Italy, Sicily day 3 Segesta, Mondello, Villa Igiea, PART 1.

 

Ellen enjoyed our meal at Serisso 47.  She enjoyed the John Dory and thought the desert was fabulous.  Here are a few photos of Serisso 47.  The owner/chef did greet us and present the specials of the day and presented us with a “fish cart” describing the various fish we could select that night.

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Serisso 47 is quite appealing inside with its vaulted ceilings

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Which Fish would you like, Bream?  John Dory?

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Ellen liked the appetizer so much she asked for another! 2 more arrived

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Desert mango cream custard with caramelized pistachio nuts

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Corso Vittoreo Emanuele at 12:30 AM.

 

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Note Lun-Gio 05:30-08:00 and the tow sign!

Viale Regina Elena is the road that runs along the marina and ferry buildings in Trapani.  It has ample pay parking. It is where we parked Sunday for free.  However, the street has restricted parking between 5:30am and 8:00am.  Monday – Thursday the “land” side of the street restricts parking for street cleaning.  The “sea” side restricts parking Wednesdays – Fridays.  Signs state that cars will be towed even if they have a valid parking ticket.

Last night I moved our car from the land side to the sea side so that it would not be towed today, Monday.  This morning I had to purchase a parking ticket before 8:00 am that was good through 10:00, our checkout time.  It is no problem purchasing a ticket at a kiosk. 2 euros is good for three hours.  Getting out of bed and out of the apartment was the problem.

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The marina esplanade,

Today was cold and blustery as I exited the apartment.  The car was just as I had left it.  Finding parking on the other side of the street at 7:30 AM was a breeze.  This morning was magnificent.  There were gray storm clouds over the mountains, white billowing clouds closer in, and sun streaming through the clouds where it could. Did I bring a camera or smart phone?  No.

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Leaving for Segesta.  Where did everybody go?

I hustled back, grabbed my camera, and hurried back to find the lighting had changed.  I took some photos and walked back a circuitous route.  Today, Monday, all the local cafes were open and overflowing with early morning customers on their way to work.  In fact the streets that yesterday seemed deserted were hard to cross with the cars zooming around, carving a lane wherever they could.

Not packing for the airport makes checking out simpler.  Checkout was as simple as leaving the keys in a hopper by the door and leaving.  We left a tip for the cleaners and 10 euros for the two bottles of surprisingly good wine Alessandra left in the apartment for us.

By now working the Volvo’s Italian Nav system had become “easy”, we sort of.  Most of the directions (all in Italian) are direct enough.  Prepare to turn left. Take the 3rd exit in the roundabout. But every now and then at a crucial juncture out pops a stream of words that to me are indecypherable.

I dialed in “points of interest” Segesta, and off we went.  Italian roads are very well maintained, well designed, and have excellent signage, “mostly”.  It is extremely easy to speed, most Italian’s do and it is not just the guys!  Probably the worst cases of rude drivers cutting me off or getting creative with lanes in the city are women.

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On the Road to Segesta at 120 kph.

Driving to Segesta  (SE JEST-a) was fun.  Whether it was the exhilaration of speed, the beauty of the countryside, the ruins of old hilltop villas, or keeping an eye out for the occasional very high speed driver, the drive went by quickly. There was one instance where the Nav system went “bonkers” spewing out a bunch of Italian words.   I was tooling along at 120 kph when the road head branched.  The lane I was in turned right to who knows where.  The left lane headed on to Palermo and Segesta.  II would have turned into the left lane, but a car behind me and in the left lane was closing fast.   I braked well ahead of decision time and noticed that the car behind was making room so I zipped right and off toward Segesta I went.  I only which I knew what the Nav system was “saying” to warn me about that!

We took the turnoff for Segesta (SE JES ta) came up, I took it.  Ellen and I agreed that if it was raining, we wouldn’t “do it”.  The road to the parking lot is twisty, but short.  At the end there were three huge tourist busses parked and a small open gate to get into the parking lot.  In we went and we parked.  The rain that had been off and on, was off.  We popped out, put on our rain gear, and cameras in hand we headed to the biglietteria.  The walk to the temple is up a short trail.  It is a feat of ancient engineering. The temple is more worn and I think it is smaller than Agrigento’s.  The Greek city states and later the Roman Empire were the foundations for modern civilization. For me visiting these relics of antiquity is akin to coming home  (strange, but true).  It stirs my imagination.

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Temple of Segesta built ~420 BC by the Elymian people.

Those busses were not for your typical tourist.  They took busloads of middle school children on an outing.  One fellow was giving a lecture to his students in French.  Most others were Italian. In fact nearly all the tourists were Italians.  There were a few German speakers; a few English speakers, but the dominant language was Italian. It felt good to know that the significance of these monuments to Italy’s greatness will not be lost.  Often you will see graffiti scrawled on derelict historic buildings. It is hard for me to comprehend, though I recognize the teen aged rebellion of my youth.

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Segesta, the View Walking Back from the Amphitheater

The wild flowers around the temple were in full bloom.  Spring has arrived in northern Sicily.  Did we want to walk to the amphitheater?  It was a 1200+ meter walk.  The Greeks build their amphitheaters high up in hills to be close to the Gods.  I think they were performing for the Gods. I knew the “walk” to the amphitheater would be a slog, and in the rain as well.  The wind blew hard over the ridge sometimes driving the rain hard too.  In some places there were rivers of water flowing down the road and mud to contend with on the trail.   It took a while to reach the theater, which was nestled in a bowl out of the wind.  The French teacher stood center stage and spoke to his students who stood at the top row of the amphitheater.  We could hear every word he spoke, the acoustics are that good in the ancient Greek theaters.   We left him talking to his shivering students as we began our walk down to the car.  The view of the temple from high up in the hill is remarkable.

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Spring in Segesta, Sicily

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Happy Wife!

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The Old and the New.

At the car I dialed in Mondello in the Nav system.  Mondello is roughly 6 km north of Palermo.  Our friend whom we met on the flight into Palermo recommended that we stop there.  We chose to skip Castellammare del Golfo and Scopello, which are off the autostrade and a bit out of the way.

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