Visit Medieval Erice, Sicily #travellikeapro

Buongiorno from the province of Trapani. Actually we're in Castellamare del Golfo. We're going to go to Erice, a medieval beautiful hilltop town full of cobblestone streets. Wait till you see the views oh and the suites. And then we're going to go to one of my favorite beaches in all of Sicily, San Vito Lo Capo. The ancient town of Erice was first inhabited by the Illyminians who came about 200 years before the Greeks, so around 900 before Christ. And they settled all over this area including building the beautiful Doric temple in Segesta. And in fact Erice followed all of the rest of Sicily's history with the Romans and then the Arabs and Normans. This domo is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. It was built in around the 1300s and besides this church this town is actually known for all its churches. Some call it the town of 100 churches. There are not quite as many but there are probably about 60 churches scattered around this beautiful medieval town. Even some smaller chapels like this. San Isidoro. You can spend all day just walking up and down these cobblestone streets, getting lost and you just stumble on these beautiful courtyards full of green. The name of this town was once Erix, then Erice. For centuries it was Gabal Hamad, then for a long time Monte San Giuliano, then Erice again. The majority of the people lived down in the valley of Erice. Very few people up here, mostly convents and monasteries. But the Arab, Norman and Spanish influences on the architecture remained the same. If you don't have a guide you can just get one of these maps and follow it along. Like these guys. They're here in vacation for a week and they're visiting Erice. And this is their first time. See even Sicilians come to Erice to visit. What a beautiful family. All right so those stairs led us to another little cobblestone street. And then they have all these maps also all over the place. This really is a great walking city and plenty of shopping. Oh this guy's always here. Fantastic. I want to do it. I'll record it. It's the Chiesa di San Giovanni right next to the beautiful valley of Erice. Look at this view. Down on the other side of that little mountain over there is San Vito Lo Capo and you can still see the walls of fortification all over here. You can imagine how many invaders came on the shores of Erice and Trapani and wanted to make their way up here. And down below is the valley of Erice. Make sure you bring comfortable shoes when coming here. Look at these cobblestone streets everywhere and they're not always very even. So you got to keep your eyes on the ground and then just stop and look in front of you. Beware also lots of hills. Lots of going down and lots of going up. These stairs are massive. When you come here to Erice you have to try the sweets. They're known for their pastarelle and all types of other dolcis made out of almond. Cevonette with the cream, ricotta, fig cookies, almond, almond, almond and more almond wine. Mandola and zucchero, almond and sugar and then all types of other sweets that we know about as well. So when you come here you have to try the almond products. It was actually the nuns that did all these beautiful sweets here. Lots of convents here. These are very typical. Again here's the Genovese. That's the fig cookie and all of these are made out of almond. Pastate reale. That's also marzipan. Dorone of course. And then here's some more handmade frutta matturana. These are handmade and hand painted marzipan. Take a look at this panorama and this video unfortunately will not do it justice. You just have to come here and see it in person. And here are the sultans down there. You can see them off Trapani. So you've got views of both sides. Just something for you to keep in mind as you're wandering around all these glorious side streets. Not a lot of coffee shops. The main restaurants and coffee shops are on the main roads. There's the town hall of Erice Palazzo Municipale from the 19th century. I gotta tell you guys I'm hearing a lot of Italians here today. It's mid-June and some tourists but lots of Italians. Monasterio de San Salvatore. Here in Erice there are lots of convents and monasteries. 1400s this was built and you can hear the chants of the priests. Remarkable. It's just everywhere you look. You look down. You look around. It's just one believable street after another. These are from Erice and Caltagirone. Oh this is beautiful. Ceramic tiles. These arches are definitely representative of the era of time. Can you see those islands over there? There's one also on the right around one o'clock. Those are the Aegean or the Aegean islands and there's five little volcanic islands right off the coast of Trapani. And here's the Porta Trapani. The great entrance to the city. You can take this road up. It's pretty windy or you can take the cable car up if it's working. Down there is Custanacci and on the other end is San Vito Lo Capo. All right next let's go to San Vito Lo Capo. And if you're here in September make sure you check out the Cuscus Festival. But really any time of the year maybe not the winter. It's a beautiful town to visit. San Vito Lo Capo in June. Part of our west coast of Sicily tour. Imagine being here with us. This water is remarkable. Beautiful. I gotta tell you I just went into this water and it is fresh and so soothing. And over here they're having a little bit of a kite festival. So lots of kites in the air. Just a great stop. And next we're gonna have some Cuscus. So come and join us. That mountain over there is San Monaco. This is definitely one of the most impressive displays of gelato here in San Vito Lo Capo. How beautiful they did it. Look at this pasticceria. Look at this beautiful car. Even has the Italian flag. I'm gonna get one of these. 56 years this car and look it's still still moving. Look at that. Look at the cucuzza. That's really good. The watermelon. Strawberries and cherries are in season. You feel like you're in the Caribbean here. This is a super cool spot. This was once a fortress and now the sanctuary of San Vito. So what you do is you come in here walk down the stairs and there's the sanctuary. There he is San Vito. This is right inside the sanctuary. Huge Arabic influence on here. Patron Saint San Vito is celebrated on June 15th and today is the 10th. So they have all the lights up there already for the celebration. June is blooming. There's actually a super bloom happening here in Sicily. These guys over here are from Enna. They have a chocolate factory and here they are selling the pistachio from Bronte. Here's the peanut. Oh dark chocolate. Almond and hazelnut. So you can come over here and taste a little. They also do my favorite chocolate covered. This is lemon or orange peel specialty. Oh no it's a lemon one. Juxtaposition between the blue and pink is just beautiful and the white of course. If you're walking fast here you can stop say a quick prayer and be on your merry way. Something you see all over Sicily. Look at the seat. I don't know if it's a house or what it is but cool. Ceramics are very different and I'm guessing they're not Sicilian though. But look at the colors. Beautiful. I'm back. Last two weeks I've been working over here in the province of Catania while Esther's been on the west coast. We're trying to prepare for 150 kids a summer camp in Aciacatena. And thanks to some volunteers that we had from Singonella Naval Station. They helped us clear a big area so we can have a soccer field for the kids. We love doing stuff like this with the Sicilian Project and I hope that you follow us on Facebook the Sicilian Project or at our website the Sicilianproject.com and check us out what we're doing. We're doing a lot of good stuff over here in Sicily. Number two Etice and San Vito. Let me just give you my quick observations about both places. Etice, and I want to caution you, is a cobblestone. It's Esther's set on the piece so you need to be extra special in your care when you're walking and especially going upstairs. If you're having ambulatory issues I would suggest take a pass on Etice. That's just my own opinion. The other thing about Etice is the churches really require a separate study. She said that there were 60 churches in Etice, all old, all old churches. But in terms of a prime example of a medieval town set up high up in the mountains, you're going to love that place. San Vito is a different story. That's more international in flavor. I would suggest not going there over Ferragusto. That's when half of Italy is there. But this time of the year, June, July, September, October, it's wonderful. And don't forget to have the couscous. She mentioned it at the couscous festival was there, but there's some outstanding couscous restaurants. You know when I go there I try to get to be real authentic. I like to go to the Tunisian ones and eat the couscous with my hands like they do in Tunisia. That's number one. And number two, the desserts. They have kind of like, I guess you can call them sing on Sundays, it's called caldo freddo, which is basically a combination of gelato of your choice and some type of a hot topping on top of it, usually chocolate. San Vito is magical. You'll love it. Etice is magical. But the most important thing is if you come with us, Esther and I, next year, we'll show you some great places besides these two. Etice, San Vito lo Capo, put these towns on your list if you're in the province of Trapani. And thank you, thank you, thank you for watching this video of you, me, and Cecily. Can't wait to see you guys on the next one. Arrivederci, ti voglio bene. Ciao.