Sicily: Ruins and Seafood, Novembre

        Sicily has been high on the list for years.  My friend Steve and his wife go there almost every summer.  They visit with family and go exploring all over the island.   Their family lives in Trapani, just west of Palermo, on the northwest coast.  A visitor can expect to find various historic sites near the coast in many places along the Mediterranean shores.  Some are easy to get to, some, not so easy.  But the Italian government, in partners with the Region of Sicily, has made an effort to improve access to these ancient sites, and to make them attractive on the landscape.

                                                           Amphiteatro Segesta

                The site at Segesta includes a fine example of a amphiteatro,  built by the Elymians in 430 B.C.  The site is in the hills, well back of the coast, about 10 miles.  This removed location did not save the city which was razed and most of its inhabitants slaughtered by Greeks from Selinunte across the island on the south coast.   Visitors can only marvel at the location of these ruins: perched on a hilltop(s) on the edge of a precipitous gorge.  An unfinished Doric temple is literally on the edge.  Maybe the engineer had second thoughts when he looked into the gorge.   Winds buffeted the hilltop as we strolled among ancient stones, resting in their enforced silence after more than two millenia.