Last Day in Sicily (último día en sicilia)

holaaa todosss!!

I have more updates to post, but need to conclude my last day in Sicily first, vale pues ahora esta! (here it is).

On Wednesday morning, I jumped out of bed bright and early at 7:30am, ready to start the day and see every last bit of Sicily I could cram in before our flight back to Valencia at 7pm.  After missing the train to Marsala by 3 minutes, we resorted to begging the personal taxi driver from our hotel if we could work out some sort of deal to get to Erice.  Luckily, this old Italian man grew to like us over the past few days and decided he would even give us a personal tour of the medieval city, as well as drive us to the airport afterwards.  Even though the extent of our communication was a blur of Italian, Spanish, and English, the universal language of a smile and being polite goes a long way.  

Erice, Sicily is 100km from where we were staying outside of Castelvetrano, Sicily.  During this 1 and a half hour ride, we were awarded with amazing scenery and miles of olive trees.  Below is a picture of us finally approaching Erice, a medieval mountaintop fortress 750m above sea level that looks out over western Sicily and the Mediterranean Sea.

 The Sicilian cart (or carretto Siciliano in Italian) is an ornate, colorful style of horse or donkey-drawn cart native to the island of Sicily.  We were lucky enough to see one slowly pass by us on the road as we made our way farther up toward the castle.

The city of Trapani is on the lower right, on the coast of Sicily (where we'd be heading in a couple of hours to catch our flight).

View through a doorway of the Norman Castle of Erice (one of 2 castles in Erice). 

Typical Italian streets- cobblestone and very narrow, with motorcycles zipping by and cars squeezing through the streets and blindly taking corners.  Proceed with caution  :)

 Erice has about 60 churches in all, including some in ruins.  Due to our limited amount of time there, we settled on the Main Cathedral of Erice, and climbed the narrow, spiral staircase up the adjacent bell tower.

There's nothing like Italian pizza, had to indulge in this on my last day in Sicily.  Also-- 1/2 a cannoli (that Jackie and I split), was a must.  The cannoli (cannolo in Italian) was invented in Sicily around the Middle Ages.  

Argiero's Italian Restaurant in Ann Arbor makes a mean cannoli, but I have to admit that this was the best I've ever had.  (no offense Mama Rosa, you still have the best eggplant parmesan!!)

The narrow winding road to Erice made me feel like I was back in Perú, clinging to the handrails of my tour bus as it sped around the sharp corners of the zig-zagged narrow road that led to Machu Picchu.  Just as I was sad to leave Perú, I didn't want to leave Sicily either, but I am so grateful to have been able to visit this beautiful island.

I just added one more item to my bucket list: return to Sicily and drive all around the island (especially visit Agrigento, which is where my ancestors are from, which also has many temples and ruins).  We'll see how long it takes me to cross that one off, but it'll definitely be worth the wait.