The resident seagulls are at it again early this morning, squaking and waking the world. Hazard of staying so close to the sea. But there is coffee so on the stove goes the Moka. Today for me breakfast is in shifts since I have a jam croissant with my coffee. Later after we are dressed and ready for the day, we head out to the pharmacy, which is closed for another 10 minutes. So breakfast-seeking begins. As the Italian breakfast really is a sweet roll of some sort (usually a cornetto that is like a sweet croissant), we head to the grocery for Sue to get some eggs and bread for toast. We gather up some groceries for the apartment and head back to the apartment to drop it off. On the way, we find the pharmacy open. The man helps us find the Doppia Sole (after sun) spray to help with all of our souvenirs from the sun. We both have some pretty red, burning patches here and there where we failed to apply the sunblock well or often enough. 

Now we are all set to depart for our day in the town of Erice which sets up high on a mountain overlooking the city of Trapani and the surrounds. Getting to the top of the mountain involves a little walk, a bus ride and a cable car up to the top. We easily find the bus stop and wait only a small time for the bus #23 to arrive. On the bus, we meet our first friendly Sicilian of the day. A bus attendant guy comes over during the bus ride to check our destination. We confirm the cable car. When we arrive at the stop, the guy checks on us to make sure we know that this is our stop. We give the thumbs-up and he indicates that at the corner right at the bus stop we turn right to walk to the cable car. 

One block away is the cable car station. It looks like a little space ship. We buy some water bottles before exchanging our Trapani Welcome Card voucher for the return ticket up and down the mountain on this cable car. The Welcome Card also included our bus rides. There are only a few people at the cable car so we don’t have to wait for long before we are hopping on the cable car as it glides by the boarding platform. Up we go ! 

The ride up to Erice on the cable car takes about 10 minutes. The views over Trapani and the sea beyond are breath-taking. Since of the heat, there is a little haze in the distance. We can see the salt pans which lay adjacent to Trapani where in the town of Nubia they produce salt for people to use. We decide to skip our planned visit to the salt pans in the afternoon since it seems much to hot to wander where there is no shade. On the cable car, the ride is smooth but Sue being afraid of heights is pretty terrified but she made it up in the cable car to the top of the mountain!

From the cable car station at the top, it’s a small walk through a parking lot to the city gates of Erice. We stopped at the ticket hut to purchase a ticket for the Norman castle on the edge of town. Our plan is to visit the castle and return through the small streets of Erice. We walk up hill to the castle along the edge of the town to enjoy the stunning views across the valley. Wow! Both the views and the steep walk to the castle are getting our attention. I am in a constant shade-seeking mode on our jouney. 

At the castle, we go on inside and back out into a courtyard where we take a rest in the shade. It truly is at least 20 degrees cooler in the shade. After a rest and some of that water, we wander around the castle ruins. There are a few information boards here & there. The views all around the castle are incredible. To one side is the valley and across to rolling hills of what looks like farmland. The other side is overlooking the sea with other mountains jutting into the coast. 

The castle is small so our visit is not overly long. Wandering away from the castle we find a beautiful garden area with benches in that blessed shade. A perfect spot for a bit of rest & relaxation. Now for our wander through town.... we find the cutest streets with shops to poke around in. At the post office, the lady tells us to go to the shop for stamps. At the shops, we are told to go to the post office. Oh well, we will purchase stamps at a later time. We do find some beautiful shops and small things to buy. We also get a tasting of a local speciality sauce for the local type of pasta. Yum!

In the center of town, we find a stunning piazza where we find a nice little cafe with outdoor seating in the shade for our lunch. We both choose a tomato and cheese panino. An aperol spritz cannot be passed up for me. A perfect refreshing drink on this hot, hot day. 

After our lunch, we wander back to the pastry shop to buy a couple little treats for later, a teeny tiny cassata cake and a little ball of goodness in pistachio flavor. On the way through the gate we stop at an arancini shop where they have all manner of flavors of arancini. They make these rice balls up to order. I choose the 4 cheese flavor. Sue wanted a sweet one but they were sold-out for the day so she skips getting one. I get mine for take-away to enjoy later in the day. 

The cable cars are waiting to take us down the mountainside so we can catch the bus back to Trapani. The ride down is another opportunity to enjoy the beautiful views (or in Sue’s case, just look away and wait the 10 minutes until we are back on solid ground). At the bus stop, we wait in a little sliver of shade for less than 10 minutes for our bus #23 to arrive. On the bus, we say hello to our same bus driver and friendly attendant ticket guy. We drive back through Trapani to the city centre where we hop off the bus at the port where we met the boat yesterday. So we know the way to walk back to the apartment. 

Time for a little rest and mezzogiorno which included a nice nap for Sue. We have to pick up our rental car in about 90 minutes or so which gives us some time to relax. Sue is snoozing while I am finding out that our rental car location - I got an email confirmation that had a different address location for pick up. I ended up calling the carrentals.com customer service and talked to a guy who helped me confirm where we need to go to pick up our car. It’s the new address which is too far to walk. A taxi is in our future. 

In search of a taxi, we head to the train station where there is said to be a taxi stand (says google). At the train station, we eventually find the little taxi pole (thanks Sue!) but no orange TAXI sign that is typical to point out the taxi stand. Being as there are no trains or people at the station at this time, there are no taxis waiting. Bummer. Big bummer. So I am calling the number on the taxi pole but a white minivan pulls up and this man says he is a taxi and gives us a taxi company card. We ask how much to the address for the Hertz rental office and he says 10 euro. Sold. We hop in and off we go on the less than 10 minute drive to Hertz. At the office, we pick up the car without any problems and are given a cute FIAT Panda to have for the next 24 hours. Our car is black with red/black interior trim. I am going to like driving this cutie. 

Off we go via google maps navigation with Sue as an assistant map reader to reach the town of Valderice. This town is at the base of the mountain town Erice where we visited earlier. It takes less than 30 minutes to reach the town. The town is kinda on a mountain-side so many of the side streets are very steep. We are programmed in to the google maps to reach the pizzeria where we are panning to eat dinner. This place is owned by 2 brothers with the last name of Oddo. 

So here is the story behind why we end up in Valderice which is a regular town of everyday Italy. Sue’s family on her Dad’s side is from the Province of Trapani. There are clues to suggest that Valderice or it’s immediate surrounds are likely candidates for the family home town. Sue has pictures from a family member who made a trip to this area in the mid-1980s with a family house, albeit in a sad state of apparent disrepair. In the background is a mountain in the distance so we figure that it is at the lower lands with a mountain in the distance. This town of Valderice also has the highest concentration of families with the last name of Oddo in all of Sicily. The area seems similar to that in the picture. So off we are driving around looking for this house, which may or may not be still standing or perhaps has been refurbished. Sue’s great-grandmother immigrated to the United States before WWII but we still find some people to show the picture and ask “hai visto questo casa”? There are some folks that show genuine interest. All are very kind and friendly. We met one most friendly man in a Tabac (corner store). After wandering around on foot and by car, the pizzeria finally opens! We are pretty hungry by now. We order some mystery potato starter and a pizza to share. The starter is a huge bowl of delicious french fries with some potato croucettes (friend mashed potatoes) and a chickpea speciality. The pizza is also quite large and we each take away our leftovers. At the end of our meal we share the picture of the old family home. All the people in the restaurant were interested but did not recognize the actual house. 

Language is a big barriere in the small town as most folks had little English. We having little Italian could not compensate. But we still managed to communicate and share some smiles and good will. 

On the way home, we kept an eye out for the house, stopping once to check out a candidate. No luck but a fun evening trying to find Sue’s roots. Exploring the town gave a different perspective on what could possibly be the area where Sue’s nonna was raised and lived until she was a young woman moving to America. 

We drove back to Trapani and parked about 10 min walk from our apartment. We walked along the seaside and reached our home without delay. 

Another wonderful day in Sicily !