Our Travel Journal: Island Hopping 2024: Marsala, Capo Lilybeo, Archeologico Museum Lilybeo, Piazza della Repubblica

We stayed fairly close to home today, only driving into Marsala proper.

We stumbled across a greengrocers outdoor market where we picked up some fresh tomatoes (pomodoro) to include in our dinner tonight. Now, I am working on my Italian, but I certainly have a little ways to go. The following is a case in point. Here you don’t touch the produce itself, you tell the vendor what you want and they pick through it for you. Our greengrocer, after selecting the pomodoro, told me the price. I played it back over and over in my head, slowing it down each time, but I never got all the way there. So, pretending that I understood, I handed her a 20 Euro bill expecting some change. She was flabbergasted and made it clear that we should be handling this transaction without breaking a twenty. She stated once again the price and this time I picked up “un euro e … something”. Ok, this was a good start. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a 1 Euro coin. I handed it to her while carefully looking her in the eye. Clearly more coins were needed. Taking a wild shot I gave her a 20 Eurocent piece and was preparing to leave in my moment of triumph. It was not to be. I could now tell that this was not going to end heroically for me. In a state of unconditional surrender I simply put all my coins in my hand and held them out. She picked through them taking what she needed. I saw that she ended up taking another 25 Eurocents. That’s it, “un euro e un quarto”! Quarto! She said “quarto”! That’s not so hard. I can’t wait for the next time. I’m going to nail it!

Me being the financial wizard

We walked to Cape Lilybeo which is the easternmost point of the Sicilian Mainland. Events in history associated with this spot are many and includes Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans and then much later Garibaldi himself as he and his Expedition of 1,000 landed in here in the cause of Italian unification. Aside from a single monument to all of this, they also have a good archeological museum whose clear highlight is a Carthaginian warship that was recovered from the waters around the cape.

The Sicilian Symbol and Flag

A lot of history has taken place here

A Greek funerary item

Carthaginian vases, rare in that the romans tried to destroy all things Carthaginian

Greek sculpture of Aphrodite. You would think if you are a God you could afford a little more wardrobe

A Carthaginian war ship excavated from the sea

A Carthaginian merchant ship

Before heading home we stopped by the very pleasant central square of Marsala, the Piazza della Republica. It had plenty of places to eat, and to buy Marsala wine.