Castellamare - Scopello and Erice

We drove back to Castellammare del Golfo this morning to do a boat trip up the coast. We particularly wanted to see Scopello, and the Zingaro Reserve, which is the first protected reserve in Sicily, and one of the first in Europe.

Our boat was a small Catamaran - very comfortable, and there were only three other small groups of tourists on it -theee girls from Germany, two couples travelling together from New York, and another couple who kept to themselves - probably didn't speak much English.

Leaving Castellmmare del Golfo harbour...

Just out of the harbour was some really nice rock formations...

Anne and I spent a lot of time on the net of the Catamaran!

The boat went into a couple of caves. The water was beautiful.

Scopello - Arab tower, Normal Tower, Spanish Tower...

We fed the fish...

We stopped here and jumped off the boat for a swim. Our skipper came too and showed Anne and I a cave which we swam under a rock and came up into a grotto with a beach. It was amazing!

Anne swimming with the fish. I threw in a piece of food and accidently landed by Anne's neck. They were jumping all around her!

 Back to Scopello for another swim off the boat.

Sadly coming back into Castellammare and the end of our trip. I didn't want to get off the boat, could have had another day on it!

After the boat trip we drove up to Erice, a town on top of Mount Erice. There are two castles one dating back to the 10th century.

A small arab house at the bottom of the castle built in the 1900s. I popped my head in. High above were the castles. Very pleased was able to walk all uphill from the arab house to the castles without breaking stride, although I felt it in m backside!! 

The castle area gave us expansive views!

This one is the view over Trapani and the islands where we are heading tomorrow.

Sicilian Landsape!

We walked through the town - both Anne and I were hungry. We were looking for a particular type of pasta, but none had it. The town itself was pretty - I loved the cobblestones.

After no luck with pasta, we found a crowd outside a pastry shop, and found that Erice is famous for these, so we headed inside and Anne got a sampler for us to share..

We found the cathedral and it's tower. I popped inside - as I get in free. It actually was very beautiful, all carved. I too a panaroma with my phone to show Anne.

Back into the streets - the sun was started to set...

Another great day. Sicily is really beautiful.