Our last morning in Trapani ! Mixed feelings of sadness to leave this beautiful seaside town but also looking forward to the next bit of our journey. We will be transferring to the capital city of Palermo for a one-night stay. 

We don’t need to catch the bus until early afternoon so we are taking our time getting ready for the day. We have to re-pack our bags, eat breakfast and gather ourselves together before our check-out time of 10:00 AM. 

Luggage in tow, we leave the apartment and head towards the port to drop our bags at the BagBNB - a newer, most wonderful business invention of locations around the world that allow you to book ahead & pay for luggage storage. It’s typically 5 euro per day, per bag. The places are small businesses (like a hotel, store or in our case today a travel agency office). They securely store our bags with super easy drop off and pick up as there are not lines like you might find in a luggage deposit in a train station. Also,  with many locations to choose from there likely is a convenient place to store your luggage. In our case it was less than 10 minutes walking from the apartment past our now familiar places ... the bakery, the fish market, the pharmacy to the street by the boats. 

After dropping our bags, we head down the street 200 meters to the tour agency where we bought our bus tickets on Monday. I had been checking our itinerary and tickets last night and discovered that the guy sold us tickets for a bus leaving on Monday morning. Ugh! We need tickets for this afternoon, Thursday. So we go to buy tickets for today. The tour agency is across from the bus stop so we check that out while there too. 

Correct bus tickets in hand, we head out to explore a little bit more of Trapani as our bus leaves at 13:00 and it’s only about 10:30 in the morning. We head to the end of the peninsula to see that end of Trapani. There is a little museum in a tower at the very tip jutting out into the sea. So it’s super hot and a long walk. We do find beautiful views of the sea and Trapani. At the tower, we find that the museum is closed for “works”. Ugh. There is a little walkway around the tower over the sea that we brave for a little adventure before heading back to catch the bus. 

A little shopping along the way and we find towels at the street vendors!! Of course.... Where we they on Monday when we were boarding a boat ?? We have a bit more time before we head to pick up our bags and get to bus stop so we head to a cafe for some granite ... a refreshing icy goodness. Lemon for me. Pistachio for Sue. And a big giant bottle of water. 

At the bus stop, we have to wait a little bit longer but the bus comes on time and is pretty comfortable. It’s also air-conditioned so we sit back and relax for our almost 2 hour ride to Palermo. We travel through the town of Trapani picking up people along the way and then off to the motorway. From Trapani we take the same route as we drove yesterday to visit Segesta. But then we keep going.... the countryside and seaside views are stunning. The motorway travels alongside the coast. The mountains here are huge bumps of rocky-looking land that seem to just stick up and jut out towards the sea in random clumps. This western coast of Sicily is beautiful land. 

In Palermo, we are getting off at the Politeama bus stop which is the closest to our B & B Guelio al Massimo Suites & Breakfast. We call to let them know we have arrived, a little earlier than the 16:00 check-in time. No problem. We have a 11 minute “google time” walk but it takes us a little longer as we have to navigate an unknown city and mostly because there is construction that requires some re-routing. With some patience, we make our way to our apartment and find the big doors @ 22z with the B & B listed on the buzzers. 

There is a lift! These are welcome words in this heat and having done the bag drag .... up in a little old-school lift to the 6th floor. Looking down the stairwell, we so LOVE this lift ! 

A very kind lady (did not catch her name) greets us, checks us in and shows us around the B & B. She speaks very little English but we manage. The B & B is super cute with multiple balconies and stunning views of the city rooftops and the mountains that seem to surround the city.  

So it’s time for a day shower ... one of the best methods to refresh and beat the heat & exhaustion of a travel day. After a bit of rest, we head out for some exploration and dinner. 

Our B & B is situated a block away from the Teatro Massimo (which we looked at sort of while walking by during the earlier bag drag). We are also a block away from one of the main streets, via Maqueda. This pedestrianized street is bustling with people walking and riding bikes. There are shops & restaurants lining the street, even a side street bar. We make our way down the street to find the Quattro Canti - which is an intersection with elaborately decorated corners. The effect is stunning but difficult to capture in a photo as you cannot get all 4 sides in one shot. There is a wedding shoot going on in the intersection with the bride and groom in a tuk tuk. Around the corner from the Quattro Canti is the Fontana Pretoria, another elaborate sight to see. It’s beautiful. Across the street is a church where we find a stunning interior but a mass going on so we don’t do a proper visit or take photos. 

By now our stomachs are requesting some attention. It’s dinner time. We walk down the Corso Vittorio Emanuele to reach the Pizza Ferrari where we find that it is open and looks to have delicious pizza. It’s a small place that has tables and also take-away. We sit and enjoy a glass of wine while they are baking our pizza. It about a hot minute, our pizza arrives at the table. In the Italian way, they slice the pizza in half for us to each have a plate of our own as we are sharing this pie. Sue choose a pizza with tomato, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and eggplant. After dinner, we poke around some shops & stop in a cafe for dessert... some chocolate hazelnut pistachio cake roll for Sue and an aperol spritz aperitivo for me. A bit backwards but who cares? Delicious ending to a busy day!