Day 4: Mozia and Trapani Salt Pans
Mozia & the CarthaginiansWe don't know a lot about the Carthaginians because they were erased from history by the Romans. We do know the Carthaginians are seagoing successors of the Phoenicians, who were traders known as the purple people for the purple cloth they traded. They founded Carthage around 1000 BC in modern-day Tunisia and from then on were known as the Carthaginians. They arrived in Sicily in the 8th century BC and established Motya (Mozia) just 1 days sail from Carthage. The Ancient Greeks also colonized Sicily and the Carthaginians fought them for control of the island and the sea. They raided Greek towns and the Greeks took revenge by sacking Selinunte in 409 BC (ruins in the archeological museum in Palermo), and Akragas (Agrigento, which we will see tomorrow).
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It was the Romans however whom they fought most aggressively in the Punic Wars from 264-146 BC. The most famous of these battles featured Carthaginian general Hannibal marching his army and elephants over the Alps. Ultimately, the Romans prevailed. Cato the Elder famously said at the end of all his speeches, 'Carthage must be deleted.' And so they were. We have no names of Carthaginian philosophers, writers or historians, and the accounts we have of Carthage are only written by Greeks or Romans. This makes the ruins at Mozia that much more special, and was a huge reason why I was excited to see them. I've never really seen anything of Carthage before.
Trapani Salt FlatsAfter seeing the island of Mozia and enjoying a light lunch we headed back to the salt flats for a short tour of the mill, the salt flat tools and a visit up to the terrace. We enjoyed our look around and learning about the method of how the sea salt is collected in the flats with successive evaporation. The three of us marveled at how every RS tour we've done we've learned about salt. Not something you expect, but we visited an ancient mine in the mountains in Hallstatt, went underground to the medieval mine of Wieliczka in Krakow, and now the salt flats here in Trapani, Sicily. It has actually worked out well for us.
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Exploring Trapani
Upon getting back from the salt flats we explored the town a little. We started with seeing the floats for the procession at Easter that are stored in the Church of the Souls in Purgatory. We then picked up Rick's town walk, seeing other churches and ending by the beach and old town gates.
Ristorante Le VeleWe ate on the earlier side, so this was a good option for that. It was also down a cross street from the setting sun, so we were in the cool shade at our outdoor table. It was mainly just pizza and pastas, which was fine for us. I ordered the seafood pasta pictured, and it was really good. The corkscrew pasta really grabbed the flavor of the sauce. Speaking of sauce, there was also a basket of bread on the table with which to mop up more of that delicious sauce. We enjoyed our meal as the lights came on, people came past, and others stopped at a gelateria for some dessert. We chatted about Mozia and the salt pans, and discussed what we were looking forward to tomorrow at Agrigento.
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