Thursday, March 20, 2014

Sicily: Salt Pans and Erice

The next day, we decided to check out the salt museum just south of Trapani in a town called Nubio. Unfortunately, the website failed to inform us that it was closed for the season. How hard would that be to put on a website?  This area south of Trapani is known for salt production. There are great big shallow areas near the shore where the locals let sea water come in and then evaporate.And then there are old windmills around that were used to grind the salt into different sizes.  Since the museum was closed (grrr....), we drove a little further and took a boat to the island of Mozia which houses a museum collection of Phoenician artifacts and the ruins of an ancient Phoenician city. We walked around the island for a bit, and then headed back toward Trapani in order to ride a cable car up to the nearby hill town of Erice.  Erice sits on top of a 750m tall mountain next to the sea. It just pops out of the landscape, and someone thought, as with almost every other hill in Italy, "Let's build a castle up there!"
 At the salt museum

 Windmills everywhere...feels like we are in Holland!

 Piles of sea salt, each with their own roof of clay tiles

 A windmill in the sun

 Norah and Luke in Erice, high above the town of Trapani

 Laundry and the view from the top of Erice...this is looking East along the northern coast of Sicily

 Family photo...well Susannah was sleeping on my back in the carrier...

 "Mad faces" in Erice

Well, what d'ya know? Another castle in Italy!

The view of Trapani (on the right) and the salt pans from up in Erice

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