I was absolutely entranced by Segesta – a town inland from Trapani from Roman times but not actually Roman! The story goes that the locals began to build the Roman temple (420 BC) that you can see in the photos but it was never finished, mostly because as long as it wasn’t finished the town could continue to get funds from Rome to complete it. The Roman version of your extension project ‘sorry we just need a few more parts and tools – I’ll just pop to Jewsons, be back in an hour, can I have a £500 advance for payments I need to make’ and then you don’t see the builder for 3 weeks!

A hour hike up the hill from the temple, the remains of the town can be seen including an incredibly well preserved amphitheatre which used to seat 3000 people. I also really loved the colourful display of the wild flowers on the way up – kept me going and minimised the ‘oh god I’m knackered’ comments!

I could write a love letter to Segesta and the surrounding area, I know these photos only give a glimpse of its magnificence and it just confirmed for me how awesome Sicily is.

I was concerned that the next stop would be a disappointment but Castellammare del Golfo, although very different was equally as enchanting!

Spot Mossy Joe!

We had a great day and evening here, it seems to be the ‘hip’ place for youngsters and tourists at the weekend due to the wide range of bars and restaurants both along the harbour and in the charming labyrinth of back streets.

We went to a nice looking but informal restaurant, fairly early with many families and couples eating. We ordered our food and lucky Jacques ended up with double pizza as the waiter delivering 5 pizzas on a tray to our neighbouring table managed to tilt just enough for a ‘Pizza quattro stagioni ‘ to land on his lap!!

The staff were half apologetic, half mortified but we did get a free beer and glass of wine.

This is Jacques’ actual pizza delivered on a plate on the table!

En route now to our final destination (at least for this tour) next port would be Palermo the capital of Sicily. Here’s a preview of its splendour…

And whilst I look very relaxed in this photos, next time I’ll describe the experience of mooring up in Palermo the previous day in 20 knots of side wind into a relatively small space between a rowing club on one side and a Pirate ship on the other!!

Amore dalla Sicily xxx