Trapani represents a starting point of exceptional beauty to discover the whole Sicilian side that from Palermo reaches the southernmost portion of the island. On the extreme western tip of Sicily, lying on a spit of land that runs along the Mediterranean with an arched shape that recalls a sickle, is the City of Trapani. The myth envelops this land in every corner and even Trapani has a very special ancient legend that tells of its birth.
It is said that Ceres, goddess of wheat and crops, lost a scythe while he was on a winged chariot in search of his daughter Proserpina kidnapped by Pluto; the sickle fell on the earth, thus generating an area of arched shape that took the name of Drepanon, precisely sickle in ancient Greek. But the popular tradition also tells of another legend linked to the birth of the city, namely that according to which the current shape of the Gulf of Trapani would be due to a sickle falling into the sea at Saturn after castrating his father Uranus. But beyond the myth, the origins of Trapani really sink their roots into a past full of life, history and glory. The tourist who for the first time finds himself entering this wonderful city, finds confirmation in every corner of what I have just said!
The small colony founded by the ancient people of the Elimi, in the area that corresponds to the district of San Pietro, becomes a very important center of commerce of the whole Mediterranean under the domination of the Phoenicians. The sea has always been the soul and the strength of this land, so much so as to make it a source of attraction over the centuries for many populations, in particular for the Arabs. More than 1000 years ago a culture and a distant world invade this area of Sicily, influencing and shaping it in architecture, language, art and everyday life, up to making cities like Trapani unique and very different from those of the rest of the island.
The spicy aromas of the Trapani cuisine are today one of the most delicious testimonies of the Arab influences of this city: from couscous, chickpeas made from chickpea flour, almond based desserts. Spending a few days in the area is like taking small samples of a distant world: Africa is really close. Trapani is in fact the Sicilian province closest to the African continent, and here I assure you that the sun beats really hard!
A tour of the historic center starting from the port area, between Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Piazza Umberto I, offers the tourist who enters the city the chance to discover prestigious buildings and ancient churches, which have made the history of this city, stairways and almost hidden passages towards the beach, intertwined lanes and glimpses of the sea among the old buildings of a disarming beauty. Walking along the walls illuminated by the lights of the sunset, just behind the historic center, with the Egadi Islands just a stone’s throw away, and the endless sea in front, is an experience worth trying at least once in your life!
While if you have a dispassionate and understandable desire to dive into the waters of the Trapani coast, do it: Trapani is one of the few cities in Italy that boasts clean, very long beaches and crystal clear water that breaks on a marvelous rose-dyed shore. due to the presence of coral fragments in the sand.
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