Erice - revisited

When you read this, I'm on vacation but I'm re posting some old stuff. It started as a lovely and clear morning in October when we took the bus from Trapani and went up the mountains to visit Erice. Erice is ancient and mystical. If you don't drive, there is a bus from Trapani, at the station right next to the train station. It takes an hour, the bus winds up some narrow road up the mountain to Erice. The view on the way up is picturesque, giving a panoramic view of Trapani below. We left Trapani at 9 one Sunday morning and arrived in Erice at almost 10 in the morning. It was still nice and promised to be a great day to go traipsing in Erice but it all ended too soon. The mist came in and it was still nice but then the rain and the wind came and our beautiful day came crashing down.

It is a walled city and in the words of author, Amy Oakley, 'next to a hill top town, a walled city is her downfall' or something to that effect. I feel the same. This is a hill top and walled ancient city. They say most of her residents are rich Sicilians who use these as a weekend getaway. I don't mind. It was so quiet, there was no one about....because it was early yet....then came the humongous tour buses.

Then the mist came in and it was still so lovely.....mystical....ancient....

These are ancient pavings, they were there for thousands of years and so beautiful.

A peek into some one's weekend retreat. I don't mind owning something like this.

The convent's pasticceria reminded me of the book ' Bitter Almonds' by Mary Simeti, I never found out if this was the same pasticceria written of in her book. It was Sunday and it wasn't opened.

I have a feeling it is the same pasticceria written about in 'Bitter Almonds' by Mary Simeti.

I've told the story many times, it was here that we got rained on. It started to pelt rain and the wind was blowing so hard, we couldn't find our way to the bus stop. A stranger gave us a lift to the bus stop in his new BMW. We were soaking wet, there was not a dry spot on our bodies. We waited for an hour in the shelter of the public restroom till the next city bus came and took us back to Trapani. It was still a great trip. If it didn't rain, we could have jumped on the next train and went to Segeste. Instead we retreated to the warmth and dry apartment on top of Ai Lumi restaurant.