Sicily, Part 2

22nd May, 2000

We got on with the packing, hoping that the awning would be dry when we came to it, but we mis-timed it and it got wet again and we were quite late leaving, with the awning still pretty wet.  It was an easy drive to our planned stop at Selinunte and mostly motorway.

We followed a French couple for the last few miles and into Camping Il Maggiolino.   It soon became apparent that we had stumbled on an British enclave as a camper came up to us and told us that, with three couples, we now outnumbered the French, Dutch, German and Italians at two each.   The camp owner, Marcello, who had been a bit of a tennis player, was friendly and talked us into his home cooking for the evening meal in the bar area of the camp, shown right.

We noticed that Marcello had internet on his computer and, as we had failed to find an Internet point in Palermo, asked him if we could use it, which he readily agreed to, but suggested we wait until after dinner.

The British couples introduced themselves as Alan and Gwynneth from Suffolk and Jack and Maureen from Newark.   We were invited for cocktails at Jack and Maureen's at the somewhat early hour of 5:00 pm and were suitably mellowed by 7:30, when we went for dinner.   We were waited on by Giovanni, who seemed to do all the jobs around the place.  After dinner it was clear that Marcello, as well as ourselves, had overindulged in the vino and we did not get onto the Internet.    The site was small but friendly and close to the Greek ruins at Selinunte.    There was a second site a bit further down the road, but it did not look at all inviting, though it had a proper-looking restaurant.

23rd May, 2000

Having lugged our bikes round Europe, we thought it was time to use them again, and road the short distance to the archaeological site.  We knew that it was in two parts, but what we did not realise was that you can drive or cycle between the two.   The nearest part has three Greek Temples, one of which is shown right.   The other two are piles of fallen stones, brought down by an earthquake.  The picture, right, was videoed from a photograph as David managed subsequently to over-write his tape.

In extreme temperatures, we walked the half mile or so to the main ruins on a hill the other side of what used to be the river port.   This has long since silted up with little so far excavated to indicate that it was ever a port.  

Some views of the ruins are shown above.   Left is part of the city wall, centre is the main street which runs down to a cliff overlooking the sea and to the right is all that remains of a large Temple.   To the right is shown part of what we concluded were  later Norman defences at the north gate.  We had forgotten to carry water with us and, in the heat, were quite exhausted and returned to the camp for lunch.

After lunch we felt too tired to go back to the ruins and decided to try to catch up on our journal.   We started collecting the pictures from the video but immediately ran into weird computer faults, with crashes, hangs and keyboard faults.    It took a long time to cotton on to the fact that the external mouse was misbehaving and then we found it very hard work operating the built-in mouse.    The Brits announced another cocktail party for 5:30, by which time we had not done nearly enough work.   The Dutch, who spoke perfect English as usual, and the French, who spoke reasonable English, were also invited and we soon had quite a party.  

Marcello, shown right wearing one of his outrageous costumes, came to see what was going on and began serenading the ladies.    He announced that he would play his guitar at the bar that evening, should we wish to continue the party.   After dinner, we joined the party, attempting to sing all those popular songs we all think we know the words to.   For the second night in a row, we retired having exceed our usual quota of drink and still without having got onto the Internet.

24th May, 2000

Alan and Gwynneth needed a bank and we needed to do some shopping, so we took them into Castelvetrano, the nearest big town.   We also came across the Tourist office who gave us some interesting information including the fact that the famous last Sicilian bandit, Salvatore Giuliano was gunned down there.   Gwynneth had a guide book that mentioned the quarry at Cave di Cusa nearby and we stopped on the way back.

The Greeks cut the drums that were used to build their Doric columns directly out of the stone by cutting a man-sized annulus down into the stone.  Two concentric rings were cut with tools and the intervening material was broken out to provide a space just wide enough to stand in.   Several drums were waiting to be cut off when the quarry was abandoned.  This was one of the most interesting sights we had seen.   Alan and Gwynneth are shown on the left, with one of the drums.

At lunch time, Giovanni was promoting the site's next extravaganza, which was to be a barbecue.  Now we saw the subtlety of Marcello, who had serenaded us last night and we were now obliged to go to his barbecue.   It was also our turn for drinks and we rode down to the local shop and returned with saddlebags full of beer (and in Kate's case the morrow's eggs in a paper bag).   As no-one was going to be cooking, and ample drink was likely to be available at the barbecue, by common consent cocktails were put back a further half hour to 6 o'clock.

One of the French couples declined the cocktails and pulled out of the barbecue, suffering with serious digestive problems.   He looked fit and well and regularly used his bicycle but told us that, for some time, he had suffered.    His symptoms were remarkably familiar and we told him what our research had indicated.   He readily admitted that he was a "sugar junky" and that he too found his condition greatly worsened by drinking the sweet beer beloved of Europeans.   Later, we saw him returning with a carrierbag full of sugar-free yoghurt which he told us next day had solved his problem.

After cocktails, we changed hurriedly and went up to the bar area.  The barbecue itself was not in sight, but Marcello flitted around the area in vintage racing mechanic's overalls, assuring us all that it was cooking well.   Giovanni waited on and a good time was had by all and, as usual, too much drink.  Without doubt, this was the first time we had partied for three consecutive nights on this trip and we can't remember many other occasions (since student days).

25th May, 2000

The Brits, except us, all left, as did the Dutch and French and it was now like a ghost town.   We busied ourselves with the washing and trying to extract pictures for our journal using the inbuilt mouse.    As a consequence of the mouse problem, but more likely three days of partying, David forgot to write-protect the tape he was working on and then also forgot to wind on to where we had last recorded.  Thus we lost most of the video of Selinunte.   Later, we explored the village of Marinella, shown right, which has superb beaches and not many people.

Finally, after dinner, we persuaded Marcello to let us onto his Internet and checked our mail, which was numerous as it had been more than a fortnight since we last looked.   Marcello, it turned out, had been a PE teacher, but had found little opportunity in this part of the world and had decided to "drop out" in favour of a more relaxed life.   We presume that tennis had been his passion, as the site had a first class tennis court and promoted itself as "Tennis Camping".    We had realised he was bright as he spoke umpteen languages and played numerous musical instruments.   He also half knew most of the numbers from the sixties and seventies.   He had learned about the internet and built his own web site at http://web.tin.it/maggiolino.

26th May, 2000

As we had cut the corner, so to speak, coming directly from Palermo, we thought we should go west, at least as far as Marsala, and set off in the morning, reaching Mazara del Vallo some time before lunch.  We parked and walked into the old town, entering through an archway into Piazza della Repubblica, shown right, and on to the Piazza S. Veneranda, where we found the Tourist Office and opposite it the Church of the same name, shown  below left and centre, which was interesting because it had screened "boxes", as in opera houses and shown below right.

The Tourist Office had told us where the interesting sights were and where we might find a computer shop and a video shop along the main shopping street, Corso Vittoria Veneto, which we made straight for.   To our pleasant surprise, we found the computer shop, but it was closed.   Enquiries at a nearby shop soon extracted the owner from a bar and, to our further pleasure, we were able to buy a mouse.   Surprisingly, the shop keeper made no effort to sell us an expensive one - which he had rows of on the shelf - but immediately picked a £4 Chinese one.   Much relieved, we went on to look at the Arab Quarter, which the Tourist Office and the guide book say should be seen.  

We entered the Arab Quarter passing by a very ancient Church, shown above left, and wandered around its maze-like streets.   It is quite interesting, but after Fez and Marakesh we take a bit of impressing.   The Tourist Office contained many pictures of historic artefacts, masonry and buildings from the Quarter, but we suspect that many were in hidden courtyards or been carted off to museums.  We were amused to find a street named Purgatory lead into a square called Immaculate, which a Church of the same name, shown above centre.   We were looking for - but did not find - a tiny Norman Chapel mentioned in the guide book, but came onto the harbour, shown above right on the Molo Comondante G. Caito, whose statue oversees the harbour.    The port is, we are told, still the busiest fishing port in Sicily.    We found a shaded spot by the sea to have our packed lunch, close to the ruins of a Norman Castle, which amount to only a small gate.

We moved on to Marsala, stopping first at Cabo Lilybeo, the most westerly tip of Sicily.   Here we looked at the Roman Necropolis, shown far left, and watched a hydrofoil making for the port.

The area is the historic centre for the Marsala fortified wine business, which was begun by English settlers two centuries ago.   It seems that we were responsible for most fortified wines.   Opposite to to the Necropolis we could see a traditional barrel making factory.   The area around is a large archaeological site with various Roman ruins.  

We wandered into the town itself, past the Church, shown far left, being restored with EU money, and then along splendid streets till we came to the Porta Garibaldi, shown left.

We noted an interesting feature we could not recall having seen before.    The kerb stones were all under-cut to form a small hidden gutter beneath the edge of the pavements and the drains were also hidden beneath the pavement, leaving a superbly neat appearance to the streets.  

We found our way to the Piazza della Repubblica, with the town hall, the Palazzo VII Aprile, shown right, and the Chiesa di S. Matteo, shown far right, with interior views shown below.

The Church's magnificent interior had a couple of surprises.   As can be seen above left, the stone arches change to brick at the far end.   Apparently the dome had collapsed during one of the earthquakes and had been rebuilt in brick.    It was also the first Church we could recall with the organ pipes behind the altar.

When we returned to camp, we noticed to our amazement that there was another GB plated car and went along to introduce ourselves.   Paul was a Brit, but for the last twenty years had been in Australia with Shirley, a real Aussie.   They had had various spells contracting in the Middle East and Shirley, before they met, had been a bit of a traveller.   They had bumped into Alan and Gwynneth at Isola della Femine, which had been their first stop - like ourselves - after arriving at Palermo.    They, however, had come down from Genoa and after Sicily were heading for Greece.   They had flown to London and bought a Lunar caravan and a LHD VW Golf.    We were a little surprised at the combination as the Golf was dwarfed by the van.   They had had their traumas and were terrified of steep hills, which brought a red warning light on when the engine oil temperature got out of hand.

As it was dinner time, we suggested an after-dinner drink and, as we were just finishing dinner, they joined us with a large bottle of Champagne (or the Sicilian equivalent).

27th May, 2000

Castelvetrano, according to the Tourist Office, had one more hidden treasure in the form of a Norman Church, tucked away in the countryside to the north.   We found it with great difficulty, but it was in an enclosure adjoining some sort of conference centre.  We thought we were probably trespassing, but the people going about their business ignored us.   Eventually, clutching the Tourist Office brochure with its picture of the Church, and with appropriate sign language, we accosted a young lady and asked if we could look at the Church.

It was explained that the keys were held at the bungalow next door and, somewhat tentatively, we walked round to what must once have been a splendid country bungalow, but is now a little run down.  After pressing the bell, we waited for the door to be opened by a shuffling, old lady and repeated our sign language, pointing at the brochure.    Another old lady was called, who shuffled to the door, clutching the key and asked how many we were (we think).   Signing there were just two of us, we were invited by rubbing fingers and thumb, to make a donation of 5000 Lire.

It was probably worth the 5000 Lire to be able to wander around unmolested and take in the remarkably well-preserved Norman Church, which is still in use as a family mausoleum.   There is a Crypt beneath which was too dark for us to be able to see much.   We returned to camp and had pre-dinner drinks with the Aussies.

28th May, 2000

We had seen little rain since Tuscany, but were now to find that it can rain heavily in Sicily.   Water poured into our pitch, soaking the ground sheet and spattering everything with mud.   A young tenting couple had left spare shoes in the open, which we put in a bag for them.    They returned from the archaeological site soaked.  We worked on our journal and got ready to pull out on the Monday.   The map to the right shows the extent we had covered Sicily at this point.

Last updated:  18/03/01