Sunny Selinunte!

April 13

I left Sciacca this morning and headed west – ultimately for Trapani, but I planned to make a few stops along the way.  First up, the temples & ruins of Selinunte.  The guide books & websites praise this place and many say it’s better than the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento.  I don’t agree – while it’s pretty cool to be able to actually walk inside most of these ruins (rather than around them), they have for the most part been reconstructed by dedicated & well-intentioned archeologists (the Agrigento Temples persevered on their own).  Regardless, very worth seeing AND the views of the Mediterranean from this site are MAGNIFICIENT!  I would have chosen to build here as well!!

I arrived a little after 10am and the sun was already heating up.  I park, buy a ticket & walk into the park.  I follow the small crowd up to the first temple, which is you can actually see upon entering, and start to snap pictures galore.  As I mentioned above, it’s pretty cool to be able to go inside the temple & walk around to see scale and detail.  These suckers were huge!!! 

I see another temple far off in the distance and start to walk down the path.  I see a piles of ruins (apparently an earthquake wiped out this place, rather than a conquering nation as previously thought) and continue walking.  I start to realize that this place I want to go to is pretty far away and I’m already getting pretty warm and really don’t want to spend 2 or 3 hours in the sun.

So . . I turn back to the entrance and pay the fee for the electric golf cart tour.  Best 12 Euro I’ve spent so far.  I luck out to get – Massimo the driver!  He speaks enough English to tell me what’s what & where’s where and I actually start enjoying this place even more.  He takes me out way past that temple I saw (which is actually the acropolis- the main city with what was the most beautiful temple of them all) and to some other sites as well.  At each, he asks how long I want to explore so he can shuttle others back & forth.  Rest assured, he’s back when we agree and we move along at a pretty good pace.

After I spend about a half hour at the Acropolis, I return to the parking lot and no Massimo.  It’s OK – there’s a very well dressed man selling granite (like sorbetto, but better!) and I am going to have to have one.  And guess what, he’s got the brioche buns, so I have lemon granite in a brioche and wait for Massimo.  When he arrives soon afterwards, he sees my granite and just smiles.  Typical tourist . . I’m sure he’s thinking!!!

This is the ONLY way to see this huge park.  If you go, don’t hesitate to go the cart route.  Trust me – there were so many people attempting to hitchhike on the trails, that I’m sure they wish they’d done the same.  I told Massimo if he stopped & picked them up, he could make a lot of money.  He laughed!

I left the park and drove down to the waterfront to find some lunch before heading to my next stop of Partanna.  I found a bunch of little spots and picked the cutest one with yellow tablecloths.  Nice staff and I finally got some spaghetti vongole (clams) and finished with an insalata mista (fresh salad of the day).  I have to say, this salad was the strangest thing I’ve eaten in Italy thus far.  It was butter lettuce, tomatoes, olives (all OK so far) – and corn . .yeah, corn!  I couldn’t quite believe my eyes.  I tasted a couple of kernels and I’m pretty sure they were fresh, not from a can – but still, strange, right?  Where do you even get fresh corn at this time of year and since when is corn Italian?? 

I head up to Partanna to take a few quick shots of “our castle”.  Remember, Pippo had told me that the Graffeo’s have a castle in Partanna.  It’s actually called Castello Grifeo, but Pippo insists it belonged to the Graffeo’s.  It’s a pretty impressive place – or at least it was in its day.  Nice views, nice architecture, pretty commanding presence in a nice neighborhood.  Apparently, this is where the Graffeo Family Reunion will be held.  The GPS puts me onto a wild goose chase for my next stop - Castelvetrano.

Really, I have no real reason to go to Castelvetrano, except it’s close and I want to be able to say I’ve been there once.  I’m sort of a maniac for Castelvetrano olives and this is where they come from.  I once ate close to 50 Castelvetrano olives (no judgment please) in a single sitting! I drove through the countryside after leaving Partanna and saw olive groves galore!  Task completed!

Another 1 ½ hours and I’m in Trapani.  I’ll be here for Pasqua (Easter) and I’m told by the owner of the B&B to be prepared with my camera – cause the crazy is about to begin.  The car is parked by the waterfront – it’s staying there for the next 4 days – and, I’m taking the bus!