admin8570ERICE between past and present
Situated on the mountain of the same name, Erice, from the height of its 750 metres, overlooks the Gulf of Trapani and the Egadi Islands on one side and the valley of Valderice on the other.
It is difficult to trace the origins of the village, which can accommodate more than 30,000 people a year, but only 3,000 live in the village for 12 months. The origins, however, seem to go back to the first indigenous peoples who inhabited Sicily, up to the Trojan exiles.
A small but authentic village with narrow streets and alleyways that hark back to the past with courtyards that invite tourists to discover this Sicilian wonder.
ERICE between past and present
Situated on the mountain of the same name, Erice, from the height of its 750 metres, overlooks the Gulf of Trapani and the Egadi Islands on one side and the valley of Valderice on the other.
It is difficult to trace the origins of the village, which can accommodate more than 30,000 people a year, but only 3,000 live in the village for 12 months. The origins, however, seem to go back to the first indigenous peoples who inhabited Sicily, up to the Trojan exiles.
A small but authentic village with narrow streets and alleyways that hark back to the past with courtyards that invite tourists to discover this Sicilian wonder.
Walking through the alleys you can admire various cute little shops all dated where you can go shopping and take home some very nice little gifts.
WHERE TO EAT
After wandering the length and breadth of the city, you must make a stop at one of the many restaurants where you can sample the various culinary flavours of Trapanese cuisine. One place I recommend is the Monte San Giuliano Restaurant, a good 30-year-old place where you can enjoy typical Trapanese cuisine. Many other interesting places can easily be found.
- CURIOSITIES’
Many traditions belong to Erice, including handicrafts, which are divided into three essential parts from an economic and cultural point of view: sweets, carpets and ceramics. The carpets of Erice are among the few still made in the 21st century using rudimentary looms and techniques handed down through generations. Today, they are one of the most representative souvenirs that a tourist visiting Erice can take home.
Ceramics, on the other hand, acquired its value after it was rediscovered in the 20th century, in its historical tradition, after having gone through a dark period that lasted about four centuries. One must at least come here more than once to get the best taste of this small village built on rock. Giordano Bruno Guerri, historian, essayist, academic, now superintendent of the Erice Arte foundation, discovered it in his twenties during his first major trip to Italy and has returned an unspecified number of times in his life. He said he was enchanted by this ‘ancient city of sin, dedicated in the name of Venus to sacred prostitution, which Christianity then covered with churches and convents’. Here are some of the questions and answers, taken from the web of course, that I asked Giordano Bruno Guerri to better understand what he thinks of this marvellous Borgo.
Erice in three adjectives (or a joke)
‘From lighthouse of the Mediterranean to beacon of beauty’.
Erice in a picture
‘The Real Chiesa Madrice, of fascinating severity’.
The cliché to be thrown out
‘That it is difficult to get there’.
… and the one to save
“I abhor commonplaces, all the more so on an uncommon place”.
An emblem of beauty
“The “ammattonato” of all ericine streets, a stone embroidery of ancient craftsmanship, unique in the world”.
The masterpiece that is worth a trip
“The 360-degree view of a series of masterpieces of nature such as the Egadi Islands”.
The museum of the heart
‘The Antonio Cordici Museum Centre, with the Hellenistic head of Venus, the marble Annunciation by Antonello Gagini and many other wonders’.
The most overrated corner
“I don’t know of any”.
The corner to (re)discover
‘It is not a corner, but a circle: that of the cyclopean walls, to be retraced in a legendary walk’.
The refuge of the spirit
“The Balio gardens, an explosion of green under a sky that couldn’t be bluer”.
Where did he feel, most powerfully, the sense of wonder?
“At the Temple of Venus Erycina, at the summit, where for millennia sailors have climbed to pay homage to the goddess (and her beautiful vestals)”.
The unmissable ritual
‘Double coffee and cannoli at an outdoor table in one of the cafés in the town hall square’.
The address of gluttony
“One of the old pastry shops that still produce, every day, the pastries invented long time ago by cloistered nuns, easy for the sins of gluttony”.
What would change
“An army antenna, but technology will eventually make it smaller and more discreet”.
What would never change
‘History, because you can breathe it there’.
The book to read before leaving
‘Two: History of Erice by Lorenzo Zichichi and a novel by Ercole Patti or Vitaliano Brancati, indispensable for understanding Sicily’.
Erice in a film and a song
‘The city is perfect for a fantasy film with a visionary director. The song is “Lu Pisce Spada” by Domenico Modugno, which reminds me of the nearby tuna fishery of Favignana’.
Who best embodies the genius loci
‘Today Antonino Zichichi, the great scientist who in 1962 created the Ettore Majorana Foundation, attended by hundreds of Nobel prize winners, and made Erice a world capital of science and the future’.
Which character, real or imaginary, from the present or the past, would you like to have as a travelling companion
“Of course Frederick II, the ‘stupor mundi’, who rode through the streets of Erice on horseback. I would talk to him about his plans for a united Italy. If he had succeeded, eight centuries ago, we would be a different people today, perhaps more like him’.
Out-of-town sights
“The islands of Marettimo and Mozia, San Vito lo Capo, Segesta, Trapani; I am putting them in alphabetical order because I would be impossible to give a preference’.
See you soon
Francesco
