Day 11: Sep 18 Museo del Sale, Nubia, and Marsala

Sarah spent the early part of the morning hunting for ripe oranges and dates. 

Pre breakfast snack?

Sadly apart from windfall, all trees found were not quite ready for harvest.

The date palms look colourful but the fruit was not yet edible!

An interesting morning visit to the old salt marshes and salt mills near Nubia. Museum complete with guide from the founding family.

According to the guide, Arabs invented windmills before the Dutch and brought them to Sicily

This area produced thousands of tonnes of salt for Europe each year in previous centuries. 

Now big trucks take most of it to nearby Sciacca where it is used to preserve fish. 

The entire area is now preserved as a heritage site. We learnt that the demand from Norway was once the highest due to the amount of cod preserved there.

We toured the salt evaporation ponds,(salterns or salt pans). These are shallow man made ponds designed to extract salts from the sea. 

The seawater is fed into large ponds using an archimedes screw (pump) and water evaporates naturally, allowing salt to form.

This used to be harvested by manual labour and shovels/rakes, but now we noticed a bobcat in use. 

Salt is piled up in heaps by the side of the salt pans and covered with tiles to protect it from rain (it turns grey in rain) the wind is used to dry it out. 

 Each of the salt pans turns different colours based on the concentration of the algae. 

We found some light green and pink salt pans in Nubia

Good views of Erice (on the hill) and Trapani in the distance (see Day 1 of our blog)

Next a whirlwind tour of Cantine Florio in Marsala. We loved the use  of corton steel in their sign and bench

 The terrace was shut but the shop open. 

We succumbed to bright lights and flash merchandising and purchased some Marsala (medicinal only - good for titanium hips apparently)

Marsala had its own churches and arches and paved streets, but most impressive were the big trees in a large Piazza.

Finally we leave Sicily and our Giro via a Ryan Air bucket flight with lots of relieved claps and a bugle on landing. 

Our final thoughts

On reflection September is a hot month to visit. 37C today by 10am. Avoid June, July and August unless you enjoy 40C+

We would not recommend a road bike cycling tour. The main roads do not have enough space for cycles and cars and the driving is the craziest we have seen in Italy. If you are off the beaten track you would have to contend with potholes, mud slides and all sorts of refuse strewn across your path. If you insist on a cycle tour, take a mountain bike and lots of spare inner tubes.

If you like cultural visits to old Norman churches and crumbling Doric temples, this is the place for you.

You need a guide book and a good map (or GPS) if touring. The signs are totally inadequate.

If you enjoy Italian food, you will not go wrong in Sicily. Check out the reviews on line before you choose a dinner location  (but bear in mind that some reviews will always be negative as you cannot please everyone) 
Be adventurous; try out the specialities on offer at each restaurant.

Avoid the main touristy areas. We liked Taormina best as a town but it was too full of people, tripperish shops and bars overcharging you for simple stuff. 

If you can manage driving (we covered 1350km in 10 days) it is worth visiting places not on the main tourist routes or staying there after the tour buses have left e.g. Enna, Modica.

We missed out Palermo and Cefalu (too far to drive on this trip) and Messina and Catania (too big and busy), so if anyone who reads this goes there, please let us know what we missed!

Ciao Amici

Arrivederci!