Trapani, Sicily

Julie-Anne Justus
Apr 23
5 min read

We're still in Italy, on the island of Sicily. We've disembarked in the port of Trapani, pronounced Trah-puh-ni, not Truh-pah-ni, as I'd been saying until now.

Trapani sits on the western tip of Sicily, about 100 km west of Palermo and about 1000 km south of Rome. Legend says that Trapani was formed when Demeter dropped her sickle while looking for her kidnapped daughter Persephone. The sickle fell into the sea, creating a city in its crescent. Why, you ask, was the Greek goddess in Italy? It's that sort of place — layer upon layer of conquest and history.

Over the centuries Trapani has been occupied by the Phoenicians (from what's now Lebanon), Romans, Arabs, Normans and the Spanish. Other parts of Sicily were invaded by the Greeks, and it's close to North Africa, so it really is a historical potpourri of cultures.

Sailing into port in the early morning, we could see the the salt flats stretching ahead. People have been harvesting salt here for more than 2000 years.

The Saline di Trapani e Paceco is a network of salt pans and protected wetlands. We saw flamingos in the distance, (legal) migrants from North Africa, and our guide said that this area is popular with birdwatchers from all over the world.

The evaporation ponds, canals and windmills have been used for centuries. Windmills were built in the 15th century and functioned until about 30 years ago. Now they operate once a month, for tourists. The wind blows all the time. It was hot with salt-laden winds while we were there — we felt thirsty all the time.

Two types of salt are produced: industrial salt and finishing salt. The industrial salt is heavy, sets like ice, and sinks to the bottom as the water evaporates. This needs to be broken up with shovels; it's hot, heavy, sweaty work that affects the eyes. It's difficult to find people willing to do this work. Industrial salt is used for curing meat and fish (prosciutto! anchovies!) and in the production of chocolate, cosmetics, etc. It's lumped into huge white mounds on the side of the ponds. The tiles along the canals are used to cover the salt mounds after harvesting to protect them from rain.

The other type of salt is the fancy one: fleur de sel, salt flakes. This forms as a thin crust on the surface of seawater as it evaporates.

Trapani sits on the Stagnone Lagoon. We crossed the lagoon to the island of Mozia (old name Motya, also called Mothia) to visit a Phoenician archaeological site and the Whitaker Museum.

Joseph Whitaker was a wealthy Anglo-Italian ornithologist and amateur archaeologist. He bought the island of Mozia in the early 1900s and funded most of the excavations. The museum is in the house where he lived; it's now run by a foundation. You can see how dry the whole landscape is, surrounded by salt flats.

This dig has uncovered some rather lovely mosaic floors from the 6th century BC.

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The museum houses ancient Phoenician artefacts from Mozia — walls, homes, tiles, textiles, ceramics, jewellery. But the most famous single artefact found on the island is this 5th-century BC marble statue, Il Giovinetto di Mozia. Our guide urged us to view the statue from the back as well as from the front ... it does have an attractive rear.

Purple dye was produced here around 600 BC. The dye came from Murex sea snails; around 12,000 snails were needed to produce one gram of dye. The museum displays tools for breaking shells and whale vertebrae used as a sort of workbench. The dye was very rare, very expensive, very sought after. In ancient Rome only high-status people were allowed to wear Imperial or Royal Purple.

I had always imagined that Imperial Purple was blue-ish purple, but as you can see it's actually more magenta. Imperial Rome must have been quite gaudy.

The Phoenicians occupied this area from around 700 BC to 400 CE. The museum has amphorae from Africa, Greece and the Middle East, showing the extent of trade in those early times. (A few years ago we visited a wonderful museum in Bodrum, Turkiye, which had a huge collection of amphorae on the other side of the Mediterranean.)

The Phoenicians worshipped the gods Astarte, Baal, Eshmun, Tanit (and others), some of whom had a bad reputation in the Bible. I seem to remember Hebrew prophets were always challenging Baal! Anyway, here are representations of some of these gods.

Mozia was the regional burial ground for people after they were cremated. These markers were placed where the ashes were buried.

During that time, it was common for poor families to sacrifice their first-born son to the gods. No, the baby sacrifice wasn't mandatory. It wasn't a Massacre of the Innocents. It was an offering to the gods, just as people would sacrifice an animal as an offering to the gods. Wearing this mask (sad eyes, happy mouth, said our guide), the father of the child would cut its throat and cremate it. These little clay tablets below are memorials for the children that were sacrificed.

Evidence shows that around three babies per year were sacrificed each year during those 900 years. (Okay, so not very common, exactly.) Gasps of horror from some Americans on our tour ... better than bombing other people's babies, I thought.

Back across the lagoon and to the town of Marsala, for a Marsala wine tasting.

Trapani is both a town and a region in Sicily. Trapani is the region in Sicily that produces the most wine. Marsala is a bigger town than Trapani, about 30 km away. Marsala has 85,000 inhabitants; Trapani has 65,000.

Sicilians seem very proud of having distinctive wine varieties that are grown nowhere else. For example, Grillo is widely used and is the basis for Marsala wine. Our guide described how in the 19th century, English wine merchants wanted to ship white Sicilian wine back to England. Concerned about it spoiling during the journey, they added aqua vitae (alcohol) to the wine. The result was Marsala, the fortified wine that took off in the UK and elsewhere.

Cantine Mothia is a small-medium winery that uses only grapes grown in Sicily. The winery is in the baglio style, a traditional Sicilian stone building surrounding a large central courtyard.

Marsala is a DOC wine, and was the first DOC wine in Italy. It's made from four types of white grapes (always including Grillo), all from Trapani or Sicily. Marsala wine that has aged for one year is called Marsala fine, for three years is Marsala superior, for five years Marsala virgin. Marsala virgin is always dry. And if you suspect a double entendre, that's on you, not me.

Ken enjoyed the wine tasting of Marsala fine, superior and virgin; I loved the Sicilian green olives with origanum and chilli. My favourite olives are crunchy Sicilian olives.

Through the countryside, back to Trapani. These are typical homes with vineyards and olives trees.

Those of you (like me) interested in WW2 probably think of Operation Husky when you think of Sicily. That was in the south and east. Here in Trapani the Axis used the airfields for defence, until the Allies advanced from the south. Trapani was bombed pretty heavily by the Allies, but fortunately many of the old buildings survived or were rebuilt.

Ken and I wandered through the streets of Trapani old town, past the centuries-old churches dating back to the 1300s.

I was very tempted by octopus pasta and a million types of arancini, but I had my heart set on some cannoli and cassata. While in Sicily etc.

Walking back to the port, we admired the green maiolica dome of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, those green tiles apparently typical of Spanish Sicilian Baroque architecture. Another cultural melange! Thumbs up to the statue honouring Garibaldi, the most admired statesman in Italian history. What a shame the world doesn't have wholly admirable statespeople any longer.