Tuesday, September 04, 2007

In Search of Zingaro

You find wonderful places in Sicily when you're lost. And Zingaro Nature Reserve is one of our most beloved discoveries on this island.

By the afternoon of day 2, I turned to Rob at the Lido on San Vito Beach and whispered..."if I lay here like sedentary seal for another minute and shove another triscuit in my mouth I'm going to be very cranky." He, too, was ready for a change of scenery....so off we went to Zingaro for a little adventure.



Just about 10 miles out of San Vito about 5 miles of coast has been protected since 1981 as a nature reserve for native birds, flora and fauna. There's a 3 euro admission but the park's people are happy to extend Sigonellans the same one-euro discount that they extend to Italian Military.

On our first visit, we only ventured to this first cove for sun, snorkeling and a swim.

The day later we returned with The Arnold's and ventured on a two-mile hike (in my flip flops) to the second beach, the cave and museum houses --- as I whined and complained every step of the way...But along the hike there were a number of irresistible inlets and crazy beautiful coves!




It is believed that the reserve area had been inhabited since the prehistoric period as they've found human remains in caves from the Paleolithic period.

And the area has been known since ancient times for the abundance of tuna, so much that the Greeks called it "Cetaria" - earth of the tunas.

Zingaro, which means 'gypsy' according to Christine, seems like an appropriate name for this reserve considering its history.

The Arabs built a country house here, which was inhabited by fishermen and shepherds and, in 1235, Frederic II the Swabian, after having annexed it with all the feud to the city Mounte San Giuliano, granted the property to a group of settlers of Piacenza, who soon left because of the continuous pirate incursions. In those centuries, in fact, the pirates who infested the low Mediterranean sea, used the bay of Scopello as a base for their raids: mooring the ships behind the stacks, they were practically invisible from the open sea.

Nothing to Labor About this Weekend...

Summer is Sicily is coming to a close and we were invited to join Matt and Christine for a weekend in San Vito Lo Capo, one of Sicily's famous beach towns in the Trapani Region - about 4 hours from our home in Nicolosi.

On this map to the left of Palermo you can find San Vito Lo Capo. We live near Catania. You can also tell from the map how close we are to Africa (lower).



So this is how we spent our day...a little bit of lounging, reading, talking story snoozing and swimming..and of course, getting a massage!



You can head pretty far out into the sea and still stand. So Christine and I enjoyed power walking through the water nearly from end to end of the coast...while Matt and Rob body surfed.



The end of the day on the beach is so beautiful as the air gets cool, the tide retracts and the sun slips away...



In this photo you can see the lighthouse in the distance. Beneath the sea and in front of the light house, there is an Arab-Norman ship that sank. Relics from the ship were rescued from the bottom of the sea and placed in Vito's sea museum, which we didn't get to see...

San Vito at Nite is Alive!

Summer nites in San Vito mean the streets are pulsating with life. It's nearly midnite and every corner is alive!



This looked like a group of friends enjoying a cool summer evening being together, singing Italian songs and feeling joyful and alive.



A German street vendor makes wire art objects....



Another street vendor keeps himself entertained when there are no visitors to his booth with juggling...

Adventures in Dining in Vito



At the Corrallo restaurant, it's a set meal and you eat what they serve as their specialties of the day. We made our first and last mistake of not asking what the set price was...and ended up with a bill that was the same cost of a nite in our hotel. We felt it was a little pricey for the quality of the food but enjoyed the experience and enjoyed getting to know The Arnold's friends.




These are Palermo antipasti specialites....lots of little puff pastry type items with mousse like fillings.



Matt giving a high five to his shrimp before eating it. And then later that evening kissing his shrimp-allergic wife only to give her the hives.



The main course featured grilled spada (sword fish), octopus and a smaller whole fish.

....I don't think we can wait til next summer to come back to San Vito..There's so much more to explore...