To Sciacca: Selinunte

April 28, 2016

GPS routeWell, here's one that got away. The Internet connection at our B&B in Sciacca was terrible, so I just uploaded the photos for the day and planned to come back later. Here I am after five days, and my mind is the typical blank slate - evidence for why I decided to start journaling in the first place. So, pretty sketchy notes:

We began our day by walking around Mazara again, seeing it in the light. We often do this - take a first look around town on the way to dinner, and then explore it further in the morning. We made it inside its impressive cathedral this morning.

We didn't find the most efficient route to Selinunte, about fifteen miles along the coast to the east. My plan had been to save a few miles by entering Selinunte from a small, unpaved road on the west side of the park - but when we got to it, it looked so poor that we lost our nerve. There's a small river to be crossed, and we decided not to chance dropping down to it and find it wasn't passable after all. Going this way though did allow us to stay near the coast between Tre Fontane and Triscina - the least attractive area we've seen in Sicily so far. It is very trashy - quite literally. Every few hundred yards you pass a refuse collection spot, with the dumpsters completely overflowing and flanked by mountains of bagged or unbagged trash. It looks like there may be a local garbage strike going on. Pretty disgusting.

Selinunte is another of Sicily's great Greek ruins. Selinunte was a local power, frequently in conflict with Segesta to the north. At its height it was a city of about 30,000 (plus their slaves, which apparently isn't counted in the census) when Hannibal sent an army of 100,000 across the sea and laid waste to it.

Mostly though, we remember today for the wonderful dinner we had at Pane e Vino, the best meal we've had in what has been a wonderful eating tour so far. We liked everything about this place - the people, the atmosphere, the wall art, the food. Wow.

Oh, well, we remember one more detail - this was the only B&B so far I wouldn't recommend. You can either approach it from above by descending about fifty steps; or from below by climbing about thirty steeper ones. The wifi was excruciatingly slow. The water was nonpotable - and when we settled our accounts, the owner tacked on the price of the bottled water we consumed. Fine otherwise though.

The central ceiling of the cathedral, Mazara del Vallo

A bit west of Sciacca the land gets a bit hillier, and olive groves are common.

West of Sciacca. I'm not sure if these are artichokes or a relative.

On the immense plaza on a balcony overlooking the sea, Sciacca. This photo shows only about a third of its length.

One of the narrow lateral alleys connecting the central and upper tiers of town, Sciacca.

One of the narrow, steep alleys that cut across Sciacca. This one features Pane e Vino, our favorite restaurant of the tour so far.

For my sister. Sorry, Elizabeth - I didn't think to take a photo of our deserts before they disappeared, but at least we captured the menu - all pages of it. Rachael had the cannoli, and I had the mousse with dark chocolate and sliced pistachio, which was fantastic. Pane e Vino gave us easily our best dining experience of the tour so far - and that's saying a lot.

Descending after dinner to Portal di Mare hotel, our stay in Sciacca. Nice place, but not recommended for cycle tourists unless you favor lugging bikes and luggage up and down long flights of stairs.

Today's ride: 51 miles (82 km)
Total: 309 miles (497 km)

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