Day Ninety one - April 6

We are today in Trapani which is on the west coast of Sicily and is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Its population is near 68,000 inhabitants and is considered an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi islands.

We arrived at 08:00 with all aboard at 18:30 with departure at 19:00. Our ship is docked directly on the main street of Trapani.

If you were to look at a map of Trapani you will notice it is on a peninsula with water on three sides of the city.

When you sail into Trapani you see the salt flats. Here water from the Mediterranean is pumped into the flats and through the hot summer and strong winds the water evaporates leaving large chunks of salt crystals. Manual labour is still used to break up the crystals to form salt for export within the region and other parts of Italy. This tradition has been is existence for many years. Janice bought some lemon and also origano flavoured salt.

Our ship tour was "Marsala Wines & Mothia". We boarded a bus for Marsala and then a boat to the island of Mothia for a tour of an ancient Phoenician city. Here we found archaeological findings dating back to the 5th century BC. Our tour guide indicated that archaeological students still return to the island each summer to continue with their digs.

A quick tour of the water front in Marsala and then it was off for the wine tasting portion of the tour. Janice did not really like any of the wines samples enough to buy some whch was only 7 euros a bottle.

We returned to the ship by 14:30 and rested an hour before venturing outside in search of an Italian style pizza which was delicious as the ingredients were so fresh - tomatoes, mozza cheese, ham and basil.

As I write this blog, it is 21:00 and we are just leaving port. Our next port is Valetta, Malta 171 nautical miles away. Can't wait, especially Janice who has always wanted to visit that port.