Trapani, Sicily

The Tip of Trapani

One good thing that came out of the current financial crisis is the opportunity for us to go on a few long weekends. As far as I could remember, Hub never could take days off freely and he always comes home late (apparently from work, but of course maybe one day I'll discover that he has been having a second family all long, you know, the French and their cinq à sept...). This year, Ferrari actually imposed holidays each time there was a public holiday near a weekend - so we took the opportunity to visit first Bari and now Trapani.

Resident. Siesta. Glass of White Wine.

I've never been to Sicily. And I wouldn't want to visit the island during summer. The whole world would be there and it must be unbearably hot then. But early June was perfect for a visit.

Street where our hotel was

A shopping street nearby

We flew to Trapani (in North-West Sicily) from Bologna and the flight lasted 75 minutes. At the airport, we collected our rental car and drove to our 4* hotel-residence Alle Due Badie situated in the heart of Trapani. We had a lovely 2-bedroom flat in a pedestrian street in old Trapani and were within walking distance of the sea (beaches and port), the shopping areas, cafés, restaurants, churches etc. It wasn't easy finding parking and one had better not have a big car, but we were lucky and managed to park the car somewhere nearby every night. Within the city, you could rent bicycles and move around on them - saw lots of people doing that.

Kids on dirty beach near hotel

What I loved about old Trapani is its proximity to the sea no matter where you were (narrow strip of land jutting into the sea). On our last day, I asked the Hub and MIL to go to the beach with the kids without me - and I walked alone all over the city to discover it. I walked to the very narrow end of Trapani - and was surrounded by the sea on 3 sides (with the city behind and around me). It was a lovely end-of-the-world feeling. Along the way I passed a café (Café del Corso) that has a lovely courtyard where you could sit down and have tea (lovely pastries too) and took away half a dozen of sweet stuff that I gobbled down as I sat in a bus stop for the shade. Then I had lunch alone in a restaurant, had a Finnish couple join me at the table and we started to chat - and were the last to leave the restaurant!

Views from the tip of Trapani

Trapani makes a good base for visits in the region. Itself, it wasn't breathtaking or exciting, though it used to be the most important city in Western Sicily. Trapani flourished as a Phoenician trading centre and was an important stopover in the middle ages, linking Tunis, Naples, Anjou and Aragon. Ferries and boats still ply the seas between Trapani and ports in North Africa and the city does have its own airport at Birgi. We drove an hour to the beach at San Vito Lo Capo - and it was beautiful. We visited Mount Erice nearby with its medieval town and we were in Segesta - known for its Greek ruins. We drove to the natural reserve area that stretches from San Vito Lo Capo to just after Scopello - and the coastline was breathtaking. Wish we had the time to visit the islands near Trapani, but the kids wanted to return to the beach at San Vito Lo Capo and their wish was our command.

View of Trapani from Mount Erice

Restaurants in Trapani serve seafood freely. But prices were quite steep and I often wonder how they managed since unemployment is high on the island. Due to its Arabic past, Trapani is known for its Fish Couscous - unfortunately we didn't like it very much. Found it too dry. Bread however was generally good everywhere we went. As were the wines. Incidentally, the famous sweet Marsala wine is produced in the region and we liked their red Nero d'Avola wine.

The courtyard of Albergo Messina (next to Ai Lumi restaurant)

I do not know if I'll return to Trapani (because of time constraints) , but I certainly would love to see the rest of Sicily. Hopefully we'd be able to visit more of Italy in the remaining years and months that we have in the country, I've and will always regret not visiting more of Germany during our stay in Stuttgart.