Sun Sept 30, 2024
Hi Folks! We were docked in Trapani, Sicily today. Which is part of Italy but don’t tell the Sicilians that! They think they are their own country! This is our third stop in Sicily over the last year. We’ve been to Catania and Taormina on the eastern side and now Trapani on the western side. Later this year we’ll visit Siricusa in the southeastern corner so we love Sicily!
Trapani has a population of 68,000. It was founded by the Elymians to serve as the port of the nearby city of Eryx (present-day Erice), which overlooks it from Mount Erice. The city juts out into the
Mediterranean Sea. It was originally named Drépanon from the Greek word for “sickle“, because of the curving shape of its harbour. In ancient times, Saturn was the patron god of Trapani. Today, Saturn’s statue stands in a piazza in the center of the city.
Our excursion today took us up on Mount Erice to the quaint little village of Erice. The village has lots of beautiful churches and a castle along with great views down on Trapani and out across the Mediterranean Sea.
After our tour we walked around the town of Trapani. It too has amazing architecture and massive churches. We were docked right in town so it was a short walk across the street to see all the sites.
We got back on board and had our afternoon popcorn snack then went to listen to the guest speaker. It was a topic close to my heart since he discussed the large immigration of Italians to America in the early 1900’s (several of which were my grandparents!).
In total approximately 8 million immigrated to America with the peak year being 1913. He mentioned great Italian immigrants such as Joe DiMaggio, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet and Jeff DeMaria (oops, I slipped that one in! Lol). All in all it was a great talk!
After that we got ready for dinner and went to the theater for the Captain’s Welcome Reception where we got to meet the Captain and his staff. The cruise director Ray also put on a show singing and dancing and also doing his ventriloquist act with a Ray Charles dummy while singing “It’s a Wonderful World”. He is a hoot!
After that we headed to Compass Rose for dinner. I had so many pictures from today I broke it into a couple updates. Part 1 is Erice and Part 2 is Trapani and the Captain’s Party. I’ll post something after dinner too. Happy Monday to all!
PS: A huge shout out to my newest grandson Alden who is 6 months old today! I love you buddy and can’t wait to see you soon!
The Wandering Italian 