Five Days in Castellammare del Golfo

      This is our third time visiting Castellammare del Golfo, and we like it more every time.  The first time was 13 years ago, the second time was eight years ago.  Since then the community has created a beautifully paved pedestrian area along Corso Garibaldi and via Puccini.  Our apartment, Veranda sul Porticciolo, is along via Puccini.  The apartment is spacious, bright, and fully equipped.  And it has a spectacular view over the harbor and mountains.  It has a kitchen, so we've been able to have some meals here, helping to control both our food intake and our budget.  Here is the apartment, and views from the Veranda...

          The mountain above the marina has a "belvedere" that offers a magnificent view of Castellammare and surroundings.  The arrow points to our apartment....

     We've done some day trips from here, the first one to the weekly street market in the town of Alcamo.  The market is huge, and has everything.  It's like a Walmart with better seasonal produce that comes to your town every week....

          Another day trip took us to Trapani on the far west coast of Sicily.  We had lunch at cozy Trattoria Antichi Sapori.  The name means "ancient flavors".  We had the North African inspired Couscous with fish broth, followed by a bowl of mussels in a white wine and butter broth, Delicious!

     And we had yet another day trip to the tiny tourist village of Borgo Parrini.  The village is cute, in a funky, weird sort of way.  Since it is not tourist season, we were the only tourists, and the place felt a little odd, since it is not like anyplace we've been in Italy.  It was billed as a "Little Barcelona"....ah, no.

The only place open in town was this funky cafe', where we 
had coffee and hot chocolate

 

     We found some large pottery....

     Today we drove about a half an hour in the rain to Custonaci, which is known for its marble quarries.  The marble quarried there is an off-white with pinkish veining.  According to the website, the Marble Museum there should have been open, but when we got there it was closed for renovation....sigh, the perils of traveling off-season.  But here's a photo of blocks of Custonaci marble....

      Tonight we're going to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in all of Sicily, La Buona Forchetta (The Good Fork).  It's real Sicilian home cooking and very reasonable.  Fingers crossed it lives up to our memories of it!  Buon Appetito!

      From your whetting their appetite travelers, Joe and Chris.

      Click on any photo to enlarge.