Ah dear reader- there are only twelve of you, but you are demanding. I have requests for more food pictures and requests for more hostel (ostello) info...
Well, I am in Trapani after four days in Palermo, where the ostello was not so good. THe city? I walked it over and over and over again- but it still confounded, escaped me. I will come back to it and write more.
I just ate one of the best meals I've ever eaten at La Cantina Siciliana in Trapani. The lonely planet guide calls it "one of the finest places to eat in the whole of sicily" and it earned the Slow Food Movement badge of approval.
It was pretty damn good and pretty slow. The restaurant, btw, is on Via Giudecca, the Jewish ghetto/block in Trapani until 1492 when they were inquisitioned off the island- they didn't even make it to il fascisti. There is a Trattoria di David on Via Giudecca today, but I suspect David is an interloper who arrived post-WWII.
Allora, la cena- it was good. I started with the pasta con gamberi and parsley... which I thought meant lobster and parsley- but it was those mediterrainean shrimps with the heads, the long antennae and the beady eyes... very good. I sucked their blood from the juicy heads. And then il secondo piatti was il carne- scaloppine masala... I figured I'd give it a try because Masala- the syrupy dessert wine- is produced just down the road from here... in MASALA. It was good, It was very complex. It might have been too complex and savory for my unschooled palate. In any case, mi pacere.
Trapani is the appendage which juts out into the sea from the north-west corner of Sicily. Erice is an ancient and medieval city which resides on a promontory overlooking the harbor. The women of Trapani/Erice are legendarily beautiful. There was a important temple to Aphrodite/Astarte in Erice in the Greek period (6th and 5th cent B.C.E. ). In those days you could come to the temple, leave an offering for the goddess and get serviced by her priestesses. Legend has it that Deadalus- who made the wings for his son Icarus- was Siciliano- and after he was liberated from the maze/prison on Crete, he returned to Sicily and offered the goddess a golden honeycomb at the temple in Erice. There is an excellent book about Sicily called "The Golden Honeycomb," which I will discuss in greater detail when I'm not about to pass out from food- because it's very good and out of print- but if you're thinking of visiting Sicily, I recommend going on Amazon and tracking down a copy.
According to one Moslem chronicler, the Erice ladies were soooo beautiful that in the 8th and 9th centuries (that's anno domine)- when the Arabs invaded the island, they prayed to God to make the women their slaves. I sort of hoped dinner and a movie would do the trick.
That is where I am. Tomorrow, I will ride the funicular to Erice and beseach the goddess on my own behalf. Better find something to offer her.
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