Tuesday - Trapani & Erice

Trapani

Tuesday morning we headed for Trapani, we arrived as usual just before siesta time which is from 13:00 to 16:00 every day.  The shops all shut up shop and everyone heads home or wherever for a few hours, needless to say the traffic is always murderous.  Trapani is a port where you can take ferries to a few of the smaller islands, we never went to any but spent the afternoon exploring the quaint little village.  Had lunch at one of the little cafes and just walked around.  We were heading back to the car when we saw a group of brass band players getting together, so we decided to see what was going on.

From Easter Sunday right up till the Sunday of the rising from the dead, they call this holy week and each little village re enacts the days leading up to the Crucifixion, and of course the big reenactment would be on Good Friday.  We happened to land up in the middle of the "Procession of the Madonna", it was quite moving.  Everyone gathered outside the church to watch the procession, they even had the TV cameras and reporters there.  Once the procession was over we went into the church where they had again done statues to represent each phase of the Crucifixion, very beautiful indeed.

Erice

We left Trapani at about 18:00 and headed for Erice, we had stunning sunshine the whole day, but by the time we got to the top of Monte San Guiliano where Erice is situated, the clouds had moved in.  Erice is an ancient city and has preserved a lot of it's medieval character.   It got really cold while we were up there and everything was closing as well, so we did not stay long and then headed back to Capaci.