Unfortunately, M left our camera at home!
Segesta is the site of an ancient Greek settlement. It has a very well preserved Doric temple and a theater on a hill, with spectacular views. From there you can see the sea. We spent a very lovely morning there, uninterrupted by picture taking...
It was lunchtime when we left Segesta, and we decided to go to Trapani to Trattoria Cantina Siciliana on via Giudecca, the place recommended in our guidebook. The lunch was good, but it set us back by a couple of hours and slowed us down in other ways. By the time we emerged, Santuario dell'Annunziata, the main attraction (one star), was closed. Well, as they say in Italy: "Non si può avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca."
From Trapani we drove up a serpentine road to Erice (750 m above the sea level), and found the town completely covered by thick fog. Good thing M left our camera at home! We were able to make out vaguely the tower of the castle at which we were standing. Even in the fog, the town seemed "overtouristisized." The enterprising mayor, probably in cahoots with the local church authorities, set up a so-called "friendly tour of churches." They made posters with a little map of the tour, slapped numbers on a dozen churches and charged for admission!
We wanted to see also the salt factory near Trapani, but by the time we got there it was too dark, and it would be closed on a Sunday, anyway. That part of the coast is not pretty, with run-down subdivisions on unfinished, unpaved streets leading down to the sea. We then took the coastal road (by mistake) to Marsala, which at night looked like an unattractive blue-collor town.
We were home by 8, had oranges for supper.
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