The Trip That Keeps Growing: 16-18 September 2023 Mazzara del Vallo Blog

16-18 September 2023 Mazzara del Vallo Blog

Leaving the hotel where the Mafia talk was held, we exited the city through the Porta Felice. This gate, built in the 16^th and 17^th century, was the water-side entrance into what was the most ancient street of the city. We then boarded our bus for a three hour bus ride to Mazzara del Vallo, a town in southwestern Sicily that is a fishing center with the largest fishing fleet in Italy.

Palermo Harbor

Porta Felice

Around 1 PM we stopped in Tenuta Pispisa, a farm that now specializes in agritirismo (combining tourism and agriculture). More on that when we spend the night in one of those settings. Today we just enjoyed the beautiful views of their farm and enjoyed a wonderful lunch made exclusively with their home-grown products. And of course the wine from their vineyards.

After lunch some walked back to the bus through the neighboring countryside to see the olive trees, vineyards, and temple ruins. This farmhouse/B&B is located in an area that was once home to the ancient Elymians, one of Sicily’s three indigenous peoples who were descendants of the Greek Trojans. Several of us opted to take the little shuttle back to the bus with a stop to see the temple ruins.

The columns of a well-preserved, but unfinished Greek temple stands on a hilltop as a reminder of Segesta’s ancient Greek heritage. The temple was built between 430 and 420 BCE. It stands today much as it did in the 5^th century – 200 feet long and 85 feet wide. Although built in Doric style with 36 tapered columns, it never had a roof nor any tribute to a deity. It was built to be a structure to entice the diplomates from Athens to become an ally of Segesta. After Segesta’s rival city teamed up with the much larger and stronger city Syracuse, nobles from Segesta decided they needed to pair up with an even mightier city – Athens. To impress the visiting Greek diplomates and to give the appearance that the town was wealthy (which it was not), they had Greek builders construct as much of the temple as possible before the diplomates visit. Although the Greeks did provide some aid to Segesta when it was under siege, they soon realized that the city’s wealth was a fraud and refused to enter into a more meaningful alliance. With no money, work was halted on the temple, and it never got a roof.

Tenuta Pispisa Farm

Tebnuta Pispisa Farmland

Farnkabd

Segesta's Temple Ruins

We finally arrive in Mazara del Vallo around 4 pm. After checking into our hotel, where we will stay for 3 nights as we explore this part of Sicily, we had a chance to relax and enjoy a glass of wine before our dinner at the hotel. The hotel, Hotel Mahara, is located next to the water with a promenade that runs along the beach.

Hotel Mahara

Beach in front of hotel

Our second day in Mazara included a walking tour of the town’s center and a visit to the Kasbah quarter where more than 3,000 Tunisians live and work. We first walked to the Norman Arch, which is all that remains of the 11^th century Norman Castle. Our next stop was to the Cathedral of Mazara, built between 1088-1093. It is considered a fake Baroque church as the statues are not made of marble. As this was a Sunday morning, Mass was being held and we could not enter the church. Behind the church was Republic Square containing the statue of the patron saint of Mazara San Vito which was sculpted in 1775. Along one side of the square is the 18^th century Seminario Vescovile (Episcopol Seminary), a two story-building with an impressive 11 arched portico.

Norman Arach

Cathedral of Mazara

Republic Square

Seminario Vescovile

Statue of San Vito

Statue of San Vito and Cathedral

From the square we then entered the Kasbah. The homes and shops here reflect the Arab style with tiles and other decorative elements on the facades of the buildings. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday morning and most of the shops were closed. The entire area is crisscrossed with many small passageways filled with restaurants that offer traditional Arab cuisine. For over a thousand years, the flavors and smells have wafted through this area of the town, which is one of the closest Italian cities to Africa. The Arabs ruled Sicily from 827 to 1061. While we walked through this area, our Trip Leader explained about the challenges and opportunities that have been encountered with the intermingling of Sicilian and Arab cultures and the co-existence of both Muslim and Christian faiths. But the residents of this area have been very successfully in integrating their lives and cultures. Inside the Kasbah we also saw the Church of San Francesco, a beautiful old church built in 1680 and a Jewish section with a mural replicating the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Kasbah

Small Alleyways

Homes and Shops inside the Kasbah

Old Building in Kasbah

Paintings on the Walls

Beautiful tile mosaics on Walls

Tile Mosaic

Walking through the Kasbah

Another Mosaic

The Blue House

Beautiful Blue Door

Church of San Francesco

Inside the Church

Homes inside the Kasbah

Wall carving of the Jewish Wailing Wall

Jewish Mosaic

Following our walk through the Kasbah, we visited the Museum of the Dancing Satyr. The Dancing Satyr is a Greek bronze statue that was discovered by local fishermen in 1998 after spending 2,000 years on the seabed of the Sicilian coast. (This of course was after a short stop to relax with a drink or gelato.)

Dancing Satyr

After visiting the museum, Rosanna had a little discovery planned for us. An older citizen of the town who was instrumental in reviving the old theater, took us to see the theater. There he sang several songs (he had a magnificent voice) including Volare and My Way.

Then came an even bigger surprise – Rosanna had the captain of the boat, Capitan Ciccio, who actually discovered the Dancing Satyr visit us in the theater and tell us his story of this wonderful discovery. It took several attempts – the first knowledge they had of the statue was when their fishing nets snagged the bronze leg of the statue. However. they were unable to retrieve it as it fell back down into the water. However, Capitan Ciccio wrote the coordinates of the location. When he first reported his fine to the local police, there were less than interested in helping him find it again. But they did try to find it on their own, but the captain had not given them the exact coordinates. He and his crew went back several times and were finally successful in retrieving the statue from its watery grave.

Our TEL Rosanna and Capt Ciccio

Capt Ciccio telling his story

We then broke into smaller groups to participate in one of OAT’s most unique activity – a home-hosted lunch. Here we will be able to interact with local people and learn more about their daily life, traditions, and culture. And Bill and I were one of the lucky ones – our host was Capt. Ciccio and his family – his wife and two stepdaughters and a 6 year-old granddaughter. One stepdaughter is now completing here residency to become a doctor while the younger one is completing her internship to become a pharmacist. Also attending the lunch was the older stepdaughter's boyfriend. boy was he a keeper -- he did most of the dishwashing and cleaning up! She sure has him trained right! The lunch was delicious – appetizers made from fresh vegetables, fried cod, and bread and the main course of homemade pasta. What an enjoyable afternoon. One of the absolute best Home-Hosted meals we have done!

Capt Ciccio and is Family

The Granddaughter

Our final day in Mazara started with a morning drive along windmill-dotted landscape (no we are not in the Netherlands) to the Museo del Sale, a parttime working salt museum with a 17^th century mill. Here one of the employees explained how salt was produced and refined using an ancient Trapani tradition. The windmills that we had passed played an important role in this salt industry. The skilled elders would maintain the windmills, while the younger apprentices would haul the water. These Dutch style windmills with their six wooden blades, would pump the water between the basins and were also used to grind the salt. The workers had created a series of basins of varying sizes and depths to create salt pans. Water from the sea would flow into these basins through channels and because of the summer’s high temperatures, the water would quickly evaporate forming salt crystals. We all got a chance to walk in one of the salt ponds and to shovel the salt into a pile so it could dry out to be processed.

Pile of Salt Drying

Several of the Salt Basins

Windmills, Salt Basins, Salt Pile

Windmill used to provide water to the basins

Salt piles that still needed to dry

Waiting to try our hand at shoveling salt

Shoveling Salt

A Successful End to Salt Shoveling

We then took a 20-minute boat ride to the beautiful island of Mothya (or Mozia), where Phoenicians built a settlement around 800 BCE as it was located in the heart of an ancient Mediterranean trading route. The little island soon became a multicultural port and the center for Mediterranean trade. Some of the first structures built by the Phoenicians on the island were temples to their two main gods -- Baal and Astarte. While these two gods took many forms, they both appear of have had a strong association with astronomy. Baal was at once a warrior god and a weather god, which also connected him to water, the sea, and the seasons. Astarte was considered a war god and a god of protection, but was closely associated with the stars, navigation and regeneration. And both gods were associated with the afterlife.

The first settlement was destroyed by the Carthaginians in the mid-sixth century. It was quickly rebuilt, this time with a defensive wall around the island (circa 550 BCE). That city was destroyed in 397 by the Greek ruler Dionysius I but was never rebuilt. Today the island is one of the top archaeological spots.

Our lunch today was a picnic where we could enjoy the scenic views of the island. After lunch we continued our exploration of the island where we saw ongoing excavation projects that are helping to expand upon the history of the island’s development. Rosanna took us to a small cemetery that had been unearthed where children had been buried once they had been sacrificed to the gods. Not a great story, but the ancient Phoenicians believed that in order have good luck they needed to sacrifice their first-born son to the gods immediately after the baby’s birth. What a gruesome story!

In addition to the island’s history, our Trip Leader told us about the ancient causeway that was built so that the island’s inhabitants would have easy access to the mainland. It was also destroyed by Dionysius I. Now the only access is with a boat. We then visited the Giuseppe Whitaker museum with its many ancient artifacts from the excavations.

Approaching the Island of Mothya

Old Statue Found in the Ruins

Death Mask Used to Bury Babies

The sky was full of para-sailors

Ruins of an old Cemetery where Babies were Sacrificed

Urn used to bury the dead

Our dinner tonight was quite a change from most meals. After arriving at the restaurant, we took part in a cooking class where we learned how to make Sicilian parmigiana, pasta, and Sicily’s famous pesto alla trapanese – a pesto made with almonds, cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic, and olive oil. Our class ended with learning how to make an almond parfait.

We were divided into four groups – I was in the group that made the pesto while Bill was in the group that made the Eggplant Parmigiana. I do not want to brag, but the chef really like our tomato/basil pesto. It really was very, very good. We got all the recipes so I will have to try and recreate it when we get back home. Then the fun of eating all the results of our labor began.