Saturday, August 12

In the morning, we had trouble waking up, but after showering were a bit more energized. We had breakfast at the hotel (for a person who doesn't usually like breakfast, I was impressed by the selection). I had a salami and cheese sandwich, some yogurt, a cappuccino, some fruit and a small green sweet dessert. Mike had this enclosed pastry that tasted like a cannoli! Ciro picked us up and drove us to Selinunte, where we were able to explore some ruins. We were actually able to walk in the ruins here! There was a temple and an acropolis that we visited. Lots of pillars. There was a nice view of the beach. We then split a prosciutto, mozzarella and tomato sandwich. We drove to Trapani and saw the salt museum and saw how salt gets harvested. Who knew sea salt was so interesting? Didyou know that the word salary has a latin root in the word sal (which means salt) because Roman soldiers were actually paid in salt? Now you know that, and so do we. Thanks salt museum. We then drove to the port and realized that the ship that our archaeologist friend is on was in the port. We tried to see him, but it was too last minute. We ate a late lunch at Trattoria Poseidone in Trapani. I was a little scared to eat mussels but they were so fresh and delicious, I'm glad I tried them. I got pasta with pesto and shrimp, and Mike got couscous with a seafood broth. There was a cat crying outside, and the waiter had to keep shooing him away. Then, we walked around the town a bit and saw two weddings happening a block from each other! We drove to Erice, a lot of switchbacks and beautiful views of the ocean and of Sicily. We drove past an area that was effected by a forest fire, and the grass and plants were all black! I wish I caught a picture. We saw a castle in Erice and sampled some pastries in a shop. The roads we walked on were stone and 500+ years old! I bought a fanny pack that said "Erice" and had two Dalmatians on it. We looked at church and walked some more. Then we drove to Dattilo, and got some amazing and enormous Cannolis! According to many people, these are the best cannoli in all of Sicily, and as a Sicilian desert, that is a real feat! The cafe we went to is also the only cafe in this tiny town. After this we drove to Palermo. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and walked to The Rocket Bar, a punk bar. It was closed for holiday! No problem, we walked to another bar we had heard of. This one was also closed for holiday. We tried a third one to find it permanently closed. We went back to a bar we had seen open earlier and I got a Hugo (with vodka in it for some reason). We went back to the b&b and went to bed.