Moderno

Erasing Erice from my Memory

by Ekaterinburg

"Not for me"

When I think that I considered pushing the boat out and paying through the nose to stay in Erice, I shudder. Why would I have considered staying in Erice , you might well ask ? I wanted somewhere really beautiful and special and for a day or two, flirted with the idea that 'this enchanting hill town' might be the place I'd been looking for. But the more photos of Erice I saw, the more I went off the idea and I can only thank providence for those photos.

But I certainly thought it would be worth a visit, especially as I planned to get there by cable car. The cable car was indeed thrilling. It's a long trip and the views over Trapani were wonderful. Far off in the distance I could see the windmills and the salt flats that had first spiked my interest in the area.

The sun was splitting the stones in Trapani but suddenly, our cable car was surrounded - almost submerged by - thick, grey fog. A fitting introducton to Erice where we shivered and slithered on wet cobbles and prayed for a break in the clouds.

We tried hard to tap into Erice's charms but everywhere we went was dismal, creepy and GREY. Erice brings a whole new layer of meaning to the colour grey :- grey houses, grey cobbles, grey streets, grey skies. Grey-t fun ? Afraid not.

Every so often the sun broke through the clouds but by the time you turned up your face to it it was gone. The only flashes of light came from the multi-coloured ceramics in the souvenir shops.

Maybe if the sun were shining, I'd have felt differently but I have to admit that after an hour or so in Erice, all I wanted to do was leave.

Erice, medieval town on a hill

by ludogatto

Erice names from the sicilian-italico Eryx, that it means “mount”, in fact it raise on the San giuliano mount, 571 mt looking to Trapani city.
The zone, of extraordinary beauty, and naturally fortified, was inhabited from the times of the Advanced Paleolitico and Neolithic (the coves). It was Elimna under the infuence of the Cartaginesi and later the Greeks wanted it for its immense riches.
Destroyed during the 1^ punic war from the Cartaginesi, Erice were conquered from the Roman in the 248 a.C., which brought back to the ancient splendor the tempio, dedicating it to the goddess Venere.
Afetr followed the conqueror history of Sicily: it was bizantina, then Arabic, therefore normanna.
The Normanni builded the famous Castle. During the middle Age churches and convents were built up, and from then, except some baroque palace, the roccaforte and remained the same one. Inside of the town-walls building (of which they are remained three doors of medieval age) can be admired the Dome, built up in the 1300's, Castello normanno, the church of Saint Martino, the church of Saint Domenico (today center of the scientific Center Ettore Majorana), the civic museum, and all the charming small village, from the typically medieval structure.

There is a new funicular that leaves from Trapani, but I heard abut some problames again...so it's better to go up with the car or busses.

Panoramic view: Bonagia and Custonaci from Erice

Favignana island ( Egadi ) with the Trapani 'saline'...