After our nice, relaxing, and rather cool (temperature-wise) trip to Ireland & London, we resumed our exploration of sizzling Sicily. Despite the fact that we live on an island, it still takes us four hours to drive to the west coast. Thus, we had never been before this trip! Our good friends, Justin and Maddie, suggested a late summer weekend road trip to San Vito Lo Capo and Erice, so of course we said yes!

 

San Vito Lo Capo

Our first stop was the cute little beach town of San Vito Lo Capo in northwestern Sicily.

 

Justin had kindly reserved a nice little boat cruise down the shore of San Vito and Zingaro Nature Reserve for the afternoon we arrived. However, once we had checked into our airbnb and sat down for lunch, the company called to cancel. We were determined to still go boating, so we ended up booking a very last minute cruise with another boat, which was much bigger than the one Justin had originally reserved.

 

The boat cruise was not as intimate, but was still fun. We basically just ended up all hanging out together, taking in the sights, and snapping a bunch of photos! At one point, we all almost got left behind, as they stopped to let us out for a swim and ended up leaving much sooner than they originally told us (45 minutes instead of 1 hour). Thanks to Maddie for swimming ahead and saving us! 😀

 

 

 

After the cruise, we had a lovely dinner, enjoyed a street festival and hit the hay.

 

 

The next morning, we stopped at a beach on the way out of town and enjoyed the general splendor before heading to Erice.

Erice

Erice is a mountain top town that is located on top of, you guessed it, Mount Erice. The city overlooks Trapani and contains two castles: Pepoli Castle and Venus Castle. Pepoli Castle dates back to the Middle Ages, and Venus Castle the Norman period. Venus Castle was also built on top of the temple of Venus.

The drive up to the top was exciting and beautiful!

 

 

Once we arrived and found parking, we walked to the castles and explored the town a bit before grabbing lunch.

 

 

We stopped for lunch at La Tonda Fritta, which is an arancino restaurant. You might be wondering what an “arancino” is. Arancini are delicious fried rice balls with amazing fillings. We each selected two flavors and devoured them over by the local church.

 

 

After lunch, we wandered around a bit more before heading back to the car and making the four hour journey back home.

The trip was so much fun and the both towns were serious gems! Thanks, Maddie and Justin for vacationing with us! And, thanks Jordan for the amazing drone shots!