A Norman castle sitting on top of
several buried goddesses
We regret making the trip to Erice and wish we had stayed in Palermo. This was not due to anything wrong with Erice; it's a cute medieval town with a schizophrenic present. It's just that there was so much we missed in Palermo that looking back, the time would have been better spent seeing more of Palermo.
We started the trip hugging the north shore of Sicily venturing west from Palermo, gradually climbing until the mountain road got pretty scary if you forgot that Angelo, our faithful driver, made the trip every week. Here's the view of a seaside town, Castellammare del Golfo, I think, on the Bay of Castellammare, about the biggest bay Sicily has. The town is now a resort (as you would guess by looking at the water). However, as you can see from the castle at the tip, was once a serious place. We took this picture while posed at a scenic lookout that had (like most places, it seemed, in Sicily) a shrine to the Virgin. This particular shrine was very popular for brides to leave their bouquets.
Soon we were winding our way to the Erice. While it's only 751 miles above the sea, it seems much higher. The Phoenicians and Greeks were both here once but the town that's left is a nearly perfect triangle made into a labyrinth of medieval streets punctuated by churches, souvenir shops, and bakeries luring Pietrina inside to find some of the Sicilian treats her father would somehow find in Detroit years ago.
In succession, the invaders built temples to their pagan goddesses (Astarte, Aphrodite, Venus) until the Normans settled it by building a fort on top of the site. Here's a remnant (pieces are scattered across the mountainside):
Erice has a truly commanding view of the sea and some salt manufacturing going on at the shore. At night, a bonfire would guide the sailors in the sea below. On a clear day, we're told you can see Tunisia about 170 miles away.
Today, Erice is a working town although why is not immediately apparent. Take a look at the picture below, noting all the vertical lines:
Did you catch the communications tower or did you really think that was Trident's fork? (If not, use your browser's bottom scroll bar -- it may be off your screen). Erice's present claim to fame is as a center for science conferences sponsored by the European union and a variety of other organizations. Most meet under the auspices of Ettore Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture, founded in 1963 and named after an Italian physicist. The meeting rooms are in two restored monasteries and a Palazzo which once housed the governors of Sicily.
Our walk through town ended at a church freshly resplendent in flowers from a wedding. In front was one of Sicily's famous painted carts complete with donkey and driver (the driver was the one who whipped out an accordion to snare our loose Lira). I didn't get a picture of him but I did manage one of the interior of the church with its braided vault.
We returned to the hotel at dark. The next day we were off to the ruins of Segasta and Selinunte. Please join us by clicking here.
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