After breakfast Luca said "Andiamo" (let's go) and we headed to Marsala to see the famous salt pans.  It was not quite an hour's drive but the scenery was entertaining as it usually is.  I always love seeing the countryside.  You never know what is going to be around the next corner.  I saw some beautiful old buildings just out in the middle of nowhere.  They were empty but you could tell that at one time, they had been quite upscale.  They were still lovely albeit covered with vegetation.

Have I mentioned the prickly pear we've seen all over Sicily and Puglia?  It has amazed me.  I never realized there was so much of the stuff in Italy.  It is literally everywhere.  They dry out the broad leaves and use the skeleton for jewelry like Antonio's wife.  They even use it in artwork.  Usually at breakfast you can get the cactus apple with the rest of the fruits.  I tried it once but it had too many little, hard seeds in it for me.  It was too much work for too little reward.

Prickly pear is everywhere in Sicily.

We also saw capers growing on old walls.  They look absolutely huge.  Lizards like using the caper plants as a toilet.  Seeds stick to them and the lizards spread the seeds.  That's why you find so many caper plants in interesting places.

Schools in Sicily run Mondays through Saturdays.  They usually start at 8 AM but with COVID they have been having to do split schedules.  The students don't have lunch at school.  They have a long break so that they can go home and eat there.  They have two hours a week dedicated to physical education; however, they have no shower facilities for the students.  I'm sure that gets a bit stinky.

Luca taught us a saying he learned from his grandmother and mother.  If he was doing something he shouldn't be doing they would tell him "Go break your arms."  Harsh!  But what they meant is that you can do whatever you want but just remember, you are responsible for the consequences.

As we drove Luca also gave us some background on the Trapani region where we were heading.  This region is very poor with little industry.  The main way of making a living is through agriculture.  The young are moving away because they don't want to be farmers.

Under the Spanish Marsala was a powerful city.  It was important to a segment of the U.S. population during Prohibition.  There was a powerful family who made Marsala wine and exported it to the U.S. as a "medicine."  They made a bundle off of the Americans.  In the 1800s Giarabaldi came through the region and chased the Bourbons out.  He was very popular with the people.  He and Victor Emmanuel II  were the two men who unified all of the city states of Italy into one country.

Sicily has managed to survive through all of the invasions because the people know that in order to survive, you must adapt.  They have become masters of the art.  They have had to adapt a multitude of times. 

Now Marsala is wine country.  In fact that is where Marsala wine comes from.  I do love Marsala chicken.  I don't know if anybody ever just drinks the wine or if it is just for cooking.  I need to ask Luca about that.  I've never seen anybody drinking it.

From wine to salt, this region has variety but it was the salt we were here for today.  The salts pans are located in the Stagnone Reserve.  Stagnone is the name of the lagoon on which the pans are located.  The lagoon itself is quite shallow at 20- 50 cm. and is a nature reserve.  The salt pan area was divided into large squares of shallow tanks.  Dutch windmills dotted the tanks holding the salty water.  Against a vivid blue backdrop, it was beautiful.  

The salt pans at Marsala

We had a chance to wander through the museum tucked into an actual windmill.  Inside we saw the huge grindstones and could read about the process of producing salt from sea water.  Luca told us that the manual process is actually a material UNESCO Heritage.

Our young guide was a wonderful source of information on the subject of salt production. This locations is great for producing salt because the wind and the sun are perfect for it.  She informed us that there are two ways to produce salt—manually and mechanically.  Manually is, of course, more labor intensive.  However, done that way the flavor of the salt is much more intense.  If the salt is harvested mechanically it has to be washed which reduces the intensity of the flavor.  They use both methods.  Out to one side we could see machinery moving salt.  They had just finished harvesting at the end of August and there were mounds of the white "gold" piled up around the pans.  

They had had a rough year this year because of rain.  Normally they harvest at the end of July but it had rained so much they had to wait until the end of August.  We had all seen the forecast for rain today so we asked what they do to protect the salt from the weather.  She explained that if it just rains a little the salt mounds are just fine the way they are.  However, if there is going to be a big rain, they place a roof made of individual tiles over the salt.  It takes a full day to do this and there is only one man who is an expert in tile placement to make sure the water runs off of the roof and doesn't drain into the salt.  We should have asked why they just didn't use a plastic tarp but we didn't.  

The process of producing salt is at once simple and yet complex.  There is one man who is the master and keeps a close eye on each tank, maintaining the proper salinity.  He alone works from April until harvest, checking the tanks daily.  At harvest time 15 men are hired.  The youngest is in his 50s which is problematic.  There are no young people to take over when these men become too old.  

From what I gather about the process itself is that it proceeds in very specific steps.  First sea water is let into the first shallow tanks which are the "cold" tanks.  All of the tanks are lined with a mixture of sand, gravel and mud to make a hard surface.  She told us what it was called but I can't even begin to spell it.  This sea water can contain seaweed, shrimp, shrimp eggs, algae.  It is just straight for the sea at normal salinity.  

Once it reaches the proper salinity levels, it is pumped into the second tank.  Since it is saltier, there are fewer living organisms in it.  However the tiny shrimp full of beta carotene  are still alive and laying eggs.  This is a favorite feeding ground for the pink flamingos as they migrate to Africa.  It is the beta carotene in the shrimp that gives these birds their pink color.  They turn white if they don't get it.

The color difference between the tanks is amazing.

Once again as the water reaches the proper salinity, it is pumped into another tank.  Here only the eggs can survive.  In the last tank the salinity is so high that nothing survives.  Walking along the narrow pathway between the tanks, you could really see the change in water color.    It went from a dark orangish pink to clear.  In the last tank you could see salt crystals forming on the bottom of the tank.  The men use a special tool to rake the salt from the bottom of the tank and begin making mounds with it.

To pump water into the tanks they use Dutch windmills.  They have an American windmill but it broke and they have never repaired it.  They use an Archimedes screw to pump the seawater into the first "cold" tank.  I remember seeing a huge Archimedes screw in Holland.  That was the first place I had ever heard of them.

After the salt is harvested for the season, one man goes through and cleans all of the tanks and prepares them for the next season.  The process is very labor intensive.  Men working with the salt have to wear special glasses to protect their eyes from the glare of the sun on the salt and from getting salt in their eyes.  I wouldn't want to be the one doing the work but I did find it all very interesting.

Back at the museum, those who wanted to made purchases which we left there.  None of us wanted to haul them to the island of Mozia where we were going next.  The shop was very nice to hold our stuff for us.  We just had to remember to stop back by there and fetch it all.

The island of Mozia is one of six located in the Stagnone Lagoon.  For a long time experts in archeology believed that there was nothing of value to be found on the island.  However, one gentleman by the name of Joseph Whitaker believed otherwise.  He believed important archeological artifacts were there.  In order to excavate the island, he had to buy it.  That was not an easy task as some of the landholders had been there for a long time.  He prevailed though and began excavations in 1906.  What he found was a treasure trove of Phoenician settlement .  He found concrete proof that they had settled the island and lived there.  Ultimately he even found an escape road that they used when the invaders came.  Currently that road is until 20 cm of water.  You can catch glimpses of the stone road as you motor over it in a boat.

The boat ride to Mozia was interesting.  The water was so shallow that you could see the bottom.  We really didn't see any fish and I only saw one bird.  There hasn't been a great deal of wildlife on this trip which is a bit surprising.  I thought we would at least see more birds.  On the positive side, we didn't see any mosquitoes while on the island either.  That I was grateful for!

The island had several different archeological sites where they have found the ruins of buildings.  Before we sought them out, we went through the museum.  I was surprised at the number of artifacts inside.  There were oil lamps, jewelry, jugs, masks, carvings...Whitaker really had discovered quite a bit.  Of course he is long dead.  The Whitaker Foundation now runs everything including the museum.  As nice as all of those items were, they were vastly overshadowed by a statue that was discovered called the Young Charioteer.  It was an amazing work of art.  The detail and the finesse it was created with left me speechless.  You could see each fold of the cloth and the muscles in the young man beneath his robes.  I was flabbergasted.  It was well worth it to come to this island just to see this statue.  Trust me, it blew the Dancing Satyr out of the water.

The Young Charioteer

The Young Charioteer was discovered in 1979.  They believe it dates back to the 5th century B.C.E.  It has been displayed all over the world.  They especially liked to display him in exhibitions held for the Olympics as he symbolizes athleticism and perfection.  I can understand why.

Finally we tore ourselves away and finished up the remainder of the museum.  It all paled in comparison after our Charioteer :-). However, the carved stones were interesting.  One carved head looked like an alien.  A few of them were distinctly Egyptian in appearance.  Of course the Phoenicians had conquered places all over the Mediterranean so I guess it shouldn't be any surprise that their carvings were multicultural.

Once we finished in the museum, we wandered into the back for a little picnic lunch.  It was the fanciest picnic I have ever been to. We actually had tables to sit at which was nice.  The food was good with "dressed up" bread (it had cheese and tomatoes as well as olive oil on it), the peppers Doug likes to much, eggplant which we seem to have at every meal except breakfast, bread with olive oil, cheese, and of course, wine.  It was a nice light lunch.

Everybody who wanted to, walked around a piece of the island with Luca after lunch.  It gave us a chance to stretch our legs as well as see some of the archeological digs.  We passed by the area believed to the the acropolis on the island.  All that was left was a stack of boulders.  It took a really good imagination to tell that it was an archeological site at all.  The second site was a shrine that was dedicated to a female deity.  It wasn't any easier to see than the first spot.  All in all, there were half a dozen archeological zones on the island.  Some were mere suggestions of ancient habitation.  Others were more defined with stone blocks creating the beginnings of walls.  Some of the buildings look to have been really large.   We wandered around the sites for probably 45 minutes before heading back to the museum.  It was a nice stretch of the legs after eating but there really hadn't been a great deal to see at the ruins themselves.

Phoenician ruins on Mozia Island

Back on the mainland of Sicily after a quick boat ride back, we loaded up the bus and Antonio drove us back to Mazara del Vallo.    It had been a full day but we had a chance for one more outing if we wanted.  OAT had been in touch with an association about being added to the tour.  We were sort of a trial run.  The organization—San Vito Onlus— sponsors a group of Tunisian women who get together to support each other and teach each other.   Their husbands are all fishermen who are gone months at a time.  They don't live out in the casbah so this group gives them an opportunity to have moral support and a chance to learn new things.  During COVID they actually streamed cooking lessons.  They've done sewing, put on performances.  Mostly they have been there for each other.

These women were a feisty bunch who weren't bashful about answering our questions.  It was really nice to have a chance to get to know some of the people in the Tunisian community and see what their lives were like.  All of them had been born in Tunisia but all of their children were born here.  One of the older ladies had been in Sicily since the 1980s.  She was the only one to get Italian citizenship because the process is so long and difficult.  She has only had her citizenship for three years.  None of them wanted to go back to Tunisia and they all considered themselves Italians.  Their children definitely do.  The dichotomy of their lives is that here they are considered Tunisian and when they go home to visit, they are considered to be Italian.  

They had made mint tea for us as well as some desserts.  My favorite was a type of baclava which was fabulous.  I could have eaten the entire dish of it.  The mint tea was very good as well.  The ladies were pleased with our praise of their culinary skills.

When it appeared that our conversation was beginning to run out, Luca hustled us out.  There was no awkward silence while we were waiting for somebody to say something.  The visit was a success so it will be interesting to see in the future if it gets added to the itinerary.

Back at the hotel the skies were darkening and looking like rain.  It had threatened all day long but it had held off.  It kept holding off while we walked down the street to dinner.  It didn't rain until later in the night and then it stormed!  I was still awake but everybody who was asleep was woken by the thunder and lightening.  I'd much rather it rain during the night than while we are trying to see something.

Tomorrow my fingers are crossed that the bad weather holds off just a bit longer.  We are spending a good portion of the morning wandering through the Valley of Temples.  Right now the forecast calls for rain.  We see tomorrow if we can dodge a bullet yet again tomorrow.