Mazara del Vallo to Sciacca via Selinunte

March 24, 2023

I’m a bit behind on the journal because we’ve been busy riding and even doing a little bit of sightseeing—plus last night I received an email from Scott saying that they were also in Mazara and that Rachael had been out walking and discovered that the Ponte Arena, a key link on the Cyclovia Sibit route that we were all planning to take out of town, was closed for repairs. Apparently it’s been closed for over a year and commuters are upset about the slow progress of the work. In any case, Scott shared the new route he’d mapped and I used it to adjust mine.

We hadn’t expected breakfast (it wasn’t listed in my booking confirmation, so we were planning an early exit with a stop at a café for breakfast. However, our host appeared around 8 with four sandwiches. Al used the mocha to make himself an espresso and ate two sandwiches; I had one and we packed the other. A morning coffee and pastry stop was added to the plan.

Entrance to La Corte di Zaccaria. The sign is thdd we little white rectangle behind the gate.

We were soon out of Mazara and the next village was Campobello, at about 15 km. We didn’t see anything “bello” about Campobello, no noticeable piazza or even appealing cafe. Google found us Commie’s though, and it was very good.

The barista at Commie’s was a ray of sunshine and happy to practice her English.

We got back on our bikes and continued eastward. Leaving Campobello, I had the opportunity to catch this Sicilian scene:

Only in Sicily have I seen intersections controlled by traffic lights with stop signs too.

When we got to the turn, we decided to make the short detour to Selinunte and it was definitely worth it. When we arrived, we leaned our bikes against a wall in the shade rather than the provided bike rack (which could have destroyed our wheels) and nobody objected. I changed my shoes this time but Al didn’t. We also bought admission plus bus tickets so we wouldn’t have to wonder whether it was worth it to walk to a further site. (As it turned out, it wasn’t, really.)

One of the best features of this particular archeological park is the explanation of how the temples were originally built. Everything standing here is a reconstruction and I have no idea how archeologists learn what they do from piles of rubble.

Selinunte, Tempio G. Can you tell the difference?

Selinunte, in the museum. We see temple ruins as bare stone, but they were painted.

The founders of the original city chose a beautiful location

We got back on our bikes to continue to our destination, Sciacca. We took Scott’s lower route along SP 49, rather than the higher route along SP 79-A that I’d planned. The routes converged before town and came in such that a challenging climb was required to get to our accommodation. No stairs, though.

Our accommodation here was the best so far in Sicily, B&B Porta Bagni. Bikes wheeled into locked garage, spacious room, hot water with good pressure, fast wifi, friendly host.

We went for a drink in the beautiful plaza we’d ridden past; Al had a beer and I tried a nonalcoholic apéritif that was really good. We walked down the steps to the waterfront near the fishing harbour looking for the famous steps. The area was rather sketchy in the early evening and I was glad I wasn’t alone. The big fresh-fish store, though, was bustling. And just up from that we found the stairs we were looking for. Sadly, there was a lot of dog poop…