Friday, September 28, 2007
Erice
I really liked Trapani, where few tourists go, but I didn’t love Erice, as most tourists do. It is the tiny and ancient town at the top of the mountain that overlooks Trapani. I’d like to say that the best thing about Erice (pronounced Eh-ree-chay) is the view that it offers of Trapani, but I know that is tourist heresy. Still, from the top of that mountain you get the full scope of the city’s crescent shape, surrounded by the spectacularly blue sea. The view makes it clear why the ancient Greeks thought Trapni was Demeter’s lost scythe (see Maven’s Diary item of September 19).
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007
History, Trapani, and Couscous
Trapani is not only a city, but an entire province on the westernmost side of Sicily, one of nine on the island. The province also includes the smaller city of Marsala, which has a pretty and well-preserved, mainly Baroque-style historic center. It has a thriving sea-salt industry (as does the city of Trapani itself), and it is where the fortified wine by the same name is made, as in Veal Marsala, which, by the way, you can get prepared better in New York than you can in Marsala.
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Wednesday, September 19, 2007
From Trapani, Sicily
We took a very comfortable and cheap (less than $12) bus from Palermo to Trapani, which is only an hour-and-twenty-minute ride from the Teatro Politeama, a major landmark in the heart of Sicily’s largest city, with the first twenty minutes merely stopping in Palermo for additional passenger pick ups.
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Friday, September 14, 2007
Happy New Year from Palermo
A happy, healthy, prosperous, and peaceful New Year to all my Jewish friends. L'Shanah Tova. I hope you got my email elaborating on this Rosh Hashanah wish. If you didn't, please sign up for the next "newsletter" email in the box above.
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Sunday, September 2, 2007
Italian Vacation Time, Belgian Waffles
I have been back in Paestum for two weeks now, but haven’t caught you up on what’s happened since I left Calabria. One reason is that absolutely nothing happens in Italy the last two weeks in August. Everyone is on vacation at the beach or in the countryside. Most restaurants are closed. Most cities are empty. Iris reports from Rome that it is very quiet there. I can report from Naples, as I have in my last newsletter (please sign in the box above, if you haven’t already) that it was empty the third week in August. I ate in the same two restaurants five times, which wasn’t such a bad thing actually. I was able to stick to my diet. I didn’t feel the need to taste around new menus. I kept to vegetables, and salads, and plain grilled fish and chicken. On the other hand, I wasn’t able to expand my knowledge of restaurants in Bella Napoli.
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