Fontana di Saturno

Woke to the sound of torrential rain but skies had dried and started to sort themselves out by the time we finished breakfast. The storm seemed to have temporarily knocked out the water so showers were had once it came back on after breakfast. When asked about this strange lack of water, the receptionist tiredly replied ‘It will be back soon. I think I know what has happened. I have contacted someone about it’ and sure enough 30 minutes later it was working again. Mysterious, suspicious and odd. CSM wondered about the origins of this through the rest of the day. She has a number of theories but won’t commit to writing. Then a short drive to segesta, an impressive Greek temple we’d glimpsed on the drive to the hotel the afternoon before.

A very impressive temple which we were able to get up close and personal with - walk around, walk through, even lick if the urge overtook us. Which it didn’t. It was abandoned around 2500 years ago and never completed. It was incredibly intact though. In addition to the temple, there’s an amphitheatre up up up the hill (there was a shuttle buts which we were v thankful for) equally impressive and extremely high with stunning views down the valley.

After Segesta we drove to Trapani in search of lunch and an explore. As we arrived we noticed something very obvious. It was deserted. Like end of the world deserted. Just as I started to look for zombies and make an escape plan Catherine remembered it was May 1st. A public holiday. Everything was closed. Desperate for food and the loo (obviously) we parked up and walked into what we reckoned was the most tourist friendly area in the hope that something would be open and the afternoon wasn’t a total write off. We guessed correct. An emergency bready/cheesy thing was surprisingly delicious and restored our spirits somewhat. After a quick mooch around the few streets with anything open we decided to heard south to the salt flats. After all it’s not like a beautiful view will be closed.

We randomly set the sat nav to a salt museum and drove first through industrial port type streets which opened up to pretty salt flats dotted with ancient windmills. Amazingly the museum was open and we spent a very happy hour or 2 learning more about ancient salt production than I ever thought possible. The views were indeed beautiful. By late afternoon we figured places would be opening up in trapani and headed back for an aperativo as the sun set over the bay and then a satisfying dinner of pasta, pinenuts, tomato and sardines for CT and seafood pasta with very plump looking mussels for CSM.Read more