June 2
The Isole di Egadi are 5 mountainous islands just off the coast of Sicily. They are more of a spot for Sicilians rather than a tourist destination. In fact, I think we were one of only a handful of tourists on the trip.
We met two very nice couples who were on a day trip from Palermo. In fact, many of the people on the ferry were came with this group. Neither of these couples spoke a word of English but between Peter’s fairly good conversational Italian, my decent tourist Italian, sign language and Google translator for the hard words, we did fine. In fact, they complimented us on our Italian. They were very nice, and we kept running into them as we toured the islands.
Our first stop was Favignana. We walked around the tourist part of town a little, stopping for a mid-morning pastry snack. Here are a couple of pictures and videos from that stop. Peter really wanted to swim in the Med so we brought suits and towels. I had no intention of getting wet but he’s a game day player, so he gave it a shot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0CLdsiEsYg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OZ7Tv0BiNw
We spent about 2 hours on Favignana then got back on the ferry heading for our lunch spot. While the weather on the islands was beautiful, very sunny and warm, the ferry ride was cold on the upper deck. We were a little chilly on the first leg of the trip, but for this one we were freezing. We were also getting sprayed with water from the ferry so that didn’t help. Once we stopped for lunch, we warmed up a bit as it wasn’t as windy, and we weren’t getting wet.
Lunch was delicious, starting with antipasti followed by prima patti of wonderful pasta. We finished the meal with fresh fruit. Of course, it wouldn’t be an authentic Italian meal without wine and bread, so we had plenty of that as well.
Then we were off to our last stop, the Island of Levanzo. We only stayed 90 minutes which was fine as there wasn’t much to do. We walked around the hilly streets for a bit, checked out a few shops, and while resting, ran into one of the couples from Palermo we had sat with on the first leg of the trip. So, we practiced our Italian for a few more minutes while we chatted with them.
The town was very pretty; it really had the look of a small Mediterranean town. Here are a few pictures from that portion of our day. This time Peter took a pass on the swimming.
For the last leg of the trip, we stayed inside and had a much more comfortable ride for the 45-minute trip back to Trapani. We only live about 15 minutes from the port, so it was an easy walk home.
After a light dinner, we went to the nearby park where the locals were celebrating Republic Day which is the Italian version of our 4th of July. Festa della Repubblica, as it is called here, celebrates the 1946 vote that decided the form of government Italy would have after the fall of Facism. People voted for a Republic rather than a monarchy, so the remaining male members of the House of Savoy went into exile. The celebration here was pretty simple but in Rome there is a big military parade.
Here are several videos I took of some of the things that were going one in Trapani. As you can see it was a pretty simple celebration, but it was fun to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KslgL43xkxc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AIvQLYPXY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssh9cN9Squc
Tomorrow we leave Trapani and make our way to the southern coast of Sicily. We’re staying in the beach town of Licata for two nights. We’ve been moving quite a bit for the last week so we’re ready for a rest day. The weather is supposed to be beautiful too. Who knows, maybe Peter will trying the water again.