back to the Wind store for the man to teach us how to get the network back working. Next, choose the right time for updates to any Iphone Apps as it ties up our computer for far too long as the Internet is much slower here than what we are used to. (It took 12 hours for a Navigon update).  Third, double check the night before on Google maps for where we are going to the next day so we are somewhat familiar with the route.  Fourth, keep the Iphone handy with the translator program - $5 Canadian – well spent!!  And of course, stop at the local bar (coffee shop) for a cappuccino before we set off for the day.  We’ve been observing the art of the barrista who makes those wonderful cappuccinos that we savour every morning!!!

Trying to find a grassed area to play soccer within Castellemmare del Golfo has been elusive.  It would appear that the kids all play on concrete surfaces.  Many of the school grounds are gated and locked, so we couldn’t get access, and they didn’t have grass fields either!  We went down to the beach near here where there was a marble tiled promenade and played soccer.  J and T were victorious over dad, two games to 0. 

Well it’s been a week since we have been in western Sicily and we have enjoyed the countryside immensely.  The rolling hills planted with grapes and olive groves are splendid.  We have enjoyed the vistas of wildflowers, which grace many of the roadsides and hills.  We have marveled at the beauty of the old villas and buildings that are in both the towns as well as out in the rural areas.   We walked through two natural reserve parks, checked out a couple of beaches – one covered in small smooth rocks, while the other was fine sand and even started getting some color to our pale Canadian skin and walked around some very old castles.

Castellemmare del Golfo is mainly a tourist city, with some fishing.  We did enjoy walking the streets of the town – some much narrower than others.  In the oldest part of the town, the streets are cobble-stoned and intricately laid rocks and tiles.  At the edge of the town is a castillo.

We made two significant day trips, which were really wonderful. The first trip we were trying to find Segesta, but since the GPS app was trying to load an update it was not working. We had not researched the way there by Google maps, so Teresa as going only from memory of a map she had seen. So we ended up taking a wrong turn and had a wonderful 2-hour drive through the countryside but never found Segesta. We decided to go through Trapani – which is a large port city on the west coast to find our way to Erice, which is a town on top of the Mount San Giuliano overlooking Trapani. What a magical place this was.  Here was a town where visitors parked at the entrance of this walled city – walls date back to the 8^th century BC.  Streets were narrow and laid with rock – in square formation – longer rocks which formed the perimeter of the square and small rocks filling in the area.  This was the format for the entire road system throughout.  These narrow roads were definitely designed for pedestrian and horse traffic and not car.  We did see cars/small trucks travel through the streets, but there wasn’t a lot of extra room on either side.  It was fascinating watching cars try to turn some of the tight corners – not for the faint at heart.  We wandered through the narrow alleyways and into some lovely courtyards and took lots of pictures.  We toured a couple of very old churches; this town has 60 of them.  They charge entrance fees to some so that they can raise funds to continue with the restoration for others.

The second daytrip was actually to Segesta where ancient ruins date back to 6^th century BC.  This time we had checked out the route on Google maps, AND we had the GPS working. It turned out we only had to drive about 15-20 minutes from our apartment to find the place. What a neat place this was – a Sicilian-Doric Temple out in the valley stood alone on the hill. Excavation in the area had unearthed a number of structures which had various purposes – watch tower, door into the city, castle, mosque, meeting area, roads, mountain house.  Once we reached the top of Mount Barbaro where the castle was built, we came upon a Greek Theatre.  It was carved out of rock into the mountainside with19 levels of seats, designed to seat 4000 people and dated to 2^nd century BC.  It had a spectacular view of the valley.  The acoustics were fabulous.  Mark went down to the bottom of the theatre and spoke in his regular talking voice  - no, he did not try his laugh… and we could hear him perfectly up at the top of the theatre – very cool.  From here, we walked back down into the valley to go see the Greek temple.  It was majestic - awesome to see! Imagine the manpower it must have taken to build it!!  Another wonderful find for our April 20th journey! 

April 21 – Thursday. First things first, a cappucino stop before we ventured off to go to the southern shore of western Sicily called Mazara del Vallo.  It happens to be home to the largest Italian fishing fleet – as we could see many large boats in the harbour, but smaller ones lined sides of the Mazzaro river which flowed through the city.   Today we drove through lots of olive groves and of course fields of grapevines.  We noticed a number of wind turbines along the hilltops in this region – capturing the wind blowing in from the sea.  Once into the city we drove through a myriad of streets, to finally reach near the waterfront. We walked around the square – seeing really old fig trees, remains of a Norman castle and monuments dating from the 11th to 18^th century.  We walked along a marble-tiled roadway to the Piazza della Republica which was surrounded by the Cathedral, a Palace and a seminary – beautiful tile work.  It’s unfortunate when people make the choice to deface marble statues – which we saw today. After the short tour, we stopped for a gelato and then went back to the car.  Trying to get out of this town was a challenge and thank goodness for the GPS – it would have been a nightmare without it.  So many narrow streets seem to meander places – and we actually had to take them!  Good thing the thing recalibrates when a turn is missed!!!

Once we left there, we decided to try and find a 1,350 m long grotto near Santa Ninfa. Unfortunately, when we did find it, it was blocked off.  From the display pictures, Mark figured we’d need some serious caving gear to tour in there – the pictures of the crystals found inside looked pretty cool.  The ground near the cave was pretty neat- the rock formation was crystallized.   

More pictures

Some pictures

Our First Few Days In Europe

April 11

“ The day I’ve been dreaming of for so long has finally arrived!!”  says Jeffrey as we about to take off on BA 102 to Paris via London.  “We should fly BA more often – it’s way better than Air Canada!’ he says seeing the complimentary earphones, blankets!  Yes, that’s what my impression was when I first flew BA.

April 12

We arrived safe and sound all luggage accounted for, but with one missing wheel on the heaviest piece of luggage UGH! Mark did the lugging of that - the packhorse for the next two days for travel until we arrived in Naples.  Thank goodness for Teresa’s high school French which proved to be very handy for asking questions as well as deciphering signage during our overnight stay in Paris.

Our hotel, Paname Hotel Bastille amongst many different buildings along a crowded side street – like so many Paris streets we saw enroute to our hotel.  The hotel was about 5 stories high – maybe 45 rooms.  It fit the expectation of European hotels - small rooms, no wasted space - yet clean.  The room was just big enough for a single cot, double bed and a tiny sofa table against one wall in the room, which we used to place our luggage on.  Jeffrey’s bedroom in Calgary is bigger.

After dropping bags off at the hotel and receiving directions from the receptionist, we went to find tomorrow morning’s Gare Lyon train station to reserve seats for our journey down to Naples (Napoli as the people know it by).  After a 10-minute walk trying to decipher signs and using now valuable recollection of grade 12 French, we found the train station and TGV ticket office. While Teresa in line for about 40 minutes, Mark and Jeffrey took it upon themselves to check out the station, figuring out the lay of the land for tomorrow morning’s 8:09 departure.  With reserved seat tickets in hand, a number of valuable tips from the ticket seller, we now felt much more knowledgeable about the Euro flexi-pass which we had purchased before leaving.   We felt much more relaxed about being ready to catch the morning train.

Then in true Parisian style we went out for le diner after 9 o’clock!  Oh, how we’re going to enjoy exploring Paris next spring – so many little shops and cafes to choose from.  We found a great little bistro L’Etoile Rouge across from our hotel that served wonderful French cuisine.  Learned something else tonight – entrée means appetizer and plat is the main course.  Of course we had a glass of French red and some wonderful fresh baked bread – Jeffrey was all smiles when he had his first taste of freshly baked French bread – he high fived us!

April 13^th  - 6:30 wakeup call – quick hot showers and we bounded off to Gare Lyon.  Mark now had figured out that he could wear the “wounded “ bag as a pack and huffed his load over to the station.  With plenty of time to spare we arrived, and found the platform from which the train would depart.  We hauled all the luggage over and Mark stored it on the provided storage area in the coach while Jeffrey and I found our seats in first class.  Jeffrey captured the feelings well by noting, “we should travel first class more often”. Well worth the few extra dollars to enjoy more legroom and seats that recline and some meal service.  What a way to travel – we were on Lyria train bound for Genève that traveled at 300 km per hour – that’s one fast and smooth ride.   Today’s trip down through south-western France gave a great glimpse of we next spring’s venture through France – beautiful lush farmland, French Alps, highways built on bridge like structures perched on the side of mountains, old cities and buildings – wonderful!    We definitely travelled through wine country and lots of farmland, which then turned into mountainous terrain as we travelled closer to the Swiss border. Genève is very close to France.

We left Genève at 13:42 bound for Milan! It was a beautiful day to see the flat agricultural lands - lots of fruit trees in blossom as well as vineyards.  Many terraced hillside farms partially up the hillsides – very cool to see.  As we continued along the Lake Geneva shoreline, we began to see the change in topography, which gave us our first glimpse of the Swiss Alps.  Beautiful blue sky and snow capped peaks – a picture of beauty and a taste of what is to come when we come to spend some time in Switzerland in June and August.  The train ride was wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed travelling through Lausanne and Brig to name a couple of the train stops before onto Italy.  Many long tunnels through the mountains were travelled through which allowed the train to reach that 300 km an hour speed.  A snooze was in order for all three of us as the lack of sleep from jet lag finally caught up to us.  We arrived into Milan at 5:40 pm and we were scheduled to depart at 6:00 for Naples.  Again lugging the broken bag as a backpack, Mark huffed it behind us as we walked quickly from one end of the terminal to the other basically, to arrive at the Trento Italia Ferrovie Frecciarossa train with max speed 360 km per hour with a capacity of 603 people.  We travelled southeast to Bologna, then southwest to Firenze, a station stop in Roma and onto Naples with a 10:25 pm arrival time.  Again this ride provided us with glimpses of the countryside that we are going to enjoy spending time in during the next few months.  It was fairly flat until Bologna, then entering Tuscany it became more hilled with lush greenery abound.  Again many mountain/hills were travelled through instead of doing the Rocky Mountains going around the mountain.  On this train, we got an appreciation for how fast 300 km was compared to the traffic travelling alongside the train tracks in some places.  The cars looked like they were barely moving!  Very Cool.  We also experienced our first meal in the dining car, certainly much more relaxed than a meal on a plane. The headwaiter took a liking to Jeffrey and gave him an extra helping of pasta. Once we arrived we walked out of the Terminal to find our Starwood Hotel Terminus adjacent to the station – an older hotel with a quite a good size room.  So glad we didn’t have to go far for our hotel.  We were tired of travelling for the day.

April 14 - Naples Had to laugh this AM - while lying in bed we could hear the cars honking on the street below our hotel room.  Of course – “We’re in Italy” – drivers are always honking to announce their angst. Italian drivers are absolutely crazy - motorcyclists drive in between cars waiting at lights, scooting right up to the beginning of the lineups at the stop signs.   People ignoring that there are only to be two lanes and make a third and sometimes a fourth row, cars driving along the shoulder of roads so they can but into spaces!  It's quite different from N Amer. where drivers are much more courteous.  Pedestrians cross streets at their own risk; the drivers do not care about stopping for you. A wild street crossing we experienced while toting our luggage across the road last night while getting to our hotel room.

            We had to take a cab out to the airport to pick up our rental.  We ended up getting a larger car a Renault Laguna – which is somewhat like an Audi A4 station wagon.  Good thing we were given the larger vehicle than were supposed to.  I could hear Mark’s sigh of relief when he saw the vehicle and gave an audible “Thank you Lord” as we found it in the lot, as we likely had more bags than would have fit into the one we booked. 

Once we finally navigated the on-ramp autostrata 102 Reggio Calabria amongst those bold drivers which had us marveling at the audacity, we were on our way south to our next stop Reggio di Calabria.  Hardly anyone drives the speed limit  - and some driving WAY over the 100 km posted limit, we wondered what the police actually do driving the highways.  They didn’t seem to be patrolling – maybe they only stop people north of 170?  Today we were driving all the way to the tip of the toe of Italy.  Italy is quite mountainous and vegetation varied.  We drove through Compania, Basilica, and Calabria regions.  We lost count of how many tunnels we drove through.  They had a ton of road construction they were doing.  It was fascinating how many new tunnel systems that they were installing to replace already existing ones and changing existing routes to improve highway safety. Italy’s version of the economic stimulus package? It took us 6 hours to get down to Reggio Calabria – again it showed us what was in store to come for Shaw future exploration. 

Looking for the Regent Hotel in Luongomare Catone, Reggio di Calbaria was a challenge.   Missed the exit – then had to ask for directions 3 times, each time, willing Italians tried their best to impart with their limited English the direction. Now our efforts at learning Italian while still in Calgary paid off, as Mark could understand what “sinistra, a dritto, and destra” mean, left, straight, and right respectively in English). After backtracking for a while, in search of street signs which we found virtually non-existent (many names are written in small lettering on the side of a building next to the new often times narrow street!!) located our wonderful boutique hotel.  We had some wonderful risotto con porcini with veal for dinner and some great Calabrian wine!

We have again noticed what an observant boy Jeffrey is. He told that he thought Europeans we very thoughtful as he had noticed in every hotel we had stayed they had installed short sinks for toddlers to wash their hands. When we asked what he was talking about he showed us the bidet.

April 15 Off to Sicily to Castellamare del Golfo via ferry. We did get directions to the ferry from the lady at the hotel, after one wrong turn, we managed to find our way to the terminal.  Luck would have it we wouldn’t have to wait long for the loading of the next ferry.  Part way up the line, we wondered how one pays for the ferry, so as we approached the ticket booth, I hopped out with my wallet in hand to buy a ticket, meanwhile, Mark and Jeffrey was continuing to advance towards the ferry.  At the booth, with not enough cash, a mad dash skirting puddles to the car to snatch Mark’s wallet was a must.  I run back to the booth all the while the line and Mark continues to advance toward the boat.  With ticket in hand I now sprint, skirt puddles and locate Mark pulled over at the front of the line waiting for me, jump into the car and now we can advance onto the ferry.  Another lesson learned – stick that away for future!!!!

The crossing lasted about 25 minutes and we were in Messina, Sicily!   Now, again the lack of street name signs confuse, but turning the wrong way nets us a gas station and some more directions which help us to get onto Autostrata 20 to Palermo.  We find the drive to Palermo quite relaxing with great views of mountains, the sea and towns build on hillsides and others built next to the sea.    Palermo is busy and crazy driving, as we were caught in a traffic snarl.  It did provide Mark and I with much entertainment!  After another 30 minutes out of Palermo, with directions in hand we miss the street to our accommodation that we have booked for the next week.  Once again, some very helpful people with limited English and our limited Italian, we manage to find our apartment.

The owners of this place live downstairs and they have 3 other apartments in their villa.  We have a two bedroom with kitchen.  It is nice and clean and near supermarkets and restaurants which is handy.  We did go out and get some groceries – a trip to a local green grocery for fruits and vegetables, then on to a local supermarket where we even found a bottle of Calabrian wine for 0.79 Euro ($1.10 Canadian)!!  We did enjoy that bottle!  It brought back memories of the $4 Aus. we paid for wine back in 1990 in Brisbane.    We chose to go out for dinner at a Pizzeria, a place busy with locals. Delicious Grilled Radicchio and veggies as an app, risotto pescatore for me, spaghetti pescatore for Jeffrey, and an Italian sausage pizza for 5E for Mark.  His pizza was great with thin crust just the way he likes and all for 30E – cheapest meal we’ve had thus far!

April 16^th Saturday – first day in Castellammare de Golfo, Trapani Region.  First order of the day was to get WIND internet set up on the I-phone so we can at last have GPS and our Language translator app working – seriously need these!!! We were having trouble charging our computers with what we have for adapters, causing us angst.  We were very excited to accomplish both tasks when we went out for a walk to the town centre armed with a map and again searching for those illusive street names written on the sides of buildings!  We found the WIND store and were really relieved to have someone who spoke English well, who could help us without struggling with the English /Italian barrier.  While exploring, we enjoyed cappuccinos (2 for Mark) and a gelato for Jeffrey at a table outside of a Bar.  Most amazing caps we’ve enjoyed so far-they are inexpensive and WAY better than what we can make.  We enjoyed exploring the streets of the town and looking at the sites.  This is a town known for tourism, especially in the summer months for their beaches its port and the tuna fishing – which we look forward to trying while we are here.